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COST PLUS?
The Upper Yellowstone River in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) has probably been on the list of 'best places' for fly fisherman since the first articles appeared in Fly Fisherman magazine back in the 1960s. Everyone who made it to the West in the golden days before Whirling Disease had the magic experience of catching seemingly endless fish.
One of my earliest and certainly most vivid fishing memories occurred at buffalo ford in I think 1956. I know that because we were on the quintessential family camping vacation in our brand new 56 chevy. This was not a fishing vacation but dad always had his fly rod packed just in case. We arrived at the Ford in the middle of one of those legendary blizzard salmon fly hatches. There were bugs all over the road, the car, and if you got out, you. Well dad just couldn't stand it and begged forgiveness from mother and we stopped to fish. I sat in the car and watched dad gear up, wade into the stream, and land and release fish after fish after fish and ended up with 3 nice 15 or 16 inch cutts for dinner. (yes you could keep some back then) All the time this man who was my father had the biggest grin on his face I had ever seen and it stayed there for hours after. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Being about 9 at the time, I had done my share of fishing with dad and even tried out the fly rod a few times but as much as I pleaded, he wasn't about to let me wade into that strong river. Besides, there was only one fly rod and that was that.
I already loved fishing but this event more than any other cemented in me a life long desire for the fly rod. So what is lost when a great fishery declines? Well who knows how many might have experienced it and been hooked for life but weren't.
Thanks Deanna for writing this piece. It brought back memories.
"So what’s the real cost of losing a world-class fishery? Can you ever really get it back?"
Can't tell you but the Yellowstone River is not the only place where a world class fishery has disapeared. The Skagit River in NW Washington had a steelhead run which some have estimated as high as 40,000 steelhead although others estimated it to be only 20,000 fish. Last year it was estimated that less than 4,000 steelhead returned to spawn in the Skagit. The death of one of the west coast's most storied steelhead rivers is taking place right before our eyes and there is no remedy in sight. Sad, so very sad.
By the way nice article.
In the natural world nothing remains the same, including fisheries, and the best advice that I can give is to enjoy them while you can.
Very wise statement! When we can grow beyond regretting the past and fearing the future to truly enjoy the present for everything that it is worth - then we have learned to live.
Thanks, LF, for writing this article. And all this time (5 trips to Yellowstone since 2001) I thought my lack of luck at Buf... I mean Nez Perce Ford were because I'm a lousy trout fisherman! Fortunately, I've also fished other places in the park, and with much better luck.
A friend of mine and I still fish the area around Buffalo Ford once or more each summer, although I think you could count the number of sizeable cutthroat on one hand that have resided in that stretch for the past several years (okay, maybe two hands). This summer I only made it there once with him, and although we did see several rising fish during the course of the day, this was the first year in the recent past that neither of us caught a single fish.
Although the numbers of larger fish have declined dramatically, due not only to the factors that you've mentioned but also to a number of consequetive drought years (that probably ended 2-3 years ago), what I have noticed for the past couple years is that there are more small cutthroat in this section now and that gives me hope that things might improve some in the years ahead. I agree completely that the Lake Trout probably came directly fom the Park Service stockings, although they'll never admit it, and I saw pictures of an almost 30 year old Lake Trout caught in Yellowstone Lake, taken about 10 years ago, so they've most surely been there for many years (although not in so large numbers).
Also, in the section of the Yellowstone that I fish extensively (north of the Park) I've noticed many more Cutthroat in the 5-7" range this year than I've seen in a number of recent past years. So, while the picture could always be better for the future, I'm pretty optimistic that things are on the upswing.
John
p.s. The first issue of Fly Fisherman Magazine was in 1969 I believe.