Yellowstone Help Please

[kimshew]

I've been lucky enough to fish "Greater Yellowstone" several months each year for the last decade.

If you would provide some info on the "type" of fishing you seek it might help us help you. I'm thinking of three people I know that each fish well over 60days/ year in the area within a few miles of each other but seldom, if ever, overlap. They each enjoy a different type of water and different techniques.

Many short term visitors seem to be on a "name collecting" journey, adding to a "been there done that" list, zipping from place to place .... while those of us that have fished them all tend to return over and over to the true loves .... maybe our perspective is too different to be helpful?

As for the Park itself, it is crowded after mid-June and until mid-Sept. But it's not really the fishing that is so crowded as the roads getting to the fishing ... it can take hours to go a few miles if a "Buffalo Jam" happens or other wildlife decide to invite Clyde and Maude to park in the middle of the road for an hour and take pictures .... leave town much earlier than the masses, take your lunch, enjoy the scenery, and bring your patience. I, personally, don't visit the Park during peak season more than a couple times to run over to Slough Creek and plan those days to avoid the masses, .... but I visit often, early and late.

If you have $30 bucks to spend I'd suggest getting this DVD ( Disclaimer: I don't profit but I do know all the players personally, so I can't claim impartiality )

http://www.blue-ribbon-flies.com/sho...e_hatches_dvd/

"Fly Fishing Yellowstone Hatches" .... it's very entertaining and will get you drooling, if nothing else, and it gives you a look at and basic info on most of the more popular area waters ( note Yellowstone Lake has suffered horribly since the DVD was made and is no longer as portrayed ... the River above Chittenden is way down too, both hardly worth fishing, at this point )


One last thought .... did you ask your kid where he'd like to go ... maybe Yellowstone isn't what he had in mind?

[Grizzly Wulff]

The good news and the bad news. The bad first - the closer you get to Yellowstone, the higher the cost for lodging. Fishing pressure on streams such as the Firehole, Lamar, Madison and Yellowstone can be a little discouraging. Traffic inside the Park can be a problem and it will always take you twice as long to get somewhere than you planned for, (all it takes is a bear near the road and the traffic grinds to a halt).

The good news - If I were going to spend some time in Yellowstone fishing, I would concentrate on the Northwest corner of the park. Grayling Creek, Fan Creek, Specimen Creek, Cougar Creek and the Gallatin. These streams get much less pressure and you can have same great days here fishing dry flies to willing fish. Your best bet for inexpensive lodging will be around Ennis which is about 70 miles from West Yellowstone. If I were going to fish I would spend my daytime on one of the small streams I've mentioned, and then hit the Madison around Seven Mile Bridge in the evenings as this is the best time of the day to fish the river. For a guided trip I would try and get a half day evening trip from Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone (just checked and they don't do half day trips) or Madison River Fishing Company in Ennis on the Madison. Late June thru August are probably your best bet as run-off should be over. There's a Salmon Fly hatch on the Madison that runs from late June to early July and then the Caddis take over.

Hope this helps

[Mato Kuwapi]

You won't find lodging for that price anywhere around Yellowstone and if you go in peak season, if you haven't made reservations months in advance you may not find a place to stay, no matter what the price is. Just a heads up. Camping is the most economical if you have the gear. It's wise to go with a hard sided camper instead of a tent or have a portable electric fence (bear fence) if you are tenting. A lot of campgrounds don't allow tents at least part of the season, some just don't allow them at all now. Getting a camping site without reservations isn't any easier then lodging with regards to finding a site in YNP proper, but you can find them outside of the park if you plan on setting up by lunch time in most cases. If you want to stay at places that have a first come first served camp site in the park...you want to be waiting for them at the crack of dawn. There is a LOT of fishable water in the GYA (greater Yellowstone area). Finding a fishing spot is easy and you won't experience crowds. It's easy enough to have a whole lake to yourself or not be in eyeshot of another human being. That may or may not be a comforting thought depending on if you have company with you or not. It's easy to go nuts trying to figure out where you will go and travel time from one place to another always takes longer than you think or plan for. There are some good books on fishing Yellowstone. It would be wise to get your hands on at least some of them.
The crowds all stick to the roads and the key tourist locations. The backpackers and the anglers pretty much have that aspect of the park to themselves.

Here are three that I used. http://www.amazon.com/Yellowstone-Fl.../dp/155821545X

http://books.google.ca/books/about/F...MC&redir_esc=y

http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CIoBEPMCMAs

A word of caution! There were a few places you may be tempted to fish that require a bit if a hike. If you don't have a group of at least three people (the more is better), hikes longer than a few hundred yards from your car is ill advised. You want to have bear spray on your person and easily accessible at all times.

I fished primarily the Lamar or North East sector... Slough Creek, Lamar, Soda Butte, Pebble Creek, a lake that shall remain nameless on here that was out of this world ...and some smaller feeder creeks that may or may not have names. Picking and choosing is difficult. Remember...it takes a lot longer than you think to get a few miles. You'll get sick of Bison pretty quickly. Don't bother going for fishing in the park before July 15. (Float trips on the Madison and some of the larger rivers are the exception) Most waters are closed to fishing until then, but some places may have an earlier season...you really need to do the research. One reason is run off. Spring comes late in this part of the world...though this year won't be bad at all. Snow pack is minimal....not like last year, which broke records. The other reason is the cutthroat are just finishing up there spawning runs. The peak park season is Mid July - August. It starts snowing in the higher elevations in mid September, but you can get snow there on any time of the year.
If you have a float tube, you'll want to take it along for some still water opportunities, but it's not a must have. You'll need a permit for it that you can get at the gate when you come into the park. Not all lakes allow them so read the regs carefully. Shore fishing can be pretty good at times.
You don't need a Montana or Wyoming fishing licence inside the park but you do need a Yellowstone Park fishing license. Years ago, it used to be free. It's not anymore...but its' still the best deal out there. The state licenses are quite pricey...Wyoming is anyway.

If you have questions...feel free to ask.

Hope these wet your appetite...











(Sorry about these photos...something seems to be going wrong with Photobucket. It's NOT ME! )

[ScottP]

If Yellowstone is your destination and camping is an option, it would provide you more flexibility (camp near where you want to fish and you can avoid those unsightly bison jams; I actually enjoy the bison, it's the 2 legged animals stopping their vehicles in the middle of the road that drive me crazy) and save a lot of money in lodging and gas. I have a 4 person tent that weighs about 8 pounds, sleeps 2 in comfort and packs into a rolling duffle along with sleeping bag, pad, cooking gear, waders, boots, vest and flies. The campgrounds usually are full in high season and some big ones like Grant Village, Canyon are way too crowded for me (for some reason Madison, although big, doesn't bother me); ones like Pebble Creek, Slough Creek, Tower, Indian Creek are a lot quieter and provide a nicer experience. I've found that the best time to find a spot is between 10 AM-noon, when campers are subject to behavioral drift cycles.
There are also some campgrounds just outside the park, especially on the NE and East sides, that are usually not nearly as crowded. All, however are in grizzly country and you need to be bear aware and plan accordingly. Sadly, Mato has experienced first-hand how even experienced campers can end up in the wrong place at the wrong time; fortunately, she survived the attack, another camper was not so lucky.

Regards,
Scott

[Longs for Cutts]

I just want to note that there's plenty of great fishing in June: the Firehole, Madison, and Gibbon in the park all peak at some point in June, as do the park lakes. It's only the north end rivers that are too high then, and in fact the Gardner River is often fishable depending on day-day weather, though it's quite rugged.

Also, everyone is gloom and doom about snowpack: the upper Yellowstone/Madison basin (basically the park) is at 88% of average right now and the forecast is for generally normal or wet weather for the next two weeks. With the good groundwater from four high snow years, I expect conditions to be just below normal. For reference, right now there's more snow for the date in the Yellowstone basin than there was any year from 2001-2007, and except for 2001, 2006, and 2007, runoff was a factor on the north park rivers through June even in those drought years.

[Mato Kuwapi]

That's good news re the conditions. Thanks for posting. I'm kicking around a venture out there this year but there's family stuff that may get in the way. Time will tell!