Attractors
The Yellowstone is still fishing. But not for long. One more week of 90 degree weather should pound it down a bit. The tributary creeks are as good as it gets right now: high and clear. And filled with hungry fish. I seized a rare opportunity yesterday, and fished a creek that normally requires a fee and a guide. It was slow early. Fished all morning for two small browns (although I did spook a good pair that looked like 18" or so). But at 11:00 the fish woke up and started to rise at anything that came along. We fished a rare meadowy stretch on that creek, and then a hair-raising pocket water stretch.
We had heard rumors about a spruce bud worm hatch. But it did seem like they'd hit almost anything. What you needed was long floating and easy to see. I tied on an old pattern of my own I haven't fished much in the past few years. It turned out to be the fly of the day. The Werewolf. I had two on at the same time in the pocket water--a big Werewolf followed by a small one. They took the big one every time. This was a dry fly day. I fished a hopper/dropper for a while (Werewolf/hopper) and they just weren't interested in the wet fly. I saw this two years ago during a September Smith River float. Dry fly preference is rare in my experience. But a whale of fun when it does happen. My fishing partner used a large elk hair caddis, as a spruce budworm moth, and a Stimulator. The Werewolf is similar to a Stimulator in a way (long skinning profile). But it's a lot easier to see. Which I like a lot. Catching fish yesterday had more to do with reading the water, casting well and mending the line than with pattern selection. White Antelope head palmered with a thin grizzly saddle. Deer hair tail. Pretty simple fly. Good as it gets high altitude attractor.
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