I stayed at Hubbards Yellowstone resort last Aug. Great people, the chef was the best. Class act. They are above the North gate of the park, a private lake to fish for large Rainbow. No license required to fish their lake or creek. I fished the park and the Yellowstone river. Lots of animals for the kids to see, even on the road, elk on the grass at the visitor center. If you are interested, send me your email address and I will send pictures. Bob.
Actually, a license is MOST DEFINITELY required to fish the creek. The only waters in Montana where a license is not required are man-made lakes or streams entirely constrained by private property. Tom Miner and/or Rock Creek are natural streams and you had better believe that Fish Wildlife and Parks, the Gallatin NF, and the MT Board of Outfitters would definitely want to know about it if they are telling customers otherwise. The lake, being a stocked manmade reservoir entirely contained on the Hubbards property, is a different story.
Incidentally, Depuy spring creek is classified as an artificial stream by the state, since it's a diversion of Armstrong Spring Creek into an old river channel, so that's the only stream I can think of besides irrigation ditches that doesn't require a license.
Thinking about this trip and wading boots popped into mind. Right now all we have are felt soled boots. Do we need to get rubber soled boots to fish Montana, Wyoming, and/or Idaho?
Okay, you got me there. I forgot about Glacier. My understanding was that MT doesn't require a license there because the park is an international one, extending into Canada.
I doubt Hubbard's is going around telling people they can fish Tom Miner without a permit, but such possibilities drive me completely up the wall. I see outfitters dropping clients off at the walk-in FWP site just above Yankee Jim takeout (which is Forest Service) so they can claim not to be using the boat ramp commercially (and thus save the $11 and change those of us on the up and up have to pay per client per day to use FS ramps), have had clients tell me of previous guides they've had who threw whitefish on the bank (just a few years ago), and on and on. It's why the vast majority of us can get a bad rap in terms of conservation.
In reply to this last question. Felts are okay for now. I expect the next time the park does a major rewrite of its regs, they might well be banned, but that's at least another year down the road. Personally I use rubber-soled boots most of the time, but that's primarily because I'm usually hiking/scrambling the banks as much as actually wading.
Nope; the vote in Montana died in committee 2 years ago. Wyoming and Idaho haven't banned felt either.Originally Posted by jmako
Regards,
Scott
Do yourself a favor and sign up (it's free) for Blue Ribbon Flyshop's weekly newsletters
http://www.blue-ribbon-flies.com/
A great source of info; if you're in West Yellowstone, stop by the shop. They provide great service without the b.s.; you may be lucky and find Craig Mathews, John Juracek, Bucky McCormick at the bench tying up what's working.
Wally's site http://parksflyshop.com/ is another great one (wish he'd start posting some more tying videos) and if you come into the Park through Paradise Valley, make it a point to stop in (it's the yellow building just past the bridge over the Yellowstone, that yellowish blur off the woman's left shoulder)
Troutfitters, in Bozeman, is another solid shop https://troutfitters.com/ They're very good about updating their fishing reports and again, the B.S. to truth ratio is very low.
Regards,
Scott
Thanks Scott!
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