Yellowstone Park Visit, July 12-16, 1999

Yellowstone Park, July 12-16, 1999. I fished the Taylor’s Fork of the Gallatin River about a mile up from the highway, where I camped with my donkey. I fished for about a half an hour that first evening and then another half hour the next morning. It was still running high and dirty, and I didn’t catch a thing!The next morning I hiked up to the headwaters and caught some nice cuts from 12-14”. I have yet to fish Lighting Creek, which is another fork of Taylor’s Creek. The Gallatin River outside the park had lots of fishermen, but the reports were slow. I did fish the Gallatin River inside the park near Specimen Creek and caught some nice rainbows, but I had to flee for my life (or my sanity) as the flies were so thick and aggressive I couldn’t concentrate and missed a couple fish in the 12-14 inch bracket. The worst of it was that I had purchased a mosquito net and left it in my truck. The following day I fished Fan Creek and Specimen Creek. Both offered great creek fishing and wonderful scenery, along with fewer flies and mosquitoes.

July 15 was the opener on the Yellowstone River in the park. This year the water was high again so the hordes stayed away. No one had any luck fishing with drys. I recently bought a 2-horse trailer with a changing / tack room and a bed. It has a goose-neck, and it is a 4-horse trailer in length, which I am in the process of changing to an RV Donkey Trailer. I had to bring Buddy into the park as I was changing camps. The only place to park was along the side channel at Buffalo Ford. I walked up to the head of the island, as the side channel is closed to fishing. A lure fisherman was standing next to the closed sign letting his lure drift down into the closer. That old rascal caught 6 big fish in the “slough” on a big, green and white lure. I went upstream of him and fished for a hour without a bump. Finally, the gray-haired reprobate left. I moved down a bit so nobody could get between my spot and the sign.

I waited for over an hour until I watched a big guy slowly feed on the surface, albeit just below the sign. Oh, how I wanted to drift a bead-head prince down to him. He was only 2 feet behind the imaginary line that cut from the sign to the tip of the island. I waited another half-hour, and finally he was legal. I fished him for an hour with just about everything I had. Finally I tied on a #20 PMD on a 6X leader. Meanwhile some chatty Texan crowded me asking for advice on what to use! He had been next to me for hours and I was 0 for O. Perhaps he just thought that misery loves company. I was in no mood to chit-chat. Suddenly the big cutthroat hit while the Texan was at my shoulder showing me his box of flies. I could have landed him with a 7X tippet; he offered no struggle. I didn’t measure him, but he was over 18 inches. The next one I caught was under 16 inches. Four hours fishing for two fish, and all the while poor Buddy was cooped up in the trailer, and I was feeling real guilty about it even though it wasn’t hot.

All-in-all I have had better fishing. I just bought an old camper and I am now in the process of gutting it and putting the sink and stove in the living area of the horse trailer. My days have been spent grinding and sanding rust and of course painting. Another four or five days and I will head back to Yellowstone with Banjo and Buddy to pack into the Gneiss Creek area. The second donkey (still half wild) should prove interesting. Buddy was great along the creeks. He just grazed while I fished.