What a difference a year makes. Last year, the flows on rivers and streams were so low, everyone was concerned about them drying up. This year has been a complete flip in attitude. Now, anglers are asking when the rivers will drop low enough to be a bit easier to wade. Human nature is funny. I have concluded that many in our population are not happy unless they have something to complain about. As for me, I am very pleased to see rivers and streams in much better shape as we enter the Dog Days of August.
As you know, the soaker rain that fell all night Friday and throughout most of Saturday in the greater Yellowstone region created a muddy mess Saturday and Sunday as some rivers spiked to almost three times their flow before the rain began. The exceptions to the off-color water conditions were the Big Horn and Wind rivers, the lower Shoshone and the upper Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone. These fished well and gave anglers some place to fish while the North and South forks of the Shoshone and other rivers and streams clear up. We should see good fishing conditions by Wednesday of this week, if not before then.
Buffalo Bill Reservoir has been fishing very well as the reservoir settles down after the heavy runoff period. Anglers have been reporting good catches of walleye, lake trout, rainbows, brown and cutthroat trout from a boat or fishing from shore. The south and west arms of the lake did muddy up from the Shoshone River’s muddy water influence. Again, this should all settle down in a short time unless we are unfortunate enough to see the monsoons that have been hitting the Southwest and West Coast states recently with torrential rain and lightning storms. Let’s hope the monsoons stay away and pray the recent soaker rain lowered the fire danger here in Park and surrounding Wyoming counties for a while. The last thing we need is a fire that could impact the already low tourism numbers this summer.
If you like dry fly action, head to the Beartooth or the Bighorn mountains. The trout up high are going bonkers over the purple haze, parachute Adams, cream parachutes, elk hair caddis, ants, beetles and smaller grasshopper flies. One can also find air temps to be at least 10 degrees cooler above 7,000 feet than we have had in the Big Horn Basin the past several weeks. These flies are working in the streams or lakes at the higher elevation. The only annoying distraction has been mosquitoes, deer and horse flies, and little gnats in some of the wetter areas in the mountains.
Expect the good grasshopper fishing to continue on the larger rivers and tributaries draining the Absaroka Mountains. Dropping a bead head nymph below these larger dry flies is a great combination unless one is a Euro, or Czech, nympher, or a streamer flinger. Spin fishers do quite well with 1/8 to ¼ ounce spinners with gold blades. Panther Martins and Rooster Tails are two examples. Small-to-medium-sized spoons work well in rivers or lakes. If catching and releasing, do the trout a favor and cut the treble hooks down to a single hook. This reduces hook removal time and tissue damage – all stress elevators on trout. The tug is the drug, not playing a fish to the point of exhaustion. Since our waters are wild trout and native cutthroat, it makes sense to take care of the resource.
