For me August means exploring Yellowstone country’s off-the-beaten-path waters.
This last week took us to a few places we’ve not fished in many years.
Check out the photos, and a separate short video below.
This photo shows Jake with a colorful rainbow/cutthroat hybrid he took on a Thunder-thighs hopper in a small stream.
Terry shows off a brace of fine Westslope Cutthroats he took on one presentation from a lake I’d not fished in decades.
Then there’s one of me with a brown trout in a slough that grows a few huge trout few anglers fish.
The final picture is of a Fall Green Drake that emerges on some of our off the beaten path waters as well as more popular rivers and streams like Slough and Soda Butte Creeks and the Lamar River in Yellowstone Park. This year the #12 drakes are emerging a week or more earlier than “normal”. A #12-14 sparkle dun is deadly for taking fish rising to these huge mayflies during their time on the water.
The video below is of a very small stream nearby that holds a fine population of wild Yellowstone Cutthroat trout. You won’t catch any cutts over a foot in length, but they are lovely fish and come to small hopper patterns this time of the year. And, the only company you might have on the water is a moose, beaver or otter.
If we want to continue to have clean water, good aquatic insect and wild trout populations on Yellowstone country rivers like the Gallatin, Beaverhead, Missouri, Madison and Yellowstone I encourage you to support organizations like Upper Missouri Waterkeeper and Cottonwood Environmental Law Center. Both are barebones advocacy fighting the battles to keep our waters free of harmful pollutants and full of wild trout. Please join me and give what you can.
