ACTION IS THE CURE

No doubt, these are challenging times. But, while many who love wild places, wild and native fish and wildlife, and public land sit on their couches, mope and complain and let their conservation compass spin out of control, I find action is the cure.

Some question whether advocacy is dead, others complain they are losing their wealth during the pandemic and can no longer help fund the conservation programs they used to. Others point to figures like John Muir and Aldo Leopold and say these men were “dinosaurs”, and, “their conservation ethic is no longer found in society today”.

I ask these folks, “who created the grassroots advocacy and activism we’ve seen in the past”. The advocacy that created our nation’s wilderness areas and protects wild places, wildlife and public lands. That advocacy that keeps these places and their wildlife in the public trust in face of mounting pressure to open public lands to harmful development and activity.

So, who was it, you ask? It’s NOT Leopold or Muir. It is the tiny grassroot advocacy and activist organizations that organize bake sales, and raise money and awareness, and fight for the public trust, wildlife, wild and native trout and wild places. Organizations like Montana Trout Unlimited, Madison River Foundation, Mountain Journal, Western River Conservancy, Montana Sportsman’s Alliance, and Trust for Public Land. These well-run, effective and efficient groups are not the bloated national organizations that owe favors to dark money funding groups. They get the conservation job done for all of us who love wild and native trout, wildlife and wilderness. Please consider supporting these organizations, today in these troubling times they need our help more than ever.

This week Jackie and I met with Cottonwood Environmental Law Center to discuss their continued work keeping the Gallatin River’s water free from the potential negative impacts of Big Sky’s wastewater pollution. We also discussed bighorn sheep restoration in the Gravelly Mountain Range, a program we’ve worked hard to support and raise awareness of. Stay tuned.

Jackie has come out of retirement to join Mountain Journal’s Board of Directors. If you love Yellowstone country and its wilderness, wildlife and wild-native trout go to their website and sign up to receive their award winning and free email newsletters. Stay informed. Remember, MoJo believes science should lead the discussions and decision of the conservation and environmental issues facing Yellowstone country today and into the future. Support MoJo with an important donation too! It will keep awesome Yellowstone wildlife stories, science and informed decision making coming to your door

In mid-September I look forward to being a part of a 30-minute video podcast aired on Earth X Television called “Round the Fire”. Myself and Trevor Neilson, Co-Founder and CEO of 1X Investments will discuss climate change and other important conservation and environmental issues from a fishing and hunting perspective. I’ll keep you posted once the exact date and time is announced.

This week we explored a few small streams in Yellowstone country. You’ll see photos of our fishing junkets here. I enjoy these small streams and some large trout that can inhabit them.

In my little guidebook, The Yellowstone Fly-Fishing Guide, I discuss dozens of smaller waters in Yellowstone detailing what kinds of trout inhabit them, hatches and best flies and times to fish them and much more. The book discusses all Yellowstone waters. I am proud to donate proceeds from the sale of this book to the “Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout Program in the Park”. For more information on this program go to “Yellowstone Forever” and click on the link. The book is available by going to Blue Ribbon Flies website as well as on Amazon. Order from Blue Ribbon Flies and I’ll autograph it!

Thanks from Yellowstone’s native Yellowstone Cutthroat trout for your support.

Thank you for reading my report and blog, stay tuned here for more to follow soon.

And, have a great time enjoying and exploring Yellowstone country rivers, lakes and streams. They offer incredible wilderness fly fishing experiences that last a lifetime.

STANDING UP FOR YELLOWSTONE AND MONTANA’S WILD AND NATIVE TROUT

This week Jackie and I had the pleasure of meeting with Montana Trout Unlimited finest. Executive Director David Brooks, Development Director Kelley Willet and Watershed Project Manager Chris Edgington came to visit and fill us in on the latest programs and projects Mt TU is working on.

Meeting with Brooks, Willet, and Edgington near the Madison River.

This organization never, ever accepts a dime of “dark money”, instead relying on donations from folks like all of us to get their mission accomplished. Please, if you are not a member, join them today. In these challenging times we face today, donations to grassroots organizations that protect and preserve our wild and native trout and fly-fishing heritage are drying up. The worst thing we can do is to do nothing, the best thing we can do is act and support organizations that enhance and protect what we all know and love. Step up today and give what you can, please, and thank you! It turns out Montana TU is involved in restoration programs in the Jefferson River Valley along with their continued work on Rattlesnake Creek near Missoula and an important instream flow project here in the Madison Valley. Check their website for more, and stay tuned here for current information as it unfolds.

---

This week I made good on my promise to donate a rare 1938 first edition copy of Howard Back’s iconic “The of Yellowstone Waters with Rod and Fly” to the West Yellowstone Public Library. Jackie and I drove into West Yellowstone and presented it to Head Librarian Steve Takata last Wednesday. This rare book will sit in the “Fly-Fishing/Angling Section” of the library along with the dozens of books we were able to work with the library to acquire from the Herbert Wellington collection of angling books. Herb was an old friend and we know he’s smiling knowing his books are a large part of this incredible collection of books.

Presenting the book to West Yellowstone Public Library.

---

Mid-July is “Caddis Time” in Yellowstone country, and there’s no better place to find big trout rising to caddis than $3 Bridge on the Madison River. Most evenings as the sun sets behind the Gravely Mountain Range in the Madison Valley we see awesome sunsets and fish strong emergences of caddisflies.

Sunset at $3 Bridge.

I’ve been very busy at my fly-tying vise cranking out Amber Iris and X Caddis for the shop. Guess how many caddis are in this pile of Iris Caddisflies I recently delivered!

Last week Yvon Chouinard and I fished caddis activity in the evenings and mornings. Here’s a shot of Yvon trying to land a large brown trout without a landing net. The fish came to a #16 Tan X Caddis fished on Yvon’s favorite cane rod, a Leon Hansen 8’ 4 weight bamboo. Yvon did land the hefty brown along with several more.

Yvon with a nice brown trout.

Speaking of $3 Bridge, check out the new sign placed there by Western Rivers Conservancy, the organization that puts money directly into purchasing rivers and streams, keeping them open for public access, forever.

I was pleased to work with Western Rivers Conservancy, previously known as River Network, on the $3 Bridge Project several years ago. We were able to fund the purchase of 3 miles of river front property and turn it over to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to manage. At that time there were folks competing with us to buy the land and develop it that would have closed it off to the public forever. We used this purchase and resulting land deal as the spring board to put together another project directly upstream, the Olliffe Ranch Conservation Easement Program, to bring another mile of the Madison River into public hands with an easement that allows permanent public access to the next upstream one mile of river front, all the way to Raynolds Pass Bridge. I worked with my old friend Alex Diekmann, and Trust for Public Land, to put this project together using Land Water Conservation Fund monies. These 2 programs have served as a model on how to put together private and public partnerships and funding to accomplish projects that provide public access and protect wildlife migration corridors, wild-native trout habitat and open spaces for all future generations to enjoy, forever!

Summer is the time to enjoy public lands and wild trout on rivers like the Madison. And, it allows fly tiers like me to develop new fly patterns to present to selective trout on rivers like the Madison. This week I came up with a Spent Longhorn Caddis fly, size #16, to fool big fish selectively feeding on spent Oecetis sp. (Longhorn) Caddis. The adult females, after laying their eggs, lay spent on the surface of the water and large brown and rainbow trout relish them. You can see a photo below. The natural has a lovely bright green body. The Longhorn Caddis have long been a part of caddis fishing on the river but over the past 3 years this species of caddis have become one of the most important to imitate and fish for reasons unknown to us.

Spent Longhorn Caddis

Thanks for reading my blog and please, if you can, support grassroot organizations like Montana Trout Unlimited and Western Rivers Conservancy. These 2 fine organizations are barebones effective and efficient, and give fly fishers so much to be grateful for. I thank you in advance and stay tuned for the next report and blog post!

If you want to fish dry-flies you’d better get to Yellowstone country, quick!

PMB and BWO on the Madison.

It has been 2 decades since we’ve seen such incredible early season dry-fly fishing here. Pale Morning Dun, Baetis (BWO) and Green Drake mayflies continue to emerge in number on rivers like the Henry’s Fork and Madison. Big trout rising to their hatches, best on cool-rainy days, and we’ve seen lots of those lately.

Caddis mating swarm along the river.

Evening caddis activity is cranking up on the Madison, and salmon flies are showing up above Wolf Creek as well. Make sure you play the short video showing an evening caddis mating swarm so common now along the river from Ennis, Montana to Earthquake Lake.

PMD and Hydropsyhe Caddis

My fishing buddy, Yvon Chouinard, is here and we’ve had some incredible fishing this week. I got Yvon off his fishing soft hackles kick, and back to fishing dry flies when every big fish in the river was rising to emerging mayflies during rain and hail storms last Monday and Tuesday.

Yvon scores a nice Rainbow.

Last Wednesday my good friend and fishing partner Terry, my wife Jackie and I drove into the Park to fish. While we waited for a rain storm to move in and get the PMD mayflies emerging in number we hiked along the river to revisit an old poacher’s cabin, then an Indian hunting pit I’d located years before. You never know what you’ll find hiking along our area rivers.

Ruins of an old poacher’s cabin.

Indian hunting pits along the river.

Once the PMDs rolled off we had nonstop dry fly fishing to big rising brown trout for 2 hours before the sun peaked out and the PMDs shut off for the day.

It is important to remember the 3 clues to Caddis emergences and trout rising to them on rivers as John and I wrote about in our little “Fishing Yellowstone Hatches”. The first, trout are seen leaping out of the water as trout chase emerging Caddis pupae and their momentum carries them out of the water.

The second clue is that there are NO insects on the water. Adult Caddis are very difficult to see drifting on the surface.

The third clue is that most of the feeding fish are bulging and splashing in fast water sections of the river when the trout take the pupae from the surface and turn downward. In slower water you will see quiet dimples and porpoise rolls or tails breaking the surface.

If you remember these simple clues you will be successful taking fish on emerging Caddis, I guarantee.

And, have X and Iris Caddis patterns in your fly arsenal. Then you can’t miss fooling even the most selective caddis feeding trout. Let me know how you do.

Nice Rainbow Trout took an X Caddis.

Until next time, thanks for reading and please support our partner conservation organizations, and keep on fishing!

Help Support The Montana Water Rights Protection Act

This is very important. If you love native and wild trout like I do please join me in supporting Montana Trout Unlimited’s “Montana Water Rights Protection Act”.

Make sure you go to their website and learn about this important piece of legislation that will protect stream flows, ensure healthy fish, improve fisheries and help us protect our coldwater resources while strengthening local economies.

This is urgent so act today! Thanks in advance for your support!

My fishing buddy Terry and I have been fishing the Firehole and Madison Rivers in Yellowstone National Park. They’ve offered up some of the best early season dry-fly fishing we’ve seen in years but, that will change as the weather and waters warm and flows diminish. We might have a week or 2 left of stellar dry fly fishing left so get there ASAP if these streams are in your fishing plans!

Yesterday we explored a piece of small water before hitting the Madison below Elk Meadow. Pale Morning Duns were beginning to emerge and a few fish rose to the duns. Check out the photo of Terry who'd delivered an accurate cast to a brown trout that rose to his fly. The next photo shows him landing that trout.

Brown trout rising to dry fly.

Mid-day emergences of PMDs have provided anglers with great dry-fly fishing during their time on the water. Evening caddis activity has been strong as well. White Miller Caddis will continue to emerge on warm evenings and the number of fish that rise to them can be spectacular. Check the photo of the batch of Fluttering White Miller Caddis I tied this spring. What is left of those 20 dozen flies are in Blue Ribbon Flies bins so get their quick before they run out if evening caddis fishing is in your plans.

If you fish the Madison River in the park expect to take brown trout like the one pictured finning above my wading shoe along a favorite piece of water in the Madison River. Many of these larger brown trout are Hebgen Lake residents that ran up the river to spawn last fall and remained in the river in winter and spring. They’ll stay until the water temperatures warm, then return to the lake to take advantage of cooler water for summer before running back up the river to spawn this September. These lovely brown trout will come up on cloudy afternoons for emerging PMD and BWO mayflies, and in the evening for emerging caddis.

I had to take today off to catchup, tie a few flies to replenish those I’ve used, and get ready for Yvon to arrive this evening. We’ll fish and explore off-the-beaten-path waters the next several days. And I’m looking forward to showing Yvon sections of a local stream that have recently been restored along with a couple future conservation projects we hope to work on. Please stay tuned here, reports to follow!

Thank you for reading, and please support Montana Trout Unlimited’s “Montana Water Rights Protection Act” today!

Remembering Yellowstone Park Fishing Season Openers

Brown trout taking dragon fly nymphs along shoreline Biscuit Basin on the Firehole River.

The West Gate to Yellowstone National Park opened this morning, and with it so did the park’s general fishing season. Driving through the entrance gate along the Madison River brings a flood of memories of years-gone-by opening days.

Today I’m reminded of missing friends, those I have shared this road and rivers with on opening day, some long ago, others for the first time. Every one of those departed friends shared my love of the park and its waters.

Firehole River brown trout.

I pulled into places friends and I shared names for, names like:  “Cinnamon Roll Bank” on the Madison where Paul told me he’d expect I would have to wheel him in a chair to his favorite spot on the river when he legs failed, Fred’s “No Fail Pool” on the Firehole where he never failed to find rising trout, Lou’s “Lost Glasses Run” on the river where his good friend once lost his glasses and they never found those glasses but did find lots of trout rising to caddis, and other spots I stopped at too. I sat and thought of these anglers who so loved the waters and were a big part of the rivers and the park for me too.

 I thought of Howard Back the author who wrote “The Waters of Yellowstone with Rod and Fly”. Back’s little book sits at a special place on my desk. I read it every year, and have since my old friend Herb Wellington presented it to me nearly 40 years ago. I scored another copy of this hard-to-find book last year, published in 1938, last fall and will donate it to the West Yellowstone Public Library this week.

It was great to get in the park this morning, to think of old friends and reminisce. I thought about the time as police chief of West Yellowstone when one of my patrolmen ran me down on my day off while I fished near the Barns’ Pools. He came slugging through mud that day to alert me of an emergency meeting of the West Yellowstone Town Council when biker gangs came to Town in 1979. I managed to meet with the council, then separately with the bikers as I still wore my waders. We avoided any issues due to those meetings. In later years I’ve fished with some of the bikers who’ve turned fly-fishers, now mostly retired as am I from COP. I could go on with more stories, and someday might, but let’s get back to today.

Social distancing on the Firehole River.

I arrived at “Garbage Can Run” above the cascades on the Firehole to fish. The 3 rocks Cal Dunbar and I stacked there in spring of 1989 were still there. We put them there, near a pine stump, while we shared a lunch spot along the river while fishing a Pale Morning Dun hatch that spring, the year after Yellowstone’s ’88 fires. The pine stump long deteriorated but the rocks remained. Cal was a strong as those rocks, and needed to be as Town Councilman. Funny how you remember little things like the 3 rocks, but I’ll never forget Cal.

I knotted on a pull of 5x tippet and tied on a Nick’s Soft Hackle Caddis in honor of Nick Nicklas. Nick was a best friend, and worked with us from 1981 until he passed away 6 years ago this fall. I caught a couple plump rainbows and one thin 14” brown trout and called it a day. I will pen in my fly-fishing journal and logbook reporting of another “opening day in the park on the Firehole River”, but needless to write about it because they’re all locked down in memory.

Caddis on Firehole River.

Thanks for reading my rambling. It is the beginning of another fishing season in Yellowstone country and I hope to share more with you about the fishing, wildlife and wild places in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned!

New Yellowstone family member.

GREAT NEWS!!! Lake trout numbers decline on Yellowstone Lake!

Phlox wildflowers.

Since 1996 Jackie and I have been involved as Board of Directors and Emeritus Board members of Yellowstone Forever, formerly known as Yellowstone Park Foundation. For several years it’s been an honor to serve on these boards.

And, even after retiring from them we continue to work hard with Yellowstone Forever helping fund, and raise public awareness for their ongoing “Save the Yellowstone Cutthroat” and native fish conservation projects in Yellowstone National Park.

One continuing program has been the ongoing gill netting of invasive lake trout on Yellowstone Lake. Several years we as a YPF Board committed to supporting this program with a $1 million dollar yearly gift to the help fund the project. Working with Wyoming Trout Unlimited Special Project Manager Dave Sweet has been filled with successes, and rewards beyond words. For 12 years Dave’s tireless efforts have finally brought victory within sight. For the first several years some doubted success could be achieved, but with Dave’s hard work and that of Yellowstone Forever’s JD Davis and Yellowstone National Park’s staff, Yellowstone Lake’s irreplaceable and invaluable cutthroat trout are seeing the benefits of the project. Check out this article and contribute if you can.  LINK HERE.

---

Glacier Lily

Shooting stars.

Glacier Lilies are ripe in Yellowstone country as are other spring wildflowers like Bluebells, Buttercups, Phlox and Shooting Stars. Within 50 yards from where I write this remain snowdrifts over 16 feet deep. As they recede in warmer springtime temperatures wildflowers show.

This morning 3 cow elk, their bellies sagging with the weight of the calves they carry, walked through our aspens below the house. We’ll see their calves within the next 2 weeks as they begin to drop them. Some cow elk have learned to have their young close to homes to avoid lion, wolf and grizzly predation.

---

Spring Baetis (BWO’s) are still emerging on the Madison River along with midges. This past winter and early spring season has offered up some of the best midge fishing we’ve seen in several years. I’ve been on the river over 60 days since February fishing dry flies to rising trout. The tiny BWO’s emerged 3 days in a row earlier this week. Yesterday though, even in idea conditions, the tiny olive duns took a day off to recharge after 3 strong afternoons of hatching. Ideal conditions for strong emergences are overcast, cool afternoons with rain or snow bringing on the best hatches.

Midge and BWO

Last-evening I decided to check out the river above the West Fork in hopes of finding a few fish rising. Arriving at 7p.m. winds were calm, light rain fell and fish rose to midges. Interestingly the fish were all large, and all brown trout. Don’t you just hate fishing to big-fat, rising brown trout? I scored a couple browns that ran and jumped several times. The fish were very healthy and colored up like fall run brown trout. The fish came up for a #18 Scotty’s Midge. I’ll be there again this evening and I hope to see you soon on one of Yellowstone country’s rivers!

Until next time, please stay safe and keep well, and thank you for reading my blog!

---

READING, WRITING, FISHING AND BIRD DOG TRAINING

#BooksAreEssential

We can all agree that reading is essential to the well-being, education and entertainment of society. I’m honored that @PatagoniaBooks in association with @PublishersWkly have begun a campaign #BooksAreEssential and I am a small part of their program. Please check it out, and pick up a book or two, for now more than ever before we find that books are indeed essential.

Two-days ago my co-author friends of our book, “Simple Fly Fishing” jumped on ZOOM and had a short face-top-face discussion. Yvon Chouinard, Mauro Mazzo and I wrote our book a few years back and last year we completely revised it adding lots of color photos and illustrations. The book has won worldwide acclaim for its “instructional” and “best guidebook” qualities, and more. Nick Lyons who has written and published many iconic-wonderful fly-fishing books has said about our book, “Simple Fly Fishing is brilliant in its insistence on simple essences….it is a superb primer of core wisdom for all fly fishers”.

Yvon, Mauro and I visited about our book, and how the proceeds from the sale of it go entirely to native/wild fisheries and conservation programs.

Back to ZOOM. Mike Thompson, Dylan Tomine, Rick Koe, Mark Harbaugh, jumped on the call along with Yvon-Mauro and I. Our discussions centered around fly tying and fly design, and of course fishing. Mauro has been locked down in Italy for over a month and Rick, Mike, Dylan and Yvon have not been able to fish trout or steelhead. Mark is from Idaho so he and I were the only ones to report on current fishing excursions. The group listened intently to Mark and my fishing reports while they could only chime in about how many flies they’ve tied and books they’ve read. We agreed to another call next week, stay tuned.

I’ve read and re-read several fly-fishing books this winter. Books written by authors like Mottram, Walker, Skues, Marinaro, Proper, Lyons and others. I’ve written 3 fly-fishing articles and I will keep you posted when and where they’ll be released. Two have been accepted and the final piece I wrote this winter-spring is over 6,000 words so who knows where this one might end up, if at all!  I have fished over 60 days since February. And, I’ve spent countless hours, sometimes in snow-wind and cold, gleefully training my bird dogs.

Gizmo

The boys working…

Finn (11 years old), Dozy (5 years) and Gizmo (2 years) love to work and train, and sometimes be with me. They continue to teach me patience and repetitive-consistent focus and concentration, and hard work. They have trained me in more ways than I can recount, or begin to thank them for. Their endless enthusiasm and love for a guy who at times seems helplessly lost in mumbling to himself or the big-blue Montana sky is amazing to me. The tolerate me, all the while wagging their stubby-docked German shorthair tails like 3 metronomes keeping time with each other. I love them. I only wish they’d live much-much longer.

Yellowstone countries conservation organizations are very much in trouble during these hard times. Knowing there’s not a lot of extra cash handy for many of us we have to dig in a little deeper and send what we can to those organizations like Yellowstone Forever, International Federation of Fly Fishers, Conservation Hawks, Madison and Henry’s Fork River Foundations, Montana Wildlife Federation and Western Rivers Conservancy. Please help them out if you can and thank you for doing so. Send me a receipt from the organization to my address listed on the website. For every $25 you send to them I will tie you a fly, in special THANKS for contributions. Send them $100 and I’ll make it 6 flies! Thanks in advance and until next time stay safe and I hope to see you this season if things permit. 

@pwpics

@publisherswkly

@patagoniabooks

Cold Prevails but Bluebirds Herald in Spring

Hilgard Peak, Madison Mountain Range, Montana.

This morning dawned cold and mostly clear. 14 degrees is not what we’d like to see in mid-April but neither is fresh snow and a stiff north breeze.

The weather forecast calls for a sunny-warming trend to develop this weekend. The wildlife could use a break. Its been a long winter and spring seems like it might never arrive in Yellowstone.

As the sun poked over Hilgard Peaks in the Madison Mountain Range just to the east I collared our 3 shorthairs and walked them down the hill towards the river. Halfway there I saw a long tail dragging through the aspen grove attached to a very large cat, slinking away from us. I caught site of the big male mountain lion when it stopped and looked back over its shoulder at us. Thankfully the dogs did not see him or the chase might have begun, it's happened before.

The same cat has been with us on and off for several years patrolling our place taking whitetail deer and calf elk when he can. Some ask me whey we don’t get a lion hunting license and take him out. They feel he’s a danger to us and our dogs. My feeling is if he wanted to, he would have caused us harm before. I know it is the same animal. In the snow I can see his right foot is missing the outer toe. I first noticed this 4-5 years ago when he left his footprints in our back yard. I have a few photos of him (one below) when he took a cow elk that had been wounded by a hunters bullet a couple years ago. Jackie and I have long supported "People and Carnivores" a Bozeman, Mt organization that believes in complete predator/prey ecosystems. Read about their work and support them if you can.

The bluebirds are back in force. Yesterday we saw hundreds of them hunkered in the snow, wind and cold feeding on midges along the shoreline of the Madison. I remembered their houses we put up each spring on fenceposts and aspen snags near our open hay meadows.

Jackie and I spent a couple hours checking on the houses and securing several that had come unbuckled from the posts during the winter. We love their morning song that herald in spring finally arriving in the valley.

Thanks to all of you that tuned into Instagram last Monday evening to watch our hour long fly tying session sponsored by Umpqua Feather Merchants and Trout Unlimited. In case you missed it then you can still see it on Youtube (click below) and the Umpqua sites. Stay tuned here as we’ll be doing more in the future.

Buttercups, Mountain Kittentails and Glacier Lillys are due here in the next 2 weeks. Blue-winged olive mayflies (Baetis sp) will begin emerging then too. My camera is ready and so is my fly rod and a fresh set of dry flies. I will keep you posted with news from the Madison Valley and Yellowstone country. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you soon.

An early April Letter from Yellowstone country

My wildlife/fly-fishing journal entries last week report bluebirds, robins, meadowlarks and sandhill cranes returning to our lower pastures along the river.

This morning over 250 elk marched in front of our camp moving upriver to summer range. It is always wonderful watching Yellowstone country jump into spring.

I’m getting my fly-tying gear together to do a live hour-long, tying session at 7p.m. MDT next Monday, April 13, put on by Umpqua Feather Merchants.

Check out the link to see the entire live series of fly tying sessions that will be hosted on Instagram.

You can tune in on Instagram at @umpquafeathermerchants

Craig tying flies, West Yellowstone, Montana.

PC: Terry Middleton

Gathering up my tying tools and materials from my tying desk I look up and spot a photo of Jackie and I with our good friend Tom Brokaw. Tom sitting at his desk at “NBC Nightly News” flanked by Jackie and I. On the desk top another photo of Tom and I with his first bonefish, both of us sporting toothpaste grins. Still another shot of Tom, Yvon Chouinard, Verlyn Klinkenborg, James Prosek, Scotty Heppel and I smiling into the camera in front of the Silvertip Ranch lodge on a trip to Slough Creek years ago. Lots of great memories in the dozens of pictures atop the tying desk.

Tom and I go back many years, and lots of fly fishing, bird hunting and hiking memories flood back to me sitting at my desk looking at the photos this morning. I saw him last fall when we stopped in to see his new digs near the Yellowstone River. He and his wife Meredith just moved in to their gorgeous home, one built into a hill along a creek, you would never know it was there.

Tom’s always been a strong advocate for Yellowstone country. I recalled a trip he’d arranged to NY City years ago for Jackie and I speak to folks there about the importance of Yellowstone’s wildlife, clean air and water, and protecting sensitive wildlife migration corridors for grizzlies, bighorn sheep, wolverine, elk, moose, deer and pronghorn antelope.

Jackie and I recalled a story Tom told about he and Meredith walking up on several cow elk migrating through his ranch with their calves in tow. The cows brought the calves to bank of the rain swollen river, then brought them to their downstream sides to break the strong current as they swam them safely across. Tom teared up as he went on to tell of one little calve that would not follow its mom across. After the cow crossed the dangerous river she had to return to her calf where she nursed it, then nuzzled it into the water attempting to get the little one to follow. Ever-so-slowly the cow coaxed the calf into walking at her side as she broke the current and finally made it to the waiting herd on the other side.

Tom’s passions include Yellowstone country, fly-fishing and bird shooting. His interest in protecting and preserving Yellowstone for future generations is well known and Jackie and I have been proud to call him and Meredith friends. Please read Tom’s article and watch the Youtube video in Mountain Journal herein attached. As a favor to Yellowstone country and Jackie and I please support Mountain Journal in their mission by simply supporting them. If you do, the next time we run into each other let me know, and I will give you a fly I’ve tied, I promise. Thank you so much in advance.

Yellowstone country’s early spring fishing remains strong. Good midge activity continues on rivers like the Gallatin, Yellowstone, Henry’s Fork and Madison. Our early season mayflies,  Baetis (BWO’s) will begin shortly so stay with us here, I hope to see you soon and thank you for reading my blog.

Hunkered down tying Fly Patterns of Yellowstone

Yesterday my good friend and owner of Patagonia Inc, Yvon Chouinard called to check in and find out how we were doing. It turns out both he and I have been hunkered down tying flies, lots of flies, passing time and preparing for the upcoming fishing season.

John Juracek, a great friend, former business partner and coauthor of classic fishing books like our “Fly Patterns of Yellowstone Vol 1 and 2” published by Blue Ribbon Flies, 1986-2008, has been checking in frequently too. He and I have been discussing fly patterns, books we’ve read this winter and thoughts for the coming season’s fishing.

I found that John and I have each tied several dozen X Caddis for our personal fly boxes this winter. This is the most effective dry fly caddis known to man and anyone can tie it. It imitates all caddis species by simply varying the size and body color to match the natural.

A bit of fly design history here. While John and I developed the X Caddis to fool the large resident rainbow trout of the Henry’s Fork, it was my wife Jackie who came up with the idea of incorporating the flies trailing-shimmering, sparkling shuck. Her reasoning was simple and she explained it to us. If super selective trout took our world-famous Sparkle Duns with their trailing shuck for emerging and crippled-impaired mayflies why wouldn’t the same thing work with caddis imitations too? We knew that caddis, like mayflies, can experience difficulties emerging from their pupal shucks. Many end up trapped in their shucks entirely or with the shuck trailing off their bodies and wings fully emerged.

We were planning to fish the Henry Fork’s big rainbows the next day. In the past these monster fish refused high floating Elk Hair Caddis and other patterns we fished when caddis emerged. We tied a few caddisflies using deer hair for wings, a rough dubbed body and a sparkling trailing shuck to fish the big trout selectively taking emerging caddis to try the next morning.

When we arrived at 9a.m. fish were already rising to emerging Cheumatopsyche caddis, a species that rides the surface for a considerable distance after hatching. Big rainbows sipping the naturals, some fully emerged while others trailed their pupal shucks behind, caught on a leg or the rear end of the insect. We fished our new X Caddis patterns and landed several fine rainbows.

Fish may not always key in on cripples or impaired adults but we’ve found that this fly works well, in fact, much better than standard ties like the Elk Hair Caddis and is much easier and cheaper to tie. It is fished dry and dressed with floatant. Upstream dead-drifting is the most productive method, casting to individual rising fish if they are rising. The fly also works well when pulled under the surface in front of rising trout and allowed to pop up to the surface.

Watch this short video to learn to tie our X Caddis.

To tie the X Caddis, begin by attaching the thread to the hook shank then tie on a shuck of caddis shuck dyed zelon, extending about the length of the hook shank or less. Next dub a body of forward to just behind the eye of the hook. Now stack a wing of deer hair and tie in on, extending to the hook bend. The wing should be full and cup the body, extending over the sides of the fly. Whip finish and trim the wing butts, Elk Hair Caddis style.

X CADDIS

Hook: Tiemco 100 or equivalent, #12-22

Thread: 8/0 to match natural body color

Shuck: Caddis dyed zelon

Body: Zelon dubbing blend; olive, tan, amber and black most common

 Wing: Natural deer hair

Check out Blue Ribbon Flies to find the books noted above, among others on fly fishing Yellowstone, along with materials for the X Caddis like hooks, thread, zelon, and deer hair.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read this blog and watch the short video. Looking forward to using the fly patterns of Yellowstone soon.

THE EVER-CHANGING YELLOWSTONE WORLD

Migrating elk herd.

In this post you will find a link to a short video done by our good friend, Rick Reese. For over forty years Rick has been a leader protecting and preserving Yellowstone country’s wild resources. We’ve worked with him on matters in and out of Yellowstone National Park.

Rick, Jackie and I worked with Greater Yellowstone Coalition making sure elk, grizzly and black bears, wolverine, pronghorn and other public wildlife have unimpeded migration corridors to travel to and from summer/winter range, hibernation and denning areas and breeding grounds.

Most recently we worked with Rick on the Olliffe Ranch /Trust for Public Land conservation easement forever opening over 1,600 acres of land and a mile of Madison River to the public for hunting and fishing, hiking and birdwatching. This gorgeous landscape protects the second longest pronghorn migration corridor in the US as well as valuable grizzly, wolverine, wild and native trout, bighorn sheep and elk migration corridors and winter wildlife habitat. Make sure you watch this link and read this short introduction from Rick below.

• The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem then and now.

  In 1982 a small group of folks from Montana, Idaho and Wyoming  began planning for the creation a new conservation organization we called the"Greater Yellowstone Coalition". In the autumn of 1982 I put together a "Slide Show" to introduce audiences to the concept of a "Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem", and in the following four years, the show was seen by nearly 300 audiences throughout the region. 

  Thirty  years after the creation of the show, I decided to "modernize" it a bit including a new five minute introduction (with the vital technical assistance of Bozemanite Sam Lowe Anker). View this artifact from the earliest days of the Greater Yellow Coalition.

  —Rick ReeseMarch 14, 2020

Long winter, snow shoes still needed.

A bronze bison statue sits on our dining room sideboard with the inscription, “Jackie and Craig Mathews-with gratitude for over 20 years of support-Greater Yellowstone Coalition”. We are proud of the honor, but even prouder to count Rick Reese as a friend.

In these troubled times I hope viewing the link highlighting GYC and Rick’s role in Yellowstone country can bring solace and relief knowing that this ecosystem has been, and will be protected by the unselfish and effective heroes like Rick and groups like GYC.

We can by assured Yellowstone country will be here unimpaired for future generations to enjoy through continued hard work. It is up to us to support them as best we can. Thank you for thinking of them. I’ll see you soon in Yellowstone.

Rainbow/Cutthroat hybrid.

Wild Trout and Bighorn Sheep

Rainbow trout poses for mug shots.

It has been a busy week.

With warming weather and good dry fly fishing I’ve felt a bit constrained by my promise to write a couple articles, and getting programs ready to present to students and fly fishing clubs.

Yesterday though Jackie and I took a few hours off and left home driving upriver hoping to find rising trout and wintering wildlife. We were not disappointed.

We headed to Earthquake Lake to check on the bighorn sheep herd that winters there. I was lucky last fall to draw a bighorn sheep tag after applying for 40 years. My friend drew a tag too. He’s 60 and I’ll be 71 years old.

We teamed up to hunt bighorns calling ourselves “Team Geriatric”. We both took fine rams, the 2 biggest rams of the hunting district. We hunted several days, camping at 10,000 feet elevation running into bighorn, grizzlies and mountain goats. Stay tuned here as I will write our story soon.

Yesterday Jackie and ran into bighorn ram #14 (you will see this orange tag in his ear in photo), and his harem just below the Quake Visitors Center. They looked pretty good considering the long-cold winter.

Bighorn ram #14.

From there we headed downstream and snowshoed into the Madison River upstream of Babbling Brook where we found a few fish rising. Check out our photo of a rainbow that fell to a #20 Scotty’s Midge. After his release he hung around for a few mug shots.

In this letter I am excited to feature conservation projects and programs that are both founded and headed up by my good friend Todd Tanner. I’ve know Todd for many years, he is a true gentleman, a passionate angler and hunter devoted to protecting and preserving our wild and native fish and wildlife.

I have worked with Todd on his award winning films, “Cold Waters”, the 2016 winner of Best Environmental Short Film Award, and “In the Heart of the Rockies” a wonderful film that premiered on The Sportsmans Channel. Make sure you watch both short videos linked here.

Todd founded Conservation Hawks a few years back. CH is " a group of passionate hunters and anglers devoted to protecting our sporting heritage and passing on a healthy natural world to our kids and grandkids. The group’s prime focus is on climate change and its motto is “Hunters and anglers defending our future”.

For the past 2 years me and my close friend and former business partner John Juracek have worked with Todd on his “School of Trout” project you can goggle to find out more. This wonderful program "brings anglings finest fly fishing experts to share their wisdom and experience”. I’m proud to be a part of Todd’s school held each October and encourage you to goggle “School of Trout” to learn more, and sign up! Space is extremely limited so check it out today and I hope to see you this October!

Thanks for reading this and I’ll look for you on a Yellowstone country river this spring.

Stay tuned weekly for more conservation news and fishing reports.

Yellowstone Forever

Icy midges in the river.

Yellowstone Forever

Jackie and I have been part of Yellowstone Forever, formerly Yellowstone Park Foundation, since its inception in 1996. Back then the Foundation was basically a “think tank” formed when YNP Superintendent Michael Finley came up with the idea of a park foundation to raise funds to help support the park’s necessary programs that the park could not afford to fund due to federal budget cuts. This became the impetus of our cofounding 1% for the Planet with our good friend Yvon Chouinard owner of Patagonia Inc. 1%FTP is an alliance of business members donating 1% of their gross sales to conservation and environmental causes.

In 1996 our business began donating a minimum of 1% of our yearly gross sales to organizations like the foundation to help protect, preserve and enhance Yellowstone for all future generations. Since we sold our business we continue to donate 1% of our earnings and became 1% for the Planet’s first “individual member”, a program started 2 years ago so individuals and non-business owners can join in helping environmental causes. To date 1% FTP has funded over $250 million dollars in conservation causes, something I’m most proud of.

When I revised “The Yellowstone Fly-Fishing Guide” last November I committed my royalties from book sales to go to Yellowstone Forever to help continue their program to restore native Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Please visit their website, check out this link from them, and help if you can. Remember too that purchasing the award-winning book helps as well!

I want to thank all of who’ve checked out my website. Thanks for your kind comments and enthusiasm and contacting me for speaking engagements and more.

I have fished 16 days this month and have had some great dry fly fishing when midges are active most days. The key to good midge activity is calm conditions, overcast better that bright sun, and temps above 26 degrees.

Fish rises to nearby midge pool.

My best fly patterns have been #18-#22 Scotty’s Midges and #20 Griffith’s Gnat Emergers from 11am to 1 or 2pm. Around 1pm midges may form mating clusters and when you see fish key on the clusters give them a #18 Griffiths Gnat and you will be in business.

WALKING IN MY SHOES

I had not seen Mike in 10 years. Then he was a mountain of a man, and I was in much better shape.

I’d pulled up to Raynolds’ Bridge last week to fish. There he was trying to maneuver his bulk over the snowbank and down to the river. He did not notice me park and approach. I watched him struggle with his snowshoes that were not working as he broke thru the stiff snow up to his waist. I knew he was not going to make it to the river.

Mike was laying on his side in the deep snow, like a beached whale, after crawling 5 yards from his car. I yelled to him I was on my way to help as I pulled on my snowshoes. After pulling him to his feet and catching-up a bit on the past 10 years I told Mike to get into my shoes. Mike told me he, “just wanted to fish the river once this winter”, and “knew this might be my last time to do it”. Mike is 80 and has had some heart issues. I was determined to get him on a favorite midge pool, perhaps for his last time.

I beat a path, sans snowshoes, for him to follow upstream a hundred yards to his spot then returned to pull-push and drag Mike to the pool where fish were rising like wolves to emerging midges.

Half-hour later we stood on a high snowbank above the pool. I had Mike sit while I slid down the bank and into the river where I removed my snowshoes from Mike, then helped him slide down to the water using me as his wading staff. Mike tried one of my #20 Griffiths Gnat Emergers while I stood by as a staff, and his eyes, yelling “set” when a fish came to his fly.

Mike landed 4 rainbows in an hour while we had a chance to visit about fishing, family and the years gone by we’d not seen each other. It was great fun but once the wind came up and temperatures dropped it was time to bring Mike back to his rig. Forty-seven minutes later with lots of huffing and puffing, pushing-pulling and giving a hand up when he fell down into the deep snow, we stood at his vehicle. Both of us sporting big smiles and vowing to do it again soon, both knowing it was not going to happen.

I had a wonderful time that day fishing even though I never threw a cast. I love this place, and old friends too.

12 Feb 2020

3$ Bridge.

I planned to fish my way to $3 from Raynolds’ Bridge. It was a perfect day for fishing midges; 26 degrees, calm and partly cloudy. I never made it far from the bridge. Trout were rising to emerging midges in the pockets and pools near the parking area. I had 2 hours of fine dry fly fishing using a #18-20 Scotty’s Midge. While the fish were mostly 12-14” I did take a 17” brown that made me feel glad I did not fish my Tenkara rod setup since it ran several yards downstream and jumped twice mid-river.

Several times I looked east to the Madison Range and behind the Olliffe Ranch, thankful the ranch and surrounding $3 Bridge area is in a conservation easement and forever protected against harmful streamside development and open to anglers and hunters.

On my way home I checked out dozens of wintering bighorn sheep along with elk and mule deer. I’m a lucky guy to live in this part of the Madison Valley!