GibbonRiver, originally uploaded by WhiskeyCreek.

Here is a shot of the Gibbon river in Yellowstone. This area will soon be much more difficult to reach, the road is being relocated higher up on the ridge (on the right in this photo).

Confluence of the Bechler and Falls River

We did some hiking and photography. Of course, I brought my rod and bribed the family with a lunch at Frostop’s in exchange for a few minutes on the water.  Unfortunately, I did not bring waders, and wading wet for the 15 minutes was enough for this very cold water. So, that worked out anyway.

Driving up to the Cave Falls area, my excitement was building as we drove by miles of rifflely water, with no other humans around. This was the amazing part, we had a whole area of Yellowstone all to our selves, in the middle of July. Who would have thunk it? We did run into a pair of hikers, who must have parked at the Bechler ranger station, or were impressive hikers. Also, a pair of fishermen were arriving as we left. Other than that, it was just us and the mosquitos.

Falls River & Cave Falls

Some have their 15 minutes of fame. I had 15 minutes of fishing. It was short, but sweet. Brought 3 rainbows to hand in that time. They were small, but fiesty, in the 10 to 12 inch range.

Did I mention the river was cold? With wet wading, 15 minutes later my feet were numb, so this worked out. Also, the short time kept me from a knee injury slipping on the glass smooth polished rocks that line the bottom of the Falls river.  Next time, felt soles & wading staff.

• No towers in wilderness & road corridors
• No towers near minor areas like Madison Junction
• WiFi only in stores and hotels
• Reduced visibility of the cell tower at Old Faithful

Read the report here:  Yellowstone cell phone plan

Here is the Baker’s Hole Bugger.

Add some weight with lead-free wire. These are meant to be fished in Yellowstone, which requires completely lead-free flies.

Add a brown marabou tail, with some root beer flash on top.

Top off the tail with yellow marabou. Yellow is thought to be a trigger for fall run brown trout.

Brown and Yellow variegated chenille and a ribbing wire.

Wind the chenille forward.

A grizzly saddle hackle, with some web.

Wrap the saddle, and counter-wrap with the ribbing wire, to finish the Baker’s Hole Bugger.

The best fishing was early in the morning, walking into Yellowstone from the Baker’s Hole campground. Arriving at sunup, with steam coming off the water, we walked the trail upstream, careful to not wake any hungry bears.

Three turns of the river, I found a nice deep run next to a undercut bank.  The baby trout were working the surface. Mommy and daddy were deep.

The magic fly setup was a dark dense, unleaded stonefly nymph with a peacock and starling soft hackle tied on the bend as a dropper.

This guy took the dropper (fun fight with 6x tippet).

Most other fishers reported small trout and a few white trout.  One report of a 2 foot brown.

Evenings at Barns Pools resulted in a white fish, but mostly enjoyable company for that social fishery.

135 x 5 x 2 = 1350

Thirteen hundred fishing days required to cover the park. That is not counting repeats. Not counting larger rivers that you’d want to spend several days.

IF you spent 100 days a year, it would take 13 years to cover the park.