Fly Fishing - Fly Fishing Yellowstone National Park

taterflyflinger · Newbie Joined: Jan 31, 2008 Posts: 3

My family and I are heading to Yellowstone National Park for a couple of weeks at the beginning of July. We will be staying at Norris Geyser Campground for awhile and fish the Gibbon. Then we will move to the Pebble Creek campground to camp and fish Pebble Creek. We are also planning on fishing the Firehole, Slough, Madison, Lamar, Cascade Creek and Cascade lake for grayling. I've printed out the hatch charts for those waters. I was just wondering what are the key patterns for fishing the hatches and are there any other good waters in the north west part of the park worth fishing.

Thanks
Travis

MarshallD · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:40 pm Post subject:

I would stop and visit Blue Ribbon Flies Fly Shop in West Yellowstone. A must stop if you have questions about hatches and patterns. They are the most reliable source for that area.

http://www.blueribbonflies.com/

good luck

jeremy · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:41 am Post subject: Yellowstone

Hi,

I have a feeling you were looking for a bit more help than the link to a website of a fly shop ... so, I will try my best. I have fished that area on 2 seperate trips, but the fishing was in the spring on both trips. I did fish with the madison, yellowstone, spring creeks .. oh wait a minute, i forgot .. actually i did make a big trip there 4 years ago in August with Jason Curry from fliesandfinswest.com .. We fished around Jackson Wyoming for the most part and lots of other rivers and tailwaters from Utah to Jackson Wyoming ... So, I guess I can give some insight into what panned out for me and you can take it for what it is worth ... On my spring trips, there were tons of fish in every river, but the typical fly selections were supper small nymphs .. streamer fishing was done with moderate success .. small midge patterns rs2's, wd40's and those type things were the tickeet ... also, small blue winged olives ..

SUMMER - that was a great trip with lots of dry fly fishing .. hoppers, terrestial patterns and caddiss flies .. if i remember correctly some of the "all around" caddis flies we used that seemed to work everywhere were the Hemingway Caddis and something called the EZ caddis ... I also had great success on big leachy type/stonefly type streamers .. you know big nasty things with rubber legs etc.. in natural colors... Nymphing was also very productive, but not as productive as fishing Dry dropper combinations ... You know, big hopper or stimulator pattern with a small pheasent tail nymph or zebra midge dropped 18 inches or so off the back ... (ps... i just remembered that too .. zebra midges were very productive in all different colors .. definately have lots of those in addition to wd40's and rs2's) ... In stark contrast to the spring fishing i did out there .. the fish, in the summer months, were typically holding in the riffles and faster/oxygenated water .. however in some of the colder spring creeks that cutthroat trout would be scattered throughout the streams and rivers ....

So, (again take this for what its worth) If I were you (to answer your question directly) .. I would have a box with ... ez caddis flies, hemingway caddis flies, madam x flies, elk hair caddis dry flies both light and dark brown and black, hopper flies of various sizes both brown and black, terrestrial type dry flies chernoble ants etc.... for nymphs i would half flashback pheasentails and regular pheasenttails both bead headed and not bead headed fro size 14 - 22. for midges i would definately have lots of black zebra midges and some copper colored zebrad midges too .. and for streamers i would have all sorts of crazy rubber legged and leachy/buggy maribou typed things with coneheads ....

Hope this helps ... That was pretty much my box for the most part and I caught virtually ulimited amounts of fish everywhere we went .. the fishing was fantastic pretty much every where we went too ... in august the temps started getting a little on the "too warm" side .. but, i would guess that in July .. things would be ideal?

I actually have a friend (patm) who made the exact same trip and basically fished the entire park 2 years ago in July .. i will shoot him an email and maybe he can respond too .. hope this helps .. i don't think you will have any trouble finding fish out there, good luck.

jeremy · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 10:25 am Post subject: nh trout hunter

hey -- just remembered that i recently got a voicemail from my friend kyle who moved out there and is living right in livingston and working at some fly shop ... kyle if you see this or if any of his friends like jesse or tyler etc. see this ... let kyle know .. maybe he has some good insight too .. thanks. .... ps... by the way, kyle (nhtrouthunter) .. how is it out there .. from the sounds of your voicemail you were pretty amped up a couple months ago when you decided to just pull the trigger and move out there .. hope all is well and your having a blast and catching some nice fish .. your gonna miss the albies though, i bet Very Happy

NHtrouthunter · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:25 am Post subject:

hey guys, I am living in West Yellowstone for the summer. I finished school in December, saved money for the winter and pointed the truck west for Montana on May 3rd. Travis, stop by Bud Lilly's Trout Shop when in town, I work nights... I set will set you up with some spots...... and if you want to catch a grayling the park is the place to do so....

Jeremy, I do miss the salt a lot.... I am also going to miss my fall trip up to the Moosehead area, its a trip I have been making with several close friends for a few years now, the fall fishing in Maine will always call me back to the east coast, along with the saltwater scene and the fish crew, and how could I forget the steelhead in the early fall....