March 20, 2009

Last Monday, my wife Raluca looked at the weather forecast and noticed Friday was predicted to be nearly 60 degrees. She asked if I would take her fishing...I'm a lucky man.

So on Friday myself, GTO guide Nate Anderson and Raluca spent six hours fishing the Yellowstone.

The water was a bit off-color, but it did not take long for Raluca to hook up on a mid-sized brown.

If you happen to fish with me this summer you may hear, "You've got to catch a trout here...even my pregnant wife caught one out of here."

The thing about fishing with Raluca is after she catches her first fish, she looses interest. I guess she feels she has proven her point.

The weather was perfect so she could relax and sun her bulging 5-month belly, while Nate and I tore up the fishing.

Nate caught these good bow on a rubber legged stone in a slow deep run. I don't think too many folks had fished this particular spot since you had to slide down some shallow water to get to it and then back-row out the same way.

I was again reminded that my Ro Skiff kicks ass. Gliding from spot to spot effortlessly.

While in the little run, which tumbled off a rip rap outcropping, Nate landed a few more fish. The run eddied left and slowed down. There was a submerged pile of beaver clippings and Nate -as patient of fisherman as I've met- worked the edge of the brush pile until he was hammered by this nice brown.

After a hard fight the fish came in to the net for a nice release.

We found fish easily most of the day. The majority were still in winter lies, although Raluca did stick another brown in a shallow tail out. Even I got into the act.

There were a few other boats on the river. I think it is one of the more popular spring floats since the legendary spring creeks dump into the river on this stretch - making it a great place to catch prespawn rainbows. Here is a feeder stream dumping into the Yellowstone. Nate was yanked by a fish, but didn't connect.

It was a grand float on the first day of spring.

On Saturday, I passed up the chance to fish with GTO guide Mark Bolton and his friend Tunny. They had a productive day as well. Mark caught a nice 22 inch brown. But alas, no camera. He said it was "all mouth but very skinny". All and all, it seems the browns are skinny now and the rainbows look great.

At the takeout, while Nate and Raluca ran the shuttle, I happen to run into the Savards, friends of mine from New Hampshire. They had stopped to walk their dogs by the river on their way through to Rock Creek. The fishing world is a small world. As it turns out, I should have had someone walk Stew my 15-year-old Lab. He left us a mess when we got home.