July 16, The B + the Yellowstone

I laughed a lot today. Mark and Mike, aka Buckwheat and Frank, fished with me for the day. I met Buckwheat a few years back from one of my all time favorites John K... and just like John they are both a handful. I met them for some pheasant hunting and had a great time getting to know Buck and his young Brittany Lucus.

We floated a small stream and pounded what John would call non dominant fish. This was quickly changed to the acronym NDFA with the a standing for asshole. Frank talked from the moment we shook hands to the moment I shut my car door to drive home. He had caught just one fish on his Montana swing while Buckwheat had caught em pretty good.

So when he had already landed two bows and a brown 100 yards from the put in, I could tell he was happy. Buck fished double dries with a large golden and a number of smaller flies trailing. Charlie at Sweetwater Fly Shop had suggested a rat faced mcdoogal parachute. I had not fished this pattern in a long time, but it quickly became one of my favorite and I'll tell you why: It's body is made of clipped dear hair (or antelope) and it floats like a cork. It is hard to find smaller flies that float well in quick water, and the boulder is quick. I'm adding this fly to my guide box.

As Frank pounded fish on his Golden dropper set up, we began to notice a pattern: the rainbows were all taking the nymphs while the browns were taking dries. Strange. The better fish were all caught on the surface in the B. Buck did take a pic of Franks nice brown on the dry. I hope he sends me a copy and I'll post it. It was a great fish which came out from under a log and took the size 4 golden as easy as can be. I bet between the two of them we must have landed at least 60 fish on the day. Not all of them were dominant fish, but most ate the dry.

When we reached the Yellowstone, I decided to put Buck on a rubber legs and some split to see how the rive was fishing. We were only on it for 300 yards and he caught these two browns. The first was about 16 inches and the second was a bruiser of just over 21 inches.

John will be jealous!