August 18, Yellowstone

Connie was back up from Lander for another stab at the Yellowstone. At first it seemed like we might have one of those days. the Fish were eating, but we could not get the hook to stick. Just before lunch our luck started changing. Connie landed a few cutts and then beat up a few fish in a side channel before we ate.

After lunch was a different story. They started to eat the hopper better and PMD's started trickling off. There is a certain bank I love to fish just below Point of Rocks and today it was stellar. As we neared the top part of this slowish grassy bank I spotted a riser tight to the bank in the shallows. After working the puzzle and finding a good bug, a size 16 extended body split wing, we hooked the cut. As it fought its way off the bank, I looked down to see if any one else was rising: There were risers as far as the eye could see. I like the bank, not only because it has consistent risers, but because the fish sit in challenging spots.

One fish in particular, the big brown pictured up top, was sitting in very skinny water and when he rose to our fly as it trickled tight to a group of rocks in less than a foot of water, we were pleasantly surprised with it's size. It fought very well and took a while to bring to the net. I don't know how many fish we caught in the afternoon, but we landed at least a dozen on that bank alone.