Half Rivers

One great asset of the Park’s trout fishing is its easy accessibility. Miles upon miles of great trout water are just off the road along the Madison, Firehole, Gibbon, and Lamar. The many turnouts make it easy to pull off the road, gear up and walk just a short distance to begin fishing a great piece of water.

Needless to say, the roadside of the river is what gets the most angling attention. But, what about the opposite side of these rivers? It amazes me how little that side gets fished to. Or, fished to properly.

Firehole River, from the far bank

I dub them ‘half-rivers.’ Very often (well, approximately half the time) the best trout lie is across the river on the other side from the road. A log, large rock, or current seam forms the soft, protected spot and food concentration where good fish like to lay and feed. As the river twists and turns down its gradient, current breaks naturally favor one side of the river over the other. Besides good trout cover, the far bank has another attraction: unmolested trout that haven’t been spooked and cast to by multiple anglers throughout the day.

Few anglers make the effort to get to the far bank and fish these other half-rivers. A good Lefty Kreh-grade angler might make the right presentation to some of these spots across multiple current seams with the required distance and accuracy. My field observations, however, tell me that few anglers can cast with this level of ability. I certainly can’t.

Madison River at Big Bend, looking back toward road

Granted, it does take effort to cross these streams to the far bank. Time and again, I have been rewarded for doing so. This is why I put such high value on good wading skills and a good wading staff.

River familiarity helps too. You can’t wade across just anywhere along rivers like these with their quick currents and uneven stream beds. With trial and error from multiple attempts, I have discovered many good crossing points. I have also discovered a pretty reliable rule of thumb for a good crossing. In general, the very bottom of a pool, where it shallows up just above the break over into fast current of the next riffle stretch, can present a good crossing point. Here is where the river can yield a combination of water depth and current speed that lets you get across.

Haynes Meadow from the far bank

I would say the benefits of fishing along the bank opposite the road are most pronounced on the Lamar. Many of the roadside gravel bars aren’t steep enough to form the necessary shelf and water depth for holding good fish. It is so delightful to discover cutthroat trout lying just feet off the far bank, right on the shelf where the current breaks from fast to slow.  

On the Madison, I have found surprising good trout cover that was not apparent to me until I crossed to the other side. Same goes for the Firehole, where getting to the far bank lets you fish to some great log cover and deep runs absent from the roadside. If nothing else, fishing the bank away from the road gives you more elbow room to fish. I bump into fewer anglers over there. It is easier to take what the river and the fish give you this way.

Steep banks on Lamar hold good fish

This is my kind of fishing. I like to roam. In between catching trout, exploring the river’s many permutations is just plain fascinating. Understanding the river’s riddles is just as important to angling success as choosing the right fly and making a good cast is.

The Visitors

More than three million people visit Yellowstone National Park each year. July and August are the busiest months by far. That’s when things get almost frenetic afternoons at the Old Faithful Inn. It is said that something like 30,000 people visit the Old Faithful area daily during the summer. Most stay just long enough to watch an Old Faithful eruption and buy a t-shirt or ice cream cone.



Old Faithful Inn Lobby, from the Mezzanine

A small number of visitors have the time to linger longer, and have planned ahead enough to spend at least one night inside the Park. It is an entirely different experience for them. By 6:00 pm or so, most of the day visitors have departed, driving to get to their dinner and lodging outside the Park. Evening time in the Park and here in the Upper Geyser Basin are quiet and serene. So go the mornings, too, before the next surge of day visitors arrive. Geyser steam hangs in the cool morning air, and the slanting morning light adds texture and color to the landscapes. When you stay outside the Park, you lose 4-6 hours of daylight experiencing the Park at its best.



Regardless of their individual timetables and motivations, I thoroughly enjoy greeting visitors at the Inn’s Front Desk. They walk slack-jawed into the Inn’s lobby, necks craned upward to the towering log beamed frame and ceiling ninety feet up. The Inn inspires awe, respect and admiration for the remarkable craftsmen who built it in just one year’s time more than a century ago. And, the NPS commitment to historic preservation that keeps it here.

Backroads Cycling Tours

Tauck tour bus

On any given day, one-fourth to one-third of Inn guests is with a tour group. Big-name bus tour operators like Tauck and Caravan; smaller specialty tours enjoying a niche of the Park experience; family/association reunions. I snapped a few representative photos the other morning in the back parking lot on the way to breakfast.

The hectic summer season ended palpably last week with Labor Day. School session ends family vacations, the days have shortened and cooled, and most of the blathering motorcycles are back home. The end of the season has already begun for some Park operations. Labor Day was the last day for Roosevelt Lodge, and many of the activities (horse/stagecoach/boat rides) have already ended too.

YNP Park History Buffs

World Outdoors Hiking Tour

This is a wonderful time to be at Yellowstone. It is much more enjoyable getting around the Park with fewer visitors and lighter traffic. The bison and elk are returning from the more remote parts of the Park and are more visible. The elk rut has begun, quite a show. The rapidly changing Rocky Mountain weather adds drama to this time of year too. There is snow in the forecast for Friday…then sunny and 60’s on Saturday.

Season's closed for Roosevelt Lodge

The season’s end is in sight, but I have five more weeks here. And, the fishing will only get better as the Madison and Firehole come back into play.

Tools of the Trade

As friends and family well know, I am prone to contrarian thinking. That is certainly true when it comes to fly fishing gear. Catalogs and fly shops tantalize the sport each spring with new models, designs, and construction materials. Some anglers have a dozen or more fly rods, and many reels. Not me.

My inventory of fly rods ends at just two. My everyday rod/reel is ten years old. Still works just fine. When the big trout start running up the Madison River out of Hebgen Lake in a few weeks, I’ll rig up my bigger rod too. That’s it, two rods.

It isn’t just that I rank poorly as a member of the consumer economy, though I am certainly that. Rather, I regard a few other pieces of equipment as much more important to my own angling satisfaction and success. My approach to fishing equipment is similar to Warren Buffett’s approach to the stock market. You know, invest in railroads instead of biotechs. For fly fishing equipment, a few mundane items are much more valuable to me.



Simms wading staff; collapsible, tethered

At the top of the list is my wading staff, a Simms collapsible, tethered one that I won in a TU chapter raffle some eight years ago. I would not fish the rivers out here without it. I cannot believe how many anglers wade these Western streams without a wading staff. It is a recipe for a cold dunking, or, worse, a hard fall on an unforgiving cobbled streambank.



Wading support is a beautiful thing

Whether it’s wading in a fast current or keeping my balance along a rocky bank, that wading staff provides a whole lot of comfort and security. With it in hand, I am a three-legged stool methodically getting into the right position to work a piece of water. I subscribe to Craig Mathews’s maxim: short casts from the right position. Lefty Kreh can properly present a dry fly forty feet across several different current seams. I know I’ll never cast like that. When this wading staff wears out, I will not hesitate to plunk down the considerable sum to buy a new one.

Next are the wader boots I use. They are high top style with wide, studded soles. There are lighter ones on the market, and there are easier ones to get on and off. But, for wading stability and ankle support, these are unmatched.

Makes landing/releasing a trout a dream 

A good net is third on my list. Two seasons ago, my ten year old mesh net went floating down the Gallatin while helping Paul Meyers net a nice trout. I could not have been happier to see it get away. Enough of the hassles of getting a hook snarled in the net’s mesh after landing a fish and the fish getting wrapped in the mesh.

Next time I was in town, there was a dandy rubber mesh “ghost net” on display in Bob Jacklin’s shop. Oversize too, enough space in the opening to land bigger trout. A good magnet release came with it. I cannot tell you how much more enjoyable netting and releasing a trout is with this rubber mesh net. Easier on me, easier on the trout. Worth every penny of its higher cost, and every ounce of its added weight.

Another valuable part of my fishing equipment is my iPhone. Enclosed in a waterproof case by Lifeproof. Easy, one-handed, worryfree photos on the stream. Easy photo sharing too, via email, streaming and posting to this blog.

Not the easiest place to catch/land a fish

The reward: big, slab-sided Yellowstone cutthroad

I’ve begun to hear a little noise coming from my reel’s bearings. And, rod tips are notoriously fragile things. Wear-and-tear will one day claim rod and reel. Until then, my money is going to these mundane pieces of equipment first.