Tailwater Tribe Fly Fishing Tour (Day 6): "Fire on the Mountain" The Firehole (Part II), the Gibbon, and the Madison


After tossing and turning all night with visions of PMDs dancing in my head, I arose from my post at the Westwood Motel in West Yellowstone, Montana and headed out.  The previous day I had spied a little fly shop in town that looked really cool.  To top it off, it had a really catchy name; The West Yellowstone Fly Shop.  How does that grab you?  No cutesy names here, just a plain, ol' B flat, no nonsense fly shop!!!  My kind of place so I couldn't resist.  Justin Spence, the owner greeted me at the door and was extremely polite, knowledgable and helpful.  I whipped out my trusty map and he started marking, giving me many options and ideas for places to fish during my adventure.  Before I left, he hooked me up with some more PMD and caddis imitations.  Thank you Justin!  You're the best.  Check out the link to Justin's Shop in "My Favorite Fly Shops" section of this blog.  With all of this new knowledge and new flies I was about to break out in hives to get to YNP.  I drove back to my honey-hole on the Firehole (Midway) and decided to wet-wade.  The thermal activity beneath the earth in this section of the park keeps the water warmer than other trout rivers in the park, so when the heat of summer comes, activity on the Firehole wanes.  I slipped on my Simms wading sandals grabbed my gear and practically sprinted down the path upriver from Midway bridge.  Without cumbersome waders and boots I was able to cover a lot of water.  At 9:30 the PMDs began to emerge along with the caddis.  There were bugs everywhere!  At one point I even fished a PMD dry as my point fly and fished another caddis dry behind it.  Success!  Caught several fish on yellow soft hackles as well.  The fishing and the scenery of the Firehole did not disappoint!
On the way out of the park I stopped by the Gibbon River.  Although I did not catch a fish there in my brief stay, I did raise two large browns to a big foam salmonfly.  Should have had both of them, but you know how that goes...The same thing on the Madison, slapping the foam salmonfly, raising a couple fish but nothing to speak of.  I had missed the brief salmonfly hatch on the Madison in the park, but it was great fun to see those fish rise to that aircraft-carrier sized fly!  A great day in the park; three more rivers scratched off my "Rivers I Have To Fish This Summer List," and a great way to end Day 6 of the TTFFT!!!  As a tribute to the Firehole and the PMD hatch, I'll leave you with My favorite Marshall Tucker Band song, "Fire on the Mountain."  The lyrics of the chorus fit my adventure perfectly:  "Fire on the Mountain, lightning in the air, gold in them hills and it's waiting for me there." 

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