Early Bird Gets the ‘worm’ on Yellowstone River
Opening day on the Yellowstone River in the LeHardy Rapids to Mud Volcano area was sublime.
It has been often said, “the early bird gets the worm.” That was certainly the case for a good buddy of mine and me. We left Cody at the crack of dawn and arrived at one of our favorite spots in that section of the river. Surprisingly, there were few cars parked in the turnouts along the road to Hayden Valley and even fewer anglers seen climbing into waders or rigging up fly rods. At least that was the case in the upper section that opened. Maybe everyone else decided to fish in the area around Nez Perce Ford. We were not disappointed to have the river to ourselves.
We took the lack of cars and their angling occupants as a good sign and quickly rigged up our fly rods with 9 foot, 3X leaders. Once we got on the water, rising trout were not to be seen, so we added a dropper to our dry flies and began fishing. I decided to go with a red Chubby Chuck, size 6 and trail a size 12 Holy Grail olive soft hackle. My partner used a tan Chubby Chuck, size 6, and dropped a size 6 tan North Fork Special below. Except for one break-off that nicked a tree on a back cast, we did not change either setup the entire time we were on the river.
I don’t think we had been casting for more than five minutes when my top fly dipped below the surface. I reacted by lifting my rod. When I felt the pressure, I also set the hook several times for good measure. Those Yellowstone cutthroats are noted for their hard jaws, hence the necessity to perform firm hook sets if we expected to put some, if not many, of these bruisers in the net.
The cutthroat fought hard and peeled line off my fly reel as it swam into the heavy current below LeHardy Rapids. It was almost into the reel’s backing before the pressure from my rod finally swung the trout into slower water. I could then rapidly recover the fly line and bring the trout ever closer to where my partner was standing ready with a large net. As more and more pressure was applied by reeling and pumping my fly rod at the same time, the trout was finally subdued to within a leader’s length of line and my friend slipped the net under it.
I was glad I had brought my large guide net because this trout was 25 inches long and weighed five pounds, if not six! Its girth seemed the same as its length. I am not exaggerating either. If I were in Alaska, that buck cutthroat could have competed in size with any of the sockeye salmon found in that state’s rivers. After a few and very quick photos of a happy angler and a ticked-off native trout, the beautifully colored male was released back into the water to feed and recover from its efforts to escape the steel in its jaw.
High fives all around were done, then it was back to casting again. Next to hook up was my partner. His cutthroat tried to manhandle him, too, but experience and persistence soon had the second trout in the net for admiration. This trout was a fine specimen of a mature hen cutthroat, and she measured just shy of 24 inches. Wow! More photos were taken in the net this time because we weren’t sure if the hen had spawned or not, then released.
Hours passed that opening morning while the two of us continued to catch, photograph and release trout. We could look up and down the river for over a quarter of a mile or more, and in that distance, there were no other anglers to be seen. This was not the typical scene on an opening day inside Yellowstone National Park and on a world-famous trout fishery, too. We were very surprised no other angler or anglers joined us except for one, who, as it turned out, was a regular customer from Michigan when I owned North Fork Anglers in downtown Cody. He was unsuccessful in his efforts even though he was fishing with the exact same fly setup as my partner, so he soon decided to move on down the river and try his luck somewhere else. I guess luck and skill do make a difference when fishing.
We wished the man goodbye and continued to catch trout until a huge lightning storm popped up behind us late in the morning. The first blast of lightning literally shook the ground and air around us. We took this as a signal to get off the water until the storm passed since 9-foot graphite fly rods are not what one wants to have in hand when it’s lightning all around you! Wind, rain, hail and lightning continued to come in short sequences until we finally admitted to ourselves that we had enjoyed a stellar day on the Yellowstone River for two reasons. First, we were catching and releasing trout that ranged in length from 21-25 inches that were in prime condition. Second, we figured if we left quickly enough, we could also get in some angling and catching time on the North Fork of the Shoshone whose angling closure below Newton Creek to Buffalo Bill Reservoir had also opened July 1.
The idea to leave was made, so we made a U-turn and headed east over Sylvan Pass to fish the North Fork. Unfortunately, the lightning and wind followed us all the way back to the Shoshone National Forest. The rains were already bringing the mud down from side creeks by the time we hit Newton Creek, so we kept on driving to Cody with the agreement we would fish the North Fork after the rains left and the river had time to purge itself from the multiple storms that ended up hitting the Absaroka Mountains the first four days of the month.
It is my understanding the North Fork fished great on its opening day until the river blew out from the rains just mentioned. At least my partner and my readers have great fishing to look forward to, now that the crowds have moved on to other tourist destinations. The insect hatches on both the rivers in this column should get progressively better in the next two weeks. Anglers can expect some awesome action on both dry and wet flies in the weeks ahead (July).
