Hi everyone, our trip has gotten off to a fast start these first five days! We have been fishing in the park, catching a variety of different species in several lakes and rivers. The group has enjoyed catching native westslope, Yellowstone, and Snake River Cutthroat which have been our main focuses of the trip so far. Additionally, we've caught rainbow, brown trout, grayling, and whitefish.
On our first day, we fished the Upper Gibbon River. This small stream was loaded with westslope cutthroat and grayling, both of which were willing to eat a variety of flies. We returned to camp that night and after a hearty dinner fished the Madison River for the evening hatch. It was a great first day!
We then began our backcountry adventure at Grebe Lake. Despite the heat, the group did great on the trail - everyone supported each other and helped out where needed. While fishing was decent during the day, it became lights out once the sun set. We caught fish up to 18 inches on dry flies, and even had some success throwing mouse patterns! After a long day of fishing, we were serenaded to sleep by the haunting calls of mating loons.
After the backcountry, we returned to civilization with a trip to west Yellowstone for much needed laundry, showers, and pizzas. Clean and full, we made our way back to the park to our new campground, Grant Village. After a few days working together, the crew is getting efficient at breaking down and setting up camp. It's one of the cool parts about these trips - watching the group learn to work together and figure out their strengths and how to use them to help the group. With the lake nearby, we settled in and enjoyed the evening, eating a good dinner and talking about our backcountry trip.
Today we fished the legendary Snake River on the southern border of the park. The river yielded its native Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat, our fifth native fish species of the trip, in addition to brown trout and whitefish. While dry flies and nymphs produced fish, stripping streamers through the deepest holes provided the best opportunity at big fish. It's been awesome watching these guys get better at reading water, being patient, and sticking with it. All in all, it was a great day!
Until next time,
Shane, Hunt, Jacob and the crew
