Here are some more Yellowstone images:
The light and mysteriousness and the density of the forest and the feeling of no end to the trees made me try and duplicate that sense.
The sky was broken with passing thunderheads. The sun came out for just a moment and...
Pine needle and water drop after 2 consecutive days of rain.
I refer to this tree as the "lightning tree."
Late Summer weather made for some incredible skies...
Here are a few more Yellowstone images. The weather here has turned to Fall! Highs somewhere in the mid sixties and most of the crowds have gone. It's a spectacular time to be here in Sun Valley...
Yellowstone River near Alum Creek:
Yellowstone Falls:
Icebox Canyon:
Late Summer Storm. Icebox Canyon:
Trout Creek:
Tower Falls:
Soda Butte Creek:
Lamar River:
Soda Butte Creek:
I just got back from 7 days in Yellowstone guiding in the Lamar Valley. The first half of the trip was cold, wet and a bit windy while the second half was mid-seventies and sunny. The poor weather made for some amazing skies and moody sunsets and even lightning on my first night. The fishing on Soda Butte and Slough Creek was quite good despite the as to be expected crowds. I had one day on the first meadow of Slough that was slow, otherwise it was tons of fun with hoppers, baetis and green drakes. I'll be posting pics the next few days...
Above the Ice Box Canyon on my first night I was greeted with a little weather:
The Lamar River:
Last light on Soda Butte:
Fishing first: It was COLD today. The east entrance to Yellowstone was closed this morning due to snow. What a way to send off August. We hiked in to the first meadow on Slough Creek and it was about 48 when we left for Slough and maybe 50 when we returned. Blustery and gray and intermittent rain. Absolutely nothing was going on in the way of hatches. Tons of smallish #12 or so lethargic hoppers in the grass. We found one pool loaded with fish and did not see another fish in any other spot. The warmer weather to come could change things for the better. Soda Butte, however is fishing well.
I finished up my guide trip up Slough around 3 or so and headed for Dunraven Pass and the Hayden Valley. I made some coffee on top of Chittenden Rd. in strong winds and snow showers at about 9,000 feet. I hit the road to look for grizzlies in the Hayden Valley and maybe the Canyon Pack.
I stopped not far beyond where Alum Cr. meets the Yellowstone and took a short walk and ran into a very interesting wolf researcher. I learned a lot from him in a short period of time including where the Canyon pack rendezvous point is which was only a couple hundred yards from where I was and within clear view. Not long after he left I watched five nervous elk run across the meadow in front of me and into the Yellowstone River where they stood and waited and watched over the timber line they had just come from. After about a half an hour of watching the eIk I saw a beautiful gray wolf trot out from the timber line and onto the meadow in front of me. The elk were clearly aware of it's presence. Five minutes later a black wolf and two pups came out from the timber and essentially traced the same route the first gray wolf took. Ten or so minutes later another black wolf appeared and took the same route as well. I watched the five of them meet up and play for about an hour or so.
After leaving the Canyon pack I took off to scout out a fishing spot on the Yellowstone and came across a large grizzly. I was able to capture some images of it due to it's close proximity to me. I also saw another grizzly earlier today from a distance through my binos on the Lamar River. What a day!
Above are more iPhone images from today...
In 1938 the building I am staying in was the second largest log building in the country. I am the only person staying in this two story monster. Every floor board creaks. When I walked in to the main store this AM, Matt, the attendant asked with a smile how many ghosts I had seen the night before. "That building makes some spooky sounds and especially when you are alone. There are apparently ghosts in there. I won't sleep in that building."
On the fishing front, I fished Slough Cr and Soda Butte today. Slough Cr was tough. Windy and cold and zero hatch. I got three cutts to eat a green drake cripple. Soda Butte on the other hand was good. Discerning cutts fed on the surface until the light got too dark. We caught good sized cutts on #18 # 20 baetis. A herd of bison moved across Soda Butte as we fished. They are in rutt and apparently a bull died about five days ago in the Hayden Valley and there were at one time up to eleven grizzlies feeding on the carcass.
Here are a few shots I took today with an iPhone camera. The Lamar is pictured above.
I just settled in in Silver Gate, MT just outside of the NE corner of Yellowstone. Remarkably I can post on this site and receive email but I cannot send email. It's cool here with an expected high tomorrow of around 64. Soda Butte is a bit off color from thunder showers but is still fishing well. I fished Soda Butte for about twenty minutes this evening and did quite well. More to come... Here's an image I just took with my iPhone of my room where I just discovered a few mice running around.
I am off to guide in Yellowstone for the next week. I'll be based out of the Lamar Valley and fishing the Lamar, Slough Cr, Soda Butte, Yellowstone and others. Here are two more recent images:
Callibaetis Dun:
We had a good thunderstorm last night and I was a little slow in getting out of bed. I made it out though and didn't get the shots I was looking for, but here are a few anyway...
The Big Wood River is fishing almost like the Fall. It has been fantastic with plenty of dry fly fishing starting around 9:30 or so and slowing down between 2 and 4 depending on the weather. Baetis, midges, cream craneflies, #14 tan caddis and anything else fished with a zebra below.
Thunderstorm brewing and moving in:
Sun through the cottonwoods on the Big Wood River near Ketchum:
Back light and sun rays on the Big Wood.
Here are a few long exposures from this evening on the Big Wood:
Here are a few images from today on Stalker Creek. Hoppers and damsel flies and callibaetis. Today really was my first day of the season watching fish eat hoppers on at least a semi regular basis. As we cruise into September the callibaetis and hopper fishing should get better and better at Silver Creek.
Callibaetis Spinner:
Here are a few recent wildflower images and one more North Fork of The Big Wood:
I am still sorting through hundreds of brown drake images I captured in mid June. I just came across this one that I had passed over many times.
On a fishing note, with our cooler weather the Big Wood is fishing about as well as it could in August. I was on the Wood just about all day today and saw many rising fish! Thanks to our wet Spring and coupled with our cooler weather, things should stay quite good. Think smaller patterns like #18 parachute adams, #16 PMD's and the standard tungsten zebra midge dropper.
June on Silver Creek:
Just a single image of common yarrow:
So here are a few images of some of the bugs and animals I have seen in the last couple of days. Yes, the crawdad pics are from the Lost River. I came across a family collecting buckets of them for an Idaho crawdad feast.
Here's an image I captured today at the Trail Creek beaver ponds just outside of Sun Valley. I was looking for something I liked and atypical for wildlife/moose pictures. I handheld this shot at 200 mm for 1/5 of a second with the exposure comp. dialed down .7 of a stop. It's a bit dreamy... and I kinda like it.
Here are a few more shots of the North Fork of the Wood but this time in color. The color on the wings of the spruce moth is quite remarkable.
Through college as an English Major I kept a small journal of quotes that caught my attention and every now and again I'll post a quote. Here's one I think about often: "Those who walk slowly can, if they follow the right path, go much farther than those who run rapidly in the wrong direction." --Descartes
And that brings to mind the Yogi Berra predicament: "Hey, Yogi. I think we are lost." Yogi's response, "Yeah, but we are making good time."
Then, in My Other Life, by Paul Theroux: "If you don't care where you are, you're not lost."
Just capping off a non guide day. Spent last night camping with my two sons and had a magnificent time. Lots of sugar and good campfire talk. Witnessed a prolific spruce moth flight. While technically these bugs are not water born and do not emerge like other aquatic insects in a trout's diet, they do spend time on and near the water and are when available after mid-morning often devoured by hungry trout. Small rainbows on the North Fork of the Big Wood took advantage of these large bugs around 9 AM. Fish sat in corners and nooks and spots I would never have thought there would be fish. I have plenty of pics to post over the next few days...
North Fork Big Wood Spruce Moth:
Campfire Smores:
Here's an image of a Great Blue Heron track I saw today. I also saw a cast of kestrels. Say that 5 times fast! I saw 5 kestrels within twenty or so yards of one another which I have never seen before. Pretty amazing falcon and small too. I also saw a parliament of owls in a spot where I usually do, a lone bat in the middle of the day, a tidings of magpies, a kettle of nighthawks and of course an unkindness of ravens. While I did see a single great blue heron here and there, I never saw a siege (a group of herons is a siege).
The GBH track:
So it's August and it's not fishing like August due in large part to our wet and cool Spring. Water levels are great and temps are cooler than normal. Just about everything we have in our local area seems to be fishing well except for perhaps our higher elevation water, like the Copper Basin, that has been seeing quite a bit of pressure and quite a bit a fish harvesting. Without a doubt, taking of limits in the Copper Basin area has greatly impacted the fishing. It would be great to have catch and release up there. We'll see... Here are a few from the last 3 or so days:
Lower Lost Cottonwoods:
Stonefly shucks on the Lower Lost:
Here are a few more trico shots. I'll be on Silver Creek tomorrow and will hopefully have a few more.