Change in plans

Sunday, after we had driven off from the shop, for no apparent reason, we suddenly decided to go float the Yellowstone instead of the Madison. I don’t know why. We always float the Madison. We didn’t even know floating the Yellowstone was an option. But Rick offered it, and always glad for a new opportunity, we jumped at it. Rick turned around, we each picked up our National Park passes, Rick changed the truck and trailer shuttle, and off we charged into Yellowstone National Park through the West entrance. We had a scenic drive through the park and popped out the North entrance at Mammoth. A few more miles downriver, past the biggest of the rapids, and we were at the put-in for a flyfishing float.

What an experience it was! Fast and slow water, like the Madison, but faster when it was fast. We went through rapids in the Mackenzie boat that river rafters were also going through “woo-hooing”. The quiet sections were wonderful to fish. The water was clearer, so we could see approaching fish more easily. Dry flies; we’re fishing on the surface. Sometimes the strike of a trout is just a sudden splash, and the fish is missed because the person at the other end of the line wasn’t ready. But sometimes, with a little clearer water so there is advance warning, the fisherman can time the hit as the fish comes up, so the fish is on, time after time. That’s what we got: fish after fish. Rainbows, browns, cutthroat, cutbows, and even a few (but very few) mountain whitefish.

Rick has a lot to do while Judy and I are fishing. He puts the boat in the right position for our casts while we’re going downstream, and talks to us about where the fish most likely are. Of course this is constantly changing because the boat is drifting downstream at considerable speed. Once one of us get a fish on, things change. Now Rick not only has to manage the boat in fast moving water, he also has to put us in position to land the fish, and net it when we get it close.
Late in the day, Judy had a fish on, and I started talking about “doubling up”; making Rick’s job even harder by Judy and I both getting a fish on at the same time. At that moment, it happened. While Judy was working her fish in toward the boat with some difficulty, I announced that I had one on too, so we had doubled him up. Rick’s response? Wrong! It wasn’t a double, it was a triple! It turned out Judy had *two* fish on. We were fishing with two flies each; a smaller fly tied about 2½ feet below the larger fly. We couldn’t tell until she got the fish in close to the boat that the reason it was so difficult to bring in was because there was another even larger fish underneath!

We finished the day with three doubles and a triple.

The weather continues wonderful even if a little cold in the mornings. We wake up to temperatures in the thirties, but warm up to high seventies during the day until the afternoon thunderstorm. We’re at an elevation of 6,500 feet, getting a forty degree temperature swing each day.

Not only did we catch lots of fish, but Rick helped us watch for birds while we were watching our flies and fish. We got another twenty-five birds to go with the five we got yesterday.

The fearsome threesome. Fisher birders.