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Railroad Ranch

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Hawkeye 
#1 ·
We just got back from a fishing trip up around Yellowstone and had a pretty good time. We fished the Firehole in the park for two full days and hammered the fish on caddis soft hackles. The water was 78 F around the geysers, finished the day with a soak in the river where hot water mixed with the cooler river. The Madison did not give up many trout the next day, i landed a healthy 18" bow but that was it. I can say that whitefish love prince nymphs. We were hesitant to fork over $80 to fish Armstrongs the next day but did it anyway and were glad that we did. It was between the beatis and PMD hatch so the fishing was subsurface. Again the fish took soft hackles this time mayfly patterns, but instead of being 12" fish like we caught on the Firehole they were 16 to 20" fish. My friend had an epic day landing close to 30 fish. Back to the Madison near ennis the next day to try to find the salmon flies without much luck. The weather was turning foul and that put the hatch down, however the PMD's came off well and I managed a bunch of dinkers on dry flies. We fished the Gallitin for a couple of hours the next day and again caddis was the order for the day. I had lots of stuff in my box from the Mother's day caddis hatch that did the trick. Wednesday we woke to a foot of wet snow so i tied flies and Thursday we headed to Henry's Fork for the opener of the railroad ranch. I had my best three hours of fishing ever that evening. I fished the Flavalina hatch below ashton dam and caught big fish on all stages of the hatch from nymph to spinner. Three fish took me into my backing one did it two times. Do they make fighting butts for a 5 weight. Friday June 15 was the opener at Harriman and we fished to a blanket PMD hatch all morning. I found a fish feeding head to tail in a big flat crowded with people catching nothing. I crawled up to the Fish on my knees, chest deep in water and waited to learn his pattern. After about 10 min he took a 18 PMD emerger and turned out to be over 20 inches long with substantial girth. That was the only fish i took in the slow flat water that day but what a memory. That night back to the Flavs for another awesome time. Our last day on the water was much slower, i lost a huge fish in the flats, spent most of the day walking around just enjoying the scenery, took a nap in the afternoon by the river, and got skunked fishing the huge size six brown drake hatch. This week it was back to reality. Cheers
 
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#2 ·
Brad -

Sounds like you had an AWESOME time. If you take any pictures I would love to start a western trout photo gallery. Gerry Frederick just over the border has some great photos from the Canadian rockies as well, and Pete from Calgary has sent me some gorgeous images that would complement any portfolio.

Thanks and keep the western trout reports coming!
 
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