After the Flood

What an opening act.  Two weeks ago, as the Yellowstone River sent a 100-year torrent of muddy water right into the creeks, I never thought I'd see this day this on this trip.  Remnants of the high water are way up the banks beyond imagination, reaching the lunch shack at the parking lot.  Yet, the creek is now a little scoured out, still has bug life, and a bunch of bigger fish I don't remember in these numbers.  The hatch was light, but adequate enough to keep fish up.  The trout numbers seem a little lower, but maybe some Yellowstone River fish have found a new home?  The water level is shallower in the main parking lot pool, but the log jam on river-left is gone and the banks are a little wider and less vegetated.  So the changes are noticeable, but not near as significant as I feared.

I had a banner morning on quality fish that were easy to see and stalk in shallower water with fewer weeds to block my vision.  It's amazing how all the pain goes away during those moments when I have a feeding fish in sight, its larger than those around it, I'm locked into making the right drift with the right fly, and I get the eat.  The combination of warm sun on the shoulders and icy water on my feet helps too.  Imagine what I could have done had I been able to fish more than a few hours, moved around more, and not missed/lost the number I did.  It was still a great morning.

The bank pictured on the right here, above the riffle, is brushed back.

Shallower and slower moving.  Not many fish up here this year.

This is the bank with all the big fish.

Lots of bigger browns

Bob's Ant pre-hatch baby!

Not color enhanced!

Just enough 

What's left of a PHD emerger.

Visibility was great in bright sun and lower water

It's wider here

Two guys above me in the riffle, one at the bottom way below me.  I had a ton of room in the prime run.

Had a sparse spinnerbfall towards evening

Evening Brown

The evening fly

I took three, count 'em three, of these flies from a large rainbow.  One of the parachutes was in another fish.  +4 on flies today, even with 6X all day.