West '05 Trip - Day 17

Posted: 2006-04-07
By: Randy Cochran

I hate the word 'Phenomenal.' People use it to the point of overuse, to where it becomes meaningless hyperbole when discussing things as mundane as chicken soup or some damn automobile's get-up-and-go. Whatever.

Well, the fishing happened to be - here I go, I know I said I hated it, but it applies - PHENOMENAL this day.

I skipped off the Gallatin to try an area reservoir rumored to hold Grayling and Yellowstone cutts in abundance and size. Since I had fished the Gallatin at length in 2004, I felt comfortable leaving the beautifully perfect canyon (aside from all the goofy condominomization) in favor of promising new waters.

The decision payed off ten-fold. I didn't land tons of fish, but those that I did land were solid bruisers, none under 17", save for a small brookie near one inlet stream. The largest of the day would be 21"; all, aside from the brookie, were Yellowstone cutts in beautiful ballroom attire.

It started out like this: walking along the top of the dam, I could look down and see some very sizeable trout cruising the shorelines and rising every so often to some kind of whatchamacallits that I couldn't make out from such a lofty perch. That kind of activity led to a scurried, giddy rush down the dam's boulder strewn slope in hopes of tangling with what my eagle eyes did spy.

A beauty of 19" or so was first after a few casts. I nearly stopped right then, thinking that it couldn't get any better. The next few fish proved me well wrong. It went on like that all day, with a few fish even bopping my indicator a good one. The only things missing were grayling, if they're still in there.