West '05 Trip - Day 20

Posted: 2006-04-27
By: Randy Cochran

Got up early today and did some hiking around, trying to find a spring pond listed at a nearby location to my camp. It didn't pan out, unfortunately. Such failures only make success that much sweeter, and because of this notion I was able to shrug off an hour of traipsing through brambles to enthusiastically wander toward that which would hopefully become sugary.

Over to Daily Lake I went, but it was much too windy to fish. It did look pretty good, however.

Searching out tributaries on a map is one of my favorite things to do; heck, searching maps for anything, even that region's highest peak, floats my boat like you wouldn't believe. Yes, I should probably seek help.

So I searched and searched, and eventually found a nice little creek nearby in a very pretty canyon. Fire scars were evident in great lengths of the canyon, yet rather than disgust, they served as a rugged reminder of the cyclical nature of things. Which in itself can be fairly beautiful, if you don't get scared by the prospect of your own place in the cycle, which I sometimes do.

Enough of that for now, though. I should be telling you about how the fishing was, eh? This is a fly fishing site, after all.

Well, the fishing was just dandy. I managed a few browns, one of which happened to be among the most beautiful fish I've ever laid eyes on, and a couple Yellowstone cutts. All were released back to the water to do what they do. Swim, eat, reproduce, get eaten or die. There's that cycle again.

Speaking of cycles, today I headed back to another creek that I visited last year. It is one that receives a fair amount of pressure, and for good reason. It is the epitome of a freestone pocketwater stream. It is also fairly treacherous to fish in a few places, so paths and footholds need to be chosen with utmost of care.

I fished there for a couple hours, spooking more than I caught due to bright conditions, and possibly a bumbling fog brought on by another night in the car. All cutts or cuttbows this time, no browns. Not really surprising, considering the water type and how high up in the canyon I was.

What I really wanted to do was to stay until dusk to throw big, bushy dries over those fellas, but instead I finished the day at the Yellowstone. A few small cutts and then it was off to Livingston for goods and back to Mallard's Rest for camp.

Somewhere along the way, ma nature came through and provided me with a few photo opps that I couldn't pass up. The day ended up pretty sweet after all.