Saturday, September 11, 2010

Yellowstone - Day 3


We finally hit the rivers today, starting with a cool and cloudy visit to the Madison. This is a fast and deep river on the west end of the park. We were just inside the boundary when I took this picture. Steve managed to get one small whitefish but the advertised big and burly trout failed to find any attraction to our gear.

After this we moved deeper into the park and stopped off at the Firehole River, just below the upper geyser basin where Old Faithful erupts and pours gallons of hot water into this river. It's odd because you can feel how warm the water is. It's very different than any other trout stream I've ever fished because of that. Apparently, at some times of the year it's almost unfishable as the warm water forces the trout deep, looking for any cool water they can find, where they hide out until fall brings cooler weather.

Lucky for us, the water and weather cooperated and we each managed a half dozen trout out of the Firehole! That's a lifetime achievment for me - fish caught in the Firehole River. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? There are two species of cutthroat here that I can't differentiate, but the two that I caught were a beautiful golden color with brililant red spots - very nice fish!

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