Western Clave Prep..

I'm leaving for "the area" tomorrow morning and will be in some camping
facilty somewhere between Ashton and WYellowstone by Thursday ( God willin'
and unless I decide to stop and fish a little known Idaho spring creek on
the way ) and I'll be there for at least a month ... I'll try to post MY
impressions of the current fishing a couple times before the Clave ( I'm
not a big fan of the Madison [ except in the Park ], so I won't be saying
too much about that river)

As for you specific answers to your questions ...IF you've never seen the
Park and get that close without visiting ... you are making a big mistake
.... the Park traffic exists because the Park is so damn special ... this is
the first National Park in history and that history, to me, is incredibly
important ... as much as the animals and geothermal features. Like I
refused to go through Pennsylvania without fishing the LeTort ... even
though I was told it was no longer worth fishing ... I'd feel cheated if I
had never walked, and fished and plain old "touristed" in Yellowstone,
birthplace of one of man's greatest ideas ... the fishing history in the
Park, walking and casting in the same spots as anglers whose works I've read
is also really cool

I'm a flat water, spring creek loving, hatch matching, kinda guy and The
Henry's Fork ( the HFork has ALL kinds of water, but most people mean the
Ranch when they say Henry's Fork) is one of my 3 or 4 favorite waters, BUT,
it's not a place to expect to catch a lot of fish ... unless you are very
very good or very very lucky and happen to hit exactly the right day (
mostly the 'easy days' are over by July 4th and the river is so ****ing
crowded for the various Drakes hatches that I go elsewhere and wait until
'easy days' are over to return )

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"Fish and anglers have trained each other to an elegant near-standoff: the
Henry's Fork gives up each fish with grave reluctance. I don't know of
another stream where one is more likely to go home skunked after angling
with reasonable skill among feeding fish"
-Thomas McGuane-
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and it can be crowded ... although absolute "too crowded to bother with"
time is from June 15 to roughly the 6th of July ... it will have a big
graphite hatch daily until mid-July ...Sages, Winstons and Scotts flapping
everywhere. If you are into the history of American angling, it's hard to
find an relatively modern author that hasn't come to test himself and his
patterns on the Ranch ...most left somewhat humbled


I spent two or three month long stints in Jackson over the years .... and
never found what I'd call good fishing in that immediate area .... you can
day-trip to Southern Yellowstone waters or if you wanta pay for the drift/
guide thing ... the Snake is ok and the South fork over Teton pass better
than ok .... neither is a wade fishery in July .... I don't think Flat
Creek opens until July 15th








"Mike Makela" ten.tsacmoc@alekamm wrote in message
...
Finally getting into gear with the plans for Montana. Still trying to
figure out where to spend a couple of days leading up to the official
start
date, but think it's narrowed down to one of three:

1 . Cut over to Idaho by Henry's Fork (heeding the warning of the
National
Park traffic).
2. Do some fishing around Jackson Hole for a day before slowly making my
way up through Yellowstone NP Friday Night (disregarding all warning to
take
in a few parks I have never seen).
3. Meeting up with whoever is already in town and exploring either
aimlessly, or with the expertise of someone who has some.

FYI for fellow travelers, just got a very good price on a SUV from the
8th-17th for $330 (unlimited mileage). Doesn't sound cheap, but checked
out
Expedia, Travelocity, and a few other options and couldn't find anything
under $500 for the same period.

Mike