America's First National Park

[mtnguru]

Howdy sports fans!

I'm taking a vacation in September with the wife up to Yellowstone for 12 days and would love a little assistance. There are thousands of miles of blue lines and I would love a little direction if anyone has suggestions. I know it's a massive park, we're doing our best to see most of it in that time and will be traveling all over the park.

Additionally, she and some of my family have graciously gifted me with a day of guiding while we're out there so if anyone has had any experience with guides in the area that they enjoyed, that would be fantastic. I've never been guided before, so this will be my first trip.

Thanks for any input folks, I appreciate the help.

Chris

[planettrout]

This is the hatch chart for the Yellowstone area from Blue Ribbon Flies:



A couple of things to consider, especially this year:

Low water and fishing restrictions, road closures in YNP, weather and be prepared for crowds, even in September. No felt and no lead in the Park.

Road closures:

https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/parkroads.htm

I would suggest Blue Ribbon Flies for guiding. They are in West Yellowstone. Get on their weekly Email list:

https://www.blueribbonflies.com


PT/TB

[mtnguru]

Thank you for info and guide recommendations, I’ll check them out!

[John Harper]

Good luck. My sister and her husband are going there about the same time. I had 3 out of 4 cutthroats but just couldn't swing the trip into Yellowstone for the 4th species and my Wyoming Cutt Slam. I just imagined lines of cars and a fisherman every 10 yards, where I had fished every other water without signs of others. I need to do more planning to nab that one species.

I absolutely killed it for two weeks using a Green Drake in #12 or #14. I just grabbed it because it looked kinda cool and I have a box of flies I've spent money on and never even tied on. The Green Drake just beat the pants off the EHC, PA, and Black Ant.

Between the blue damselfy (at the CWL) and Green Drake pattern in Wyoming, I released at least 150 trout over 2 1/2 weeks, just phenomenal fishing.

John

[tomsakai]

Chris here’s a series of shorter itineraries that I found last week. Thinking about a short trip end of September.

https://www.earthtrekkers.com/yellowsto ... llowstone/

[DarkShadow]

Loooooooooove YNP. There are a few of my reports in the Rocky Mountain section of this website.

Depending on how long this summer is gonna last, September should be a good time since the waters that warm up too much during the summer can be fished again, like the Firehole.

If you're going to be there 12 days, that should be enough to get on some fish!

I have thousands of tips, but I'll give you a good one. Park at Tower and hike down the Yellowstone. If the terrestrial bite is still going on, you're gonna have a blast hopper dropping.

And remember! 95% of people that visit YNP never step off the pavement It pays to hike a bit. For example, on the Lamar, I would hit the areas FURTHEST away from the road. Just watch out for buffalo and their crap.

[WatchinTheWater]

A short hike up the Lamar or Slough Creek found me some nice water of my very own except for some stubborn bison refusing to move off the trail.
Happy Fishin”
WTW

[mtnguru]

Thanks again! It seems that the hoot owl is in full effect now, so I'll have to get in my fishing in early, water temp depending.

[John Harper]

Thanks again! It seems that the hoot owl is in full effect now, so I'll have to get in my fishing in early, water temp depending.

I read about the new restrictions yesterday. I'd never heard the term "hoot owl restrictions" before. An old loggers term, I guess.

John

[rayfound]

Dude, have fun Chris. We did Yellowstone last summer and it was fabulous. With kids in tow, it wasn't the best fishing situation for me, but I managed to toss a few flies.

But my god, the park is just so expansive and unique. We had good success at the major attractions late in the evenings... they were beautiful and everyone had already departed for the day so we had many stops to ourselves.