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Fun fish on the Firehole



By Troutnut on June 30th, 2019
On June 30th, we got a late start from our campground outside the park near the bug-factory Madison and drove up the Firehole valley, a surreal hotbed of steaming springs and geysers lining a fertile trout stream that winds through meadows and sparse pine forest. Given the late start, we didn't want to fish the warm water downstream of most of the geyser basins, and we certainly didn't want to join the inevitable crowds in the meadows where the river approaches the road. So we found an inconspicuous pulloff with a bit of a hike through the forest to reach the river and started fishing.

Although it's not as unique as fishing the meadows with plumes of geyser steam rising in the background, this forested reach of the Firehole was greatly charming in its own way. Pools were deep, with big logs for structure, and they all contained numerous fish. To say the fish were easy would give them too little credit, because splashy refusals were more common than true strikes, but they were feeding actively and opportunistically and we had a lot of fun catching small to mid-sized browns and the occasional rainbow.

We worked our way upstream into a more open meadow stretch, far enough from the road to not be crowded. Fish were easy enough to find there, too, and we alternated between stalking from the bank and wading through the middle of the river casting to the cut banks. A good mix of bugs around made attractor (Attractor: Flies not designed to imitate any particular insect, but to incorporate characteristics attractive to trout. When trout aren't feeding selectively, attractors often outperform careful imitations as searching patterns because they are easier to see and incorporate more strike-triggering characteristics. They include legends like the Adams, Bivisible, and Royal Wulff.) dries as good a choice as any.

Eventually the river carried us closer to the road and other anglers, so we drove up to the Little Firehole to try our luck in some cooler water during the hottest part of the day. A few small browns responded and we enjoyed the smaller water for a while, but toward evening we went back to fish a different forested reach.

The dominant evening hatch rolled through a couple different species of caddisflies, primarily the Leptocerids that had been common elsewhere in the area for the last couple days. Fly shops were talking of the "white miller" hatch but these seemed to be a close relative instead. The fish that were eagerly smacking all manner of dry flies early in the afternoon were now rising more frequently but becoming more difficult to catch on dries. They were chasing the egg-laying adults and generally rejected anything on a dead-drift (Dead-drift: The manner in which a fly drifts on the water when not moving by itself or by the influence of a line. Trout often prefer dead-drifting prey and imitating the dead-drift in tricky currents is a major challenge of fly fishing.). I tried a variety of caddis dries and only drew strikes when I managed to impart particularly realistic action in just the right places.

As evening progressed the riseforms changed and seemed to suggest the pursuit of subsurface pupae, so we changed to soft-hackles and started catching fish again. Later in the evening that action subsided and fish were again taking a hard-to-discern mix of prey, so I just bounced between a bunch of dry flies I can't even remember and managed to fool a few fish somewhere along the way.

Photos by Troutnut from the Firehole River and the Little Firehole River in Wyoming

 From the Firehole River in Wyoming.
StateWyoming
Date TakenJun 30, 2019
Date AddedJul 17, 2019
AuthorTroutnut
CameraCanon EOS 7D Mark II
 From the Firehole River in Wyoming.
StateWyoming
Date TakenJun 30, 2019
Date AddedJul 17, 2019
AuthorTroutnut
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
 From the Firehole River in Wyoming.
StateWyoming
Date TakenJun 30, 2019
Date AddedJul 17, 2019
AuthorTroutnut
CameraCanon EOS 7D Mark II
 From the Firehole River in Wyoming.
StateWyoming
Date TakenJun 30, 2019
Date AddedJul 17, 2019
AuthorTroutnut
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
 From the Firehole River in Wyoming.
StateWyoming
Date TakenJun 30, 2019
Date AddedJul 17, 2019
AuthorTroutnut
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
 From the Firehole River in Wyoming.
StateWyoming
Date TakenJun 30, 2019
Date AddedJul 17, 2019
AuthorTroutnut
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
 From the Firehole River in Wyoming.
StateWyoming
Date TakenJun 30, 2019
Date AddedJul 17, 2019
AuthorTroutnut
CameraCanon EOS 7D Mark II
Little Firehole From the Little Firehole River in Wyoming.
Little Firehole
StateWyoming
Date TakenJun 30, 2019
Date AddedJul 17, 2019
AuthorTroutnut
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
 From the Firehole River in Wyoming.
StateWyoming
Date TakenJun 30, 2019
Date AddedJul 17, 2019
AuthorTroutnut
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
 From the Firehole River in Wyoming.
StateWyoming
Date TakenJun 30, 2019
Date AddedJul 17, 2019
AuthorTroutnut
CameraCanon EOS 7D Mark II
 From the Firehole River in Wyoming.
StateWyoming
Date TakenJun 30, 2019
Date AddedJul 17, 2019
AuthorTroutnut
CameraNIKON 1 AW1

Closeup insects by Troutnut from the Madison River in Montana

Female Sweltsa (Sallflies) Stonefly AdultFemale Sweltsa (Sallflies) Stonefly Adult View 8 PicturesThese stoneflies--abundant during midday--seemed at first to be flying around with plain yellow bodies, but on closer inspection turn out to have striking, fiery red abdomens. This one keys out to albertensis, gaufini, or lambda, but the key (Baumann et al 1977) doesn't include all current species.

Collected June 30, 2019 from the Madison River in Montana
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on July 17, 2019
Female Sweltsa fidelis (Sallfly) Stonefly AdultFemale Sweltsa fidelis (Sallfly) Stonefly Adult View 5 PicturesIn Baumann's Stoneflies of the Rocky Mountains, this specimen keys to Sweltsa fidelis, but the number of species in that key is fairly small and it might not be accurate.

Collected June 30, 2019 from the Madison River in Montana
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on July 17, 2019
Hydropsyche (Spotted Sedges) Caddisfly AdultHydropsyche (Spotted Sedges) Caddisfly Adult View 11 PicturesI haven't keyed this specimen out, but I am instead placing it in Hydropsyche based on the striking visual similarity to this one, which I did key out.

Collected June 30, 2019 from the Madison River in Montana
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on July 17, 2019
Male Hydropsyche occidentalis (Spotted Sedge) Caddisfly AdultMale Hydropsyche occidentalis (Spotted Sedge) Caddisfly Adult View 6 PicturesDave Ruiter identified this specimen from pictures as Hydropsyche occidentalis.

Collected June 30, 2019 from the Madison River in Montana
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on July 17, 2019
Male Leptoceridae Caddisfly AdultMale Leptoceridae  Caddisfly Adult View 6 Pictures
Collected June 30, 2019 from the Madison River in Montana
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on July 17, 2019
Leptoceridae Caddisfly AdultLeptoceridae  Caddisfly Adult View 7 Pictures
Collected June 30, 2019 from the Madison River in Montana
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on July 17, 2019

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