Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Junger · Aug-26-20 7:53AM

My family went to West Yellowstone for a week, and even though I shipped out some spinning rods for my kids, and my BFS UL set up, I didn't plan on doing any serious fishing there because we had a busy itinerary. During the week, I drove us all over Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. By Thursday, my wife took pity on me for all the driving and corralling of 4 boys between 7-10 years old and told me to book a full day trout trip with my brother in law. I made a few calls, and it worked out to where a guide met us out at the Madison River.

We started at 8AM, and neither of us had fly fished before, so we went over some basics. The previous couple days were blue bird skies, but today was really hazy, either from some local fires or the CA fires, I'm not sure. So our guide said he thought nymph set ups would be best. That worked well, especially since we had strike indicators on and it really helped us detect a fish. The bites were so fast, we probably lost 10 fish in the first hour or so because we weren't fast enough to set the hook. We were also using barbless hooks, our guide was very keen on catch, and survival release, he was meticulous with wetting hands, handling, etc.

My BIL and I finally started getting the strike indicator hook set properly and we both started catching lots of small rainbows. I hook into something big and it's fighting hard and I let it fight the rod for a good bit as our guide is moving the boat to a safer spot.
It ended up being a 14" whitefish which I have never heard of, but we caught a couple more of these and they fight HARD!

Funniest hook set of the day was my BIL, he saw the strike indicator go down, and he immediately jacked up the rod for the hook set and a 5" trout goes flying by our heads, quick release! He got the best brown trout of the day, at about 12".

Told my guide, I really liked topwater so he put me on a rod with hoppers. The sun was out a little more, but that was because the wind had picked up to 30mph gusts which cleared up the haze a little. I threw it for the last hour of the float, and saw several trout come up but not commit to the lures. The float ended at 3:30PM, and we were satisfied, it was a fun trip. I could see myself getting into fly fishing, but between bass gear, BFS gear, and whiskey, I don't think my wife would like it if I picked up another expensive hobby.

Here is a picture of the funnest thing we did as a family....Class 2 rapids!

Last edited by Junger (Aug-26-20 7:54AM)

Curly · Aug-26-20 8:01AM

Sounds like a great trip!

hookup · Aug-26-20 11:33AM

Beautiful area - glad to see you got out for fish

captmikestarrett · Aug-26-20 2:42PM

Fly fishing..I only have 8 rods and 10 reels.

Capt Mike

Ernie · Aug-27-20 6:22AM

Great family trip!!

Do NOT get into fly fishing. Next time you are over, I can show you the dozen rods and thousands of flies I have that only occasionally get used.

BTW, looks like we will be doing a HS tourney in Oct. Will practice safe distance protocols but no food.

drxfish · Aug-27-20 6:33AM

Looks like a great family trip and a bucket list trout trip to boot. Congrats!

firemunkee · Aug-27-20 12:20PM

That looks awesome! I hope to fish out there one day

GregF · Aug-30-20 7:01AM

Wife and I just decided to do a Yellowstone trip next fall, including a dude ranch with fly fishing. Sounds like you guys had a great time. And confirmed my fear of spending the entire trip driving! A lot of country out there. Did you camp or hotel it in Yellowstone?

Junger · Aug-30-20 8:37AM

GregF wrote:
Wife and I just decided to do a Yellowstone trip next fall, including a dude ranch with fly fishing. Sounds like you guys had a great time. And confirmed my fear of spending the entire trip driving! A lot of country out there. Did you camp or hotel it in Yellowstone?

We stayed about 20 minutes from West Yellowstone here: 4278 Mountain View Dr, Island Park, ID 83429

My take on lodging: West Yellowstone is like Las Vegas, lots of lights, hotels, a casino/bar, but lots of amenities at your fingertips, and is also probably the most central located to everything. Gardiner is the north entrance, farther away from the south loop, but less crowded than West Yellowstone. It felt a lot more family friendly here, kind of like a sleepy beach town. There are some lodging inside the park, but some are closed due to COVID, but in the bigger village areas, like Grant Village, you can camp or RV, and you have plenty of amenities, like a general store that will have it all, including liquor!

Spring is better to see grizzlies, summer for the bison rut, and fall for the elk rut. We saw a ton of bison, and a few dozen elk. Yellowstone is huge, it's the size of Connecticut or something, so don't try to do it all in one day. We paid for a tour out of West Yellowstone, it was pretty awesome and well worth it. It was a really nice limo bus where 3/4 of the windows/roof slid open so we rode around in open air. That trip took us through the whole north loop and we stopped at all the features. We did the south loop on our own in the course of two days.

The Tetons are about 2.5 hours away and you can drive through SE Yellowstone to get there, the scenic route. Definitely worth going and lots of areas to check out and picnic or hike.

There are pullovers everywhere in Yellowstone, so always carry your fly rod and waders, some places looked super fishy, but my spinning gear and lead weighted in line spinners were not permitted.

Last edited by Junger (Aug-30-20 8:43AM)

hookup · Aug-30-20 11:47AM

Junger wrote:
but my spinning gear and lead weighted in line spinners were not permitted.

Was your spinning rod not permitted?

Or the lead & trebles from the in lines?

Junger · Aug-30-20 3:57PM

hookup wrote:
Junger wrote:
but my spinning gear and lead weighted in line spinners were not permitted.
Was your spinning rod not permitted?

Or the lead & trebles from the in lines?

It's all very complex, some sections of some rivers are wade only, some are fly only, some are lead free only. I got yelled at by a guy on a float on part of the Snake River with my casting gear. I was told to go to a ranger station for better info. I just kind of gave up and booked the fly fishing float trip.

GregF · Sep-11-20 3:15PM

Thanks for the info. Definitely going to have to do some research to figure out what to fish with. May have to start working on the wife to do a guided trip with me.

Paul Naj · Sep-13-20 6:17PM

Ernie wrote:
Great family trip!!

Do NOT get into fly fishing. Next time you are over, I can show you the dozen rods and thousands of flies I have that only occasionally get used.

I can verify this. My first fly fishing experience was wading the Madison River in April 2019. I now own 6 fly rods and reels and tie many of my own flies.

I’m actually returning to Montana on October 1st and we are fishing the Madison on the 2nd, Yellowstone on the 3rd and The Gallatin on other days. Can’t wait!

Paul Naj · Sep-13-20 6:21PM

GregF wrote:
Thanks for the info. Definitely going to have to do some research to figure out what to fish with. May have to start working on the wife to do a guided trip with me.

Greg, hit me up, I’ve done a ton of research and happy to share some ideas with you.

GregF · Oct-03-20 7:02AM

Paul, just saw your response. Will email you. Thanks for the offer.

Pacemaker Fishing Forum

#1 Aug-26-20 7:53AM

Madison River, MO 8/21/20

#2 Aug-26-20 8:01AM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

#3 Aug-26-20 11:33AM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

#4 Aug-26-20 2:42PM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

#5 Aug-27-20 6:22AM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

#6 Aug-27-20 6:33AM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

#7 Aug-27-20 12:20PM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

#8 Aug-30-20 7:01AM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

#9 Aug-30-20 8:37AM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

GregF wrote:

#10 Aug-30-20 11:47AM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

Junger wrote:

#11 Aug-30-20 3:57PM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

hookup wrote:

Junger wrote:

#12 Sep-11-20 3:15PM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

#13 Sep-13-20 6:17PM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

Ernie wrote:

#14 Sep-13-20 6:21PM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

GregF wrote:

#15 Oct-03-20 7:02AM

Re: Madison River, MO 8/21/20

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