Time: 3:00PM – 4:00PM

Location: Mill Creek Road Bridge

Yellowstone River 08/18/2018 Photo Album

On our way back to the cabin Steve and I decided to check out the crude boat launch area next to Mill Creek Road, where it crosses the Yellowstone River. The sky was black, and the wind gusted, and light rain began to fall, as we strolled down the potholed ramp. I wore my raincoat, and we began fishing on the north side of the bridge. The Chernobyl ant, hares ear, and ultra zug bug remained on my line from Mill Creek, and the configuration included a short two foot dropper.

I was skeptical that I could produce results along the edge of the huge Yellowstone River, and I suggested to Steve that I would be happy with a whitefish. I ignored the main river and focused on the fifteen feet next to the bank and methodically prospected the band of water along the shoreline, until I reached the bridge. My thorough coverage and attentive casting were not rewarded.

This Fat Albert Fooled a Yellowstone River Brown Trout

By now steady rain was in progress, and the Chernobyl was difficult to track in the dim light. I made a major change and removed the three flies and replaced them with a single yellow fat Albert. Despite the worsening weather and my lack of confidence, I persisted.

A Huge Surprise

A series of sequential shelf pools appeared above the bridge, with each roughly fifteen feet wide and fifteen yards long. The river cascaded gently over some barely visible rocks at the top of each pool and then slowed  in a deeper depression. I shot a pair of casts to the center of the first pool, and the fly’s drift was unimpeded on each pass. Cast number three; however, yielded a different result. A bulge materialized in the center of the pool, and the fat Albert disappeared in a swirl. In a state of disbelief I lifted the four weight and felt a solid connection. Initially I thought I hooked a whitefish due to the subdued color of the thrashing fish, but I quickly realized that the fat Albert would not fit in the small mouth of a whitefish. After several dives and rolls I guided a sixteen inch brown trout into my net. What a surprise!

Yellowstone Beast

I eagerly progressed upstream along the bank for another thirty yards hoping for more magic, but the prize brown trout proved to be the only interested inhabitant of the Yellowstone River in the vicinity of my fly on Saturday, August 18.

Fish Landed: 1