Most people probably don't think of Idaho or Montana first when they think of taking a vacation. What could be so awesome about a bunch of potatoes and cows. Well, actually looking at both of these seemingly mundane things for acres and acres, you gain an appreciation for the farmers who provide food stuffs for the rest of us(or at least I do). Even if you don't have a sense of amazement from the rolling fields, it is impossible to look over miles of land with snow-capped mountains in the distance and not be awe-stuck. It truly is a beautiful and under-appreciated area.
So this is where BML, RBDII, and RBDIII, and I went to celebrate a few birthdays and to just generally have a great time. We went to the same location last year and had an incredible time, so we were all pumped to get back and 'rip some lip'.
We had been warned that the weather was a little shaky, but when we arrived, it was perfect, so clearly we(I) thought that it would stay that way...
Day 1 of fishing:
"I don't think the heavy stuffs gunna come down for quite a while"
Cold. Like, really cold. We drove down to the put-in spot for the drift boats and geared up for a cold, but awesome day of fishing. Then it started to mist. I was concerned. Mist was followed by rain. I was quickly miserable. Like, so miserable that, without my asking, our guide brought out a skull cap and a couple pairs of gloves for me. Now, you can't really fly-fish with gloves on, but, today, you could.
Thankfully RBDIII caught a fish fairly early on in the ordeal, so that certainly lightened the mood a little, since we knew we wouldn't be shut out. At one point, I had to literally take a break from fishing to sit down and warm my hands. Which may or may not have been directly linked to the fact, that I too had caught a fish and stuck my hands into the icy water to retrieve it for a picture.
Finally it stopped raining, which was awesome. It was still real cold. We all caught some fish, which was great, and we finished the drift at about 3. Some(BML and RBDII) thought we were done for the day. Au contraire mon frere. We went back to the shop to drop off the boats and headed to "The Outlet". Oh yeah, when we stopped, it started to snow. No lie. Snow.
The Outlet was pretty awesome. I found a little honey hole and was just crushing fish(As were others, but I was mainly concerned about me). Totally made up for being miserable for the first 2/3 of the day.
Day 2:
"We are fishing today my friends"
Well, the morning weather wasn't much better on the second day of our adventure. However, we were all pretty excited for what was in store. The plan was to head into Yellowstone and fish what is called "Firehole", named for it's "warm" water. (Sidenote, there was some warm water, it just wasn't the water we were thigh deep in)
The drive from our place to the "put-in" was pretty long, but most of it was interesting once we got into the park. The Buffalo were walking literally in the road for part of the way, and didn't even have the courtesy to have their "wide load" signs and light on. But, I digress. We pulled over on the side of the road (no lie) and geared up to hike to our first location. As we hiked the mile plus to the river, we spotted a lone Buffalo just kinda hanging out. It caught us by surprise (or at least it did me. I wasn't interested in being "Buffalo'ed")
I was fishing pretty terribly early, so when we took an early lunch, I was not disappointed. After lunch, everyone went back to fishing, but I took a little cat-nap, because I needed to rest up and refocus for the remainder of the day. Our guide was kind enough to document my nap for me.
We bounced around to a few other spots in Yellowstone, which was just really cool. It was interesting/hilarious the looks we got from other tourists who couldn't believe we were just parking and walking into the water. High comedy. I think everyone managed to at least catch a couple fish along the way, so it was a highly successful day when you couple the fishing with the incredible landscape.
Day 3:
"The Sun'll come out, tomorrow"
Blue skies and warm weather. What a great day to finish off a great trip. Well, it wasn't exactly warm early in the day, as I still had on most of my "warm-weather gear" but, it certainly looked like it might warm up as the day went on. I will admit, I struggled early in day 3 as well. Just not a fast started I guess. I was pretty impressed with my ability to get my lures out of snags. I was told to cast aggressively, so I did. Really tried to get under those trees, in tight to the bank, and let the drift run a little closer to rocks than normal. Of course, right as our guide would say, "Ok, this is a great bank, we need both guys casting good here." Dad and I would inevitably both get hung up. It happened often, it was kinda funny, but mostly not.
Dad was able to rip some monsters from the depth, as I, the birthday boy (one of them) was shut out. Pretty much got no-hit by the fish during drift number one. The good news was that it was warm enough to strip down to a normal t-shirt, which I was happy about.
We drove over to the next spot and stopped for lunch prior to launching for drift number two of the day. I little while into the drift, I decided to crack open a birthday beverage. I figured, if I'm not going to catch any fish, might as well have an ice-cold (not really) bevey to enjoy. Well, as soon as I popped that top, I managed to land a few fish. All they needed was for me to have some liquid refreshment. Come on get in my boat, fish. Come on and get in my boat, fish fish. (You either got that or you didn't. If you did, you think I'm hilarious. If you didn't - well, you might still do) Sadly, my run was short-lived and not a great many fish were caught that day by me. Though my back-seat partner managed to grab himself a good number.
OH. This happened earlier, and I forgot to mention it, but the Dallas Mavericks gave me a great early birthday present by staging an incredo-comeback in game 2 of the NBA finals. Like, super incredo. I was pretty pumped to say the least.
Anywho. That about "sums up" the fishing trip. I did leave dinners etc out, because well, it would have been way longer than it already is, and there are only two places to eat there, and both are really just OK. Although I did have some delicious ribs night number one.
I hoped you enjoyed reading about out journey. I'll try and make the next post happen sooner than later, and certainly a bit shorter.
As our guide Dan would say: tight lines,
MD
