When I put away my waders last night I realized I was a little wet. We stopped by the fly shop, where I purchased some aquaseal and fastcure. We then drove up to the area near muleshoe bend. I figured I would repair my waders and watch the other guys fish. After about an hour, I rigged up my 4 weight and tried fishing a dry from the bank. I quickly caught 3 nice browns above the old iron bridge. I then waded down a little ways towards muleshoe. Two guys from our group were fishing a nice run on the opposite bank. The wind picked up and started blowing directly towards me, so I switched to a two bit hooked. I immediately hooked a large bow that snapped my 5x tippet. Even after he broke off, the fish continued to jump very high in the air for the next couple of minutes, apparently trying to spit the hook he had stolen from me. I tied on a lightening bug and highsticked my way to a dozen fish, with the majority being browns. Most were in the 9-12 inch range.
We then drove over to the Gibbon below the falls. Our group of four split up. I eventually headed downstream, wading the middle of the river and chucking a red ass caddis to each bank. I hooked a nice brown, but couldn't keep him on the line. I managed to catch a half dozen or more fish over the course of the next hour. We then had a couple of beers and decided to check out the evening hatch at the meadow on the Firehole. Up and until this point, I had experienced a really good day. I had landed well over 20 fish, and I thought I had it figured out. Boy was I wrong. When we got on the river the most prolific hatch of caddis I've ever seen was in full bloom. Fish were rising everywhere, sometimes within a few feet of where I was wading. I spent the next two hours trying 15 or more flies trying to get it dialed in, but without any success. Of the four of us, three of us were skunked.
