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| Firehole Brown |
Friday, we returned to the Firehole. This time, we fished up-high on the river. It started out kind of slow for me. I decided to swing a soft hackle and for the first 1/4 mile, there was very little action. I finally worked my way down to some nice runs and caught some decent fish. The fish really turned on in the faster current and at the tail of the faster runs. I noticed the fish tended to be bunched up in certain areas. After catching 1/2 dozen, I ended up at a small waterfall on the river, that was divided by an island. I changed flies a few times and decided to high stick the water with a size 18 flashy nymph. I was immediately rewarded with a good catch of fish. I think I ended up with well over a dozen fish during the morning session.
After fishing for a few hours we packed up and headed down river. We stopped to use the restroom at Nez Pearce confluence, and saw a lot of fish rising. We decided to try out luck. I had immediate success high sticking. I stuck with John and we worked our way down river a little. We caught 15-20 between us, but no fish of any size.
We finished the day by stopping off at the Gibbon on the way back to West Yellowstone. Unfortunately, the good fortune we had a few nights prior was not in the offing this time. I believe we were all skunked by the Gibbon, tough it was cool to share a bend in the river with this guy:
