We then made our way up to Tower, and hiked down to fish. I got to a spot I really like and rigged up a huge hopper that Kory gave me, and dropped a few small nymphs off the back. Within 15 minutes of fishing, I had caught three decent Yellowstone Cutthroat. None were big, but they were beautiful fish. I was thinking I would be able to get a dozen or so in an hour. I went to take the huge hopper out of the 3rd cuttie's mouth, and somehow it lodged into my finger. I had forgotten to debarb the hook, and it was a big one. I tried for about five minutes to pull it out, but it just wouldn't budge. I crossed the river and met up with my dad. We decided we needed to push it through. After a good amount of profanity, and some help from my dad, we were able to get it through, mash the barb, and then back it out. Surprisingly, very little blood was shed. I figured the fishing was over.
We went to Slough Creek to explore. We saw fish rising so we fished for about 30 minutes. I had a few hits, but couldn't land anything. We then went over to Mammoth. Throughout the day, we saw a plethora of wildlife, including hundreds of buffalo, Elk in the rut, a fox, a coyote, antelope, a grizzly bear, and a big racked mule deer. We had a great time, and arrived back to West Yellowstone quite late. This was the last day of the trip for my dad - we had a great time!
