ESP Day 14 - Snake River & Jackson Brew Tour 30Jul19

It was time to hit the Snake for the Snake River fine spotted cutthroat native to this basin. I went to the tailwater below Jackson Dam and I could see some fish in slower, flat and relatively shallow water but they were not feeding - especially not on my #8 electric purple chubby Chernobyl. I kept hiking downstream but as with other WYO rivers - I saw little structure to lend me a hand at where fish might be holding. Most folks float the Snake but I chose to wade and the Snake River is big and deep in the main channel so I couldn't cross to hit all spots. I caught a number of 5"-8" cuts like on the Gros Ventre and was getting a bit frustrated. Finally I turned a corner and found some structure near to my side that I thought would be good, and it turned out to be very good to me; I caught a number of the native like these 14"-18". I love throwing such a big bug and getting aggressive strikes. There was a dude across the river 35 yards who'd stopped his boat and hooted on my every catch. Another river and another sub-species.

Another pan of the Teton Range on the way to Jackson Hole, just because...

I made a walking brew tour of the four breweries in Jackson. Snake River is the oldest and had a bunch of locals at my end of the bar - kayakers, ranch hands, guides - it was fun and their Earned It NEIPA was decent. StillWest is the youngest and located right across from the Snow King ski resort Summit lift. I was very posh with modest selection but I enjoyed tasting their potent DIPA. I was fortunate to hit the original Melvin location, co-residing with a tasty Thai restaurant. I had a couple IPA short pours brewed right there and some tasty Thai chix wings. Melvin is excellent and they have an award wall to show for it too. Finally I hit Roadhouse; I'd been finding cans throughout WYO and enjoyed most. At the brewery I got the Man Jam #1 Hazy and the Walrus imperial IPA, very good. This was a fine capstone to good day on the Snake and a fine Epic Swing through the parks. I'll head back to Summit Co tomorrow - I need to shower and shave.

ESP Day 13 - Fishing The Gros Ventre 29Jul19

It rained all night so I imagined the Snake would be off a bit; it's flowing at 3,000cfs already - I chose to hit the Gros Ventre below Slide Lk today. The Gros Ventre is a pretty big river strewn with boulders appropriate for cutthroat to hide - but these facts also made it too hard to cross. At 550cfs, up a smidge today, the rain made even it off color and running pretty high. I caught a ton of 5”-8” cutthroat like the one shown but nothing substantial. I used all techniques but the floating caddis and chernobyl worked best. Slide Lake was formed on the Gros Ventre when the largest known non-seismic rock slide blew down the hill and crossed the stream and valley.

The Tetons are just magnificent.

ESP Day 12 - Getting To Grow Ventre 28Jul19

I headed south out of West Yellowstone then east across Teton Pass into Jackson to get to my final campsite at Gros Ventre CG near Grand Teton NP. It was Idaho and potato territory most of my way on the spud paveway but I did directly pass the famous spots on Henry’s Fork - including the fly shop Trouthunter, who “make” my favored fluorocarbon tippet - really they import it from Japan and package, brand and distribute it. When in Montana, I restocked some beer and found anyone can sell beer but few sell good stuff - and when they do they focus on Montana brewers. This Summit Dog DDH DIPA from Outlaw Brewing was pretty good. Anyway, coming in from the west to GTNP was interesting; I’d never seen the range from the west. Teton Valley was pretty nice and likely a lot more affordable than Jackson. if you squint & zoom you can see the top of the Grand Teton above my bike at the campsite; not bad but not Jenny Lake.

Though it's all about perspective as the campsite shot from another angle shows I'm in ghetto 2.

ESP Day 11 - Gallatin River In YSNP 27Jul19

Today began rainy and cooler but I set out for the Gallatin Range and Gallatin River... this is in the extreme NW corner of Yellowstone Park and higher than my campsite or West Yellowstone. The Gallatin is a smallish freestone river in Montana and riffles for 30 miles at least toward Big Sky. It was hard to find structure appropriate - especially deep enough. But I tried a couple of turnouts and turned up some fish on a double dry of a small chubby and a missing link. I caught some smaller cutbows as well as a decent brown and a nice 19" rainbow. The latter was unexpected for the thin water but she was in a deeper hole. Another river under my belt.

On an evening stroll from my site to the Madison I came upon a falcon perched next to the trail. He ultimately took off as I approached, but I got pretty close. The Madison was too warm to fish well, so I skipped it.

ESP Day 10 - Moving To Montana Soon - Gonna Grow Me Some Dental Floss 26Jul19

I left the ghetto for the 'burbs and moved into Baker's Hole (on the Madison) CG. It's Natl Forest of course so I can score my old guy discounts. It's a much nicer site than the ghetto but it is near the road as well as the river. Too, after 5 days without, I have cell service, and even data services! I updated the blog for many due items. I'm here in West Yellowstone area to fish the Madison in the park, if yielding, and the Gallatin. My site is the trailhead for the walk to the hole so I installed what Kala may refer to as "cheeky" cafe lights and sat around all night computing, tasting some Montana ales, and making an excellent roasted veggies Szechuan noodle dish. I tried to share with the CG Host but he wanted his Costco pizza - ultimately a CO dude returned from fishing (sporting a rig similar to mine) and enjoyed some. The Casita is much sturdier than I'd anticipated from the fiberglass outside - it's solid and very nice inside. Some things like air and microwave only work from "shore power" and he doesn't have a generator, what? Architect Gary Dennison from Estes Park just got it.

ESP Day 9 - Yellowstone River Classics Frustrating 25Jul19

Wilks left early and I spent extra time at camp to recharge the battery (which went dead after 4 days of use without the generator - much better). Today I hit the classic sections of the lower Yellowstone River between LaHardy Rapids and Mud Volcano. While I now know better where to fish in this area (possibly tomorrow), today I was largely searching aimlessly and did not catch a fish, or even get a strike. I was frustrated with AM fishing and chose to eat out at the Lake Lodge and try to get WiFi, as I have had no comm service of almost any kind for 4 days. I am communicating with Kala via satellite but that’s marginal as it’s just one tweet out per day. Their internet was down for the last 20 hours… sheesh. Their laundry still worked so I cleaned my clothes then headed out to contemplate along the shores of the awesome Yellowstone Lake before heading to the ghetto for the night. I was greeted by an elk mamma and her brood at my site. Oh too, I included the requisite bison pic from fishing today and from on the road passing the Crusher - they are majestic but they are all over and many cars stop on the road to view each nostril as it is was all new - just creates traffic issues IMO.

ESP Day 8 - Tiny Triple On Gibbon River & Gardner River With Wilks 24Jul19

Wilks and I decided to hang out together today and we chose to hit the Gibbon River. We did 3 sections: upper above Norris CG, Elk Park meadow, and Gibbon Meadow. The fishing was slow and while I hit a triple with brook, cutbow/rainbow/cutthroat and brown, the average length was <7” I imagine. I used a stimi for a stonefly imitation and an ant on a double dry rig most of the time but used a Mercer Missing Link as a crippled caddis on the upper section. We had a decent time roaming about but it was a far from epic day fishing. Wilks caught the best fish of the day! - An 8” cutty on a stimi - so we decided to head out to another headwater for more.

We hit the Gardner River at dusk and I got the brooks to flip but couldn’t close the tiny 5”ers. Nice spot but a t-storm and mosquitoes moved in so we packed up our bugs and headed back to camp. Wilks drove as I'd discovered Roadhouse Wilson.