ESP Day 6 - NE Yellowstone NP On Lamar & Soda Butte Ck 22Jul19

I coupled a fishing  trip to the northeast section of the park with a shuttle hike arrangement for Wilks. He’s attempting an 18 miler called Specimen Ridge. I dropped him at Soda Ck which is where I started fishing too. I caught a number of Yellowstone cuttys and one decent hybrid cutbow. I lost a bigger cutthroat on #18 Missing Link - caddis seem prolific here now and he liked my cripple. In talking to rangers and reading reports, the only place not overrun with transplant species now is in the NE of the park on Lamar River and Soda Ck. It’s good there as are places like the Greybull. The story about what the mackinaw invasion in Yellowstone Lk has done to the Yellowstone cutthroat is brutal - catch the Yellowstone and Snake River Fine-Spotted cuttys while you can. That said, you have to actually kill any rainbow or cutbow you catch on the Yellowstone. I was mostly able to release and somehow managed a release from net before getting the pic on the cutbow. On the Lamar I also caught cuts but smaller. It too was nice, but a bit bigger and sedimented bottom than Soda Ck; I just peeked at Slough Ck and it appeared like glass, that is without sufficient cover for my nasty casts so I headed to the Lamar proper.