MattdB wrestled together a keen fishing trip for 5 Front Rangers and 1 Texan. We headed out on Fri after work bound for the Grey Reef (North Platte) near Alcova, WY. Rick grabbed the Texan near DEN pulling his raft, Greg & I set out
early dragging the BC20X, and DeBalskis came in time pulling Matts
hardside Hyde. Somehow Rob always found himself between a rock and a hard place.
Fri-Sat ~ The Grey Reef... was our "halfway" point. Traffic up mostly sucked in CO, before and after the classic stop at Buc-ees. Greg and I arrived ~5pm and chose the team's sites. We then headed over to wade near the effluent of the rez and the pelicans. We and the pelicans caught some smallish rainbows and mostly quit after da boyz began to arrive about dusk.
We partied a bit and retired ready for the next day's float on the Grey Reef. This is a great fishery but Sat offered a crowd of guided anglers early so we had a killer breakfast from Rick's kit and prep. Once setting out to float we quickly came to feel the river would not be yielding it's typical bounty of 20" rainbows. It was slow, hot, and sometimes (as typical in WY) windy.
We lamented a bit back at camp, but knew much more and better was to come. Rob & Dave served tasty sloppy joe's and cognac melon dessert and we again partied around the "bonfire."
Sun ~ Drive To Idaho...The next morning we were off to Idaho via Jackson Hole, WY. I rode up with DD... It was a fun problem solving drive before the Tetons except when Matt suggested we stop at a tank museum for lunch. The tank stuff was very cool and lunch was good from the mass of food stacks purchased at Costco prior.
Back on the road we soon enough saw the rugged Tetons and stopped for a pic or two. We also drove through Jackson Hole and observed the hovel's for $3M and much more, and got gas. On and on and soon we arrived at Riverside CG where we'll spend "the week" in ID. I took some time in the car (with Starlink ported to DD's RAM) to book my ID fishing license... 5 days for $50.
The Riverside CG is very nice and right on the Henry's (North) Fork of the Snake (a world renown fly fishery). We set up camp and headed down to the river with walking beers to check it out, while Matt & Rick joined Matt's local friend Preston for stripping streamers at dusk on Henry's Fk. The boatfull of master fishermen did well and soon we needed nosh and some of the boyz prepared great burgers on Rick's kit. We slept well anticipating tomorrow's guided float on section 3 of the South Fork.
Mon ~ Guided Float Of South Fork... We hit the road early without breakfast (yet certainly had coffee) to meet our guides in Island Park. We did grab good "egg muffins" and burritos at TroutHunter while awaiting the guides. Max & Lance with their boats met us and we all did paperwork for a bit then headed out on a long descent via private access road to the river... the forest, river floodplane, and environs were gorgeous entering "section 3." We quickly went over (known, but NP) boat behavior and tied on chubby like top bugs and Perdigon like droppers. Rob was on the board on his 2nd cast from his front perch... "it's gonna
be epic." What surely was epic was the raptor-ladden river floodplane. We saw several bald eagles, osprey, and even a golden eagle while on the float... awesome.
It wasn't really epic fishing... while Rob caught gobs of fish but they were
pretty small, and I hooked up a number of times with remote releases and
also landed some fish. We hit wind and rain but just a smidge. Lance
passed Max within the 1st mile and we never saw Max's (with Greg &
Rick aboard) after that. We had a decent lunch on the river in the
afternoon and I switched to the front casting spot. Things changed for
me afterward and I did get a nice Yellowstone cutthroat as well as a
even larger rainbow.
Still, fishing was spotty and precious little top-water action was had, though the "full day" in eastern Idaho is, howdy, a full day ~ Lance got us to the takeout 13 miles downriver of put-in, at 6:30pm. We then took a 1:15hr ride back to the fly shop. Wow. We were 1st in and headed again to the TroutHunter for beers and to await Greg & Rick. It was a great vibe right on the Henry's Fork and after the boyz arrived we decided to have dinner there. We all loved the completely superior spicy chix sandwhich, and more brews. We met up with DeBalskis back at camp after their similar float of section 1 with Preston.
Tue ~ Stillwater On Hebgen Lk & Wading Henry's Fk... After a tasty breakfast of eggs & bacon we divided for attacks... I attacked the power system of the camper & Henry's Fk, and the rest attacked the browns in Hebgen Lk. Some folks won... I'm at 100% from solar and generator after using plenty of power for comms, cpap, etc. and a brown was landed on a black leech pattern. The Boyz scoped out the Madison Canyon section in MT in the PM and scored some rainbows on dries! I caught nothing on the North Fk.
Yet, Matt came back to our keen campsite in Riverside CG rather than doing the Madison with his elders. I was enjoying a day in the hammock and in the rain when he arrived. We had a good conversation.
Wed ~ Madison @ $3 Bridge And Canyon Sections... With weak reports from Idaho fisheries like Henry's Fk and otherwise on the Snake and lakes we decided to move up to Montana! We got licenses for it and headed to the Madison @ $3 Bridge where the 100 mile riffle flows. We all caught something but MdB did the best with more and bigger fish... conditions were not great this afternoon. Mine was ~17" here but the one that got away after a 5' jump and head shake, was much larger, and soon off.
After some discussion we decided to hit the Canyon section for the evening. This was a better fishing outing than recent ones up here. We all caught nice fish in a gorgeous setting. We left pretty late after ending with an effective double dry session with sparkle wing PMDs being the main fooler ~ lots of fun. Afterward we hit the Buffalo restaurant and scored service from a very cute & nice fisher-woman (known for sure after seeing her again in her fly fishing laden 4 Runner the next day in our campground).
After French toast, it was another hot one in Montana and we arrived late to avoid the entry queues at YNP. I had purchased six 3-day passes for us as that was the least we could buy. We went straight to some thermal activities in deference to our uninitiated soldier "Mudpot Rob." We then hit a nice piece of water adjacent a day use site full of families. We Suck @ Fly Fishing as we only had one unlanded hookup on a thousand casts... sure conditions and timing were again suspect but we still suck, or maybe it was the BeatBox Bonanza shared from master fisherman MdB before we hit the water that dulled our acuity. Whatever occurred was fun and in a keen spot, but not good fishing.
We had lunch in the shade and some of the Boyz tried futilely again while Rick & I debated music and the source of the universe. They came back and we hatched the "go upstream" plan ~ We all wanted those Yellowstone cutthroat from their origin waters. We did not take the 60 foot shear cliff MdB 1st spotted and chose instead to go right the famous Fishing Bridge over the Yellowstone and do the requisite (and brutal) 1.5mi hike downstream. Rob biffed on the way and broke his rod (the 2nd breakage of the trip). I gave him mine and headed back to get the truck to pick them up.
No one had service so we didn't connect for the pickup. And, again the wicked Yellowstone gave them nothing. We headed back to Riverside Idaho with little to show but bones and hope for Rick's killer steak tacos and tequila. Of course there was more debate on how to escape the Dog Days of Summer, and our doldrums; the plan was established to drive the max the next day to arrive on the Colorado.
Fri ~ Drive, Gas Up, Drive, Eat, Drive, Gas Up, Drive, Eat... You get the idea ~ and we selected the shortest but wildest back roads itinerary to get to Colorado. It was smoky from wildfires much of the way. We went through Driggs and passed on the Teton River; we hopped the Teton Pass, all towing trailers; we stopped near Hobart Ck and passed; we drove 40 mi on a dirt road; we went through unique and keen Colorado canyons; we were stopped at an ugly accident to get bodies from the wreck; we arrived at Rifle with no place to stay. Reports of weak and very early fishing on the CO and Eagle came in at Wendy's and we decided to move on to Summit Co thinking "somewhere must be good."
We split the team and dropped my camper at the Nest. Greg & Rob stayed with me and we enjoyed some tunes on the Nest Music Theater before retiring. Fishing wasn't great and we floated much less than we'd expected but the trip was memorable with friends. Well done Matt ~ no one can predict the weather/conditions long term. Back in COS we went out with Rob to Il Vicino and Red Leg for some more HaineARodO. Then see ya too early.
