I Found A Fly – No, Two!
Posted by skyblu on March 20, 2007
BLESSED ESCAPE
The West Yellowstone sled show took over town last weekend and I left our village. They call it EXPO.
I went up to Big Sky, and then tried some fishing. (Funny thing, we go “UP” to Big Sky and “Down” to Bozeman – same road, same direction, and both are lower than West Yellowstone ???) I’m rusty, and I scared most of the fish. But I did find a fly that works. Actually found two flies that work.
My friends in Big Sky fish and ski. Or, they ski and fish. One of them, John, tied me some flies that are from a very old pattern. He said it works everywhere. Well it works on the Madison River by Hebgen Dam, and it works on the Gallatin River by the willows at the end of the road, anyway. The other is a novelty fly that wobbles. The wobbler is hard to cast and got caught in the willows.
The wobbler works to scare fish, the old fly works to catch fish. I guess that’s fair. John found a picture of the wobbler on a web site that sells them – I’m not using it any more. The old fly is pretty easy to tie, and it’s going to be the first fly I practice on when I get the time, (if I get the time.)
Boy there are a lot of fly fishing sites on the web. I spent some time with John looking at many kinds of sites, and different things. There are a lot of blogs, and retail has expanded all over the place. One site that we looked at was “Tour Canada – a clean, spacious, scenic, fun place to visit!” It opens with a few loud bars from “Oh Canada.” They had a good picture of the old fly that John showed me. It’s hard to find so click on this LINK to get right to it.
I used the old fly, it’s kind of big, a size 6. Sunday I went to the river by Campfire Lodge and fished right by the restaurant. It’s not open yet but there were some nice folks from town, (also avoiding the snowmobiles,) and they showed me where to cast. I caught a little fish, about as big as the handle on my rod. And, I caught a big fish, about as big as the handle and the reel. It was a sunny day and there was not a breath of wind. The water is just about as cold as the snow. I fished from the bank and my feet got cold. I guess it’s about time for the fish to spawn, and staying out of the water avoids smashing the eggs.
I’ve got run now; the streets are almost all clear of snow and it’s a warm 36 degrees. I’m going to take a ride on my new bicycle. The west entrance of the park is open to bicycles, and it’s a good way to get to the instruments. Oh, Here’s a picture of the fly that works to catch fish – not scare them..
