Fishing the Firehole River and Nez Perce Creek

This morning we decided to follow Ranger Roy's second fishing recommendation and try our luck on Firehole River where the Nez Perce Creek flows into it.

This is a photo looking upstream (south) on the Firehole at the confluence of the Nez Perce.  Kathy is working a channel running along the grassy island.

A shot downstream.  The morning was beautiful and sunny, but it warmed quickly, and most of the fish activity had ceased by 10:00 am.

However, after a few hours on the river, we could report some luck.  Kathy hooked two trout but couldn't bring them to net.  David caught a 9" brown and a 12" brown.  We found two different channels where the slurping went on all morning, but these are very canny trout.  Once you cast, if they don't take it by the second or third cast, they just move on - either just out of range of your casts, or off to another section of the deep water.  This cat-and-mouse game went on all morning.  We kept getting hits as we tried new flies, but then the fish got wise and moved away.  They were so hungry, though, that we never put them down, and we have lots of chances all morning.

As we walked back to the truck, a passerby warned us that we were about 100 yards from a bull bison, who was taking the shade under a tree.  Kathy took David's fishing rod and retired across the stream while David tried a long-distance snap of the beardy fellow.  Of course, every wild celebrity causes a traffic jam, and this was no exception.  Some people pulled their cars and trucks up to within 30 feet of the big guy.  We wouldn't have done that, having just heard a story of someone who, acting similarly, had the door, fender and side mirror of his car smashed by an irritable bison.

After fishing, we dropped over to the Madison Information Center, where the Gibbon and Firehole Rivers join to make the Madison River.  Ranger Roy had recommended this spot as a third productive location, and we wanted to scout it out and decide where to park and start fishing.

Here's a photo of the information station, an old stone building.  This location clearly has been part of Yellowstone for some time, and appears somewhat neglected now, although the location and scenery are spectacular.

Kathy is looking at the channel in the Gibbon River:

Here is where the Gibbon and Firehole join...

...and the Madison takes off through meadows toward the West:

As we were walking back on a bluff above the Madison, we saw this bison ambling along and munching juicy grass where he found it.  He paid us no never mind.

All in a day's work, as they say.  By 11:30 am, we were driving out, and saw a repeat performance of the tourist jam coming the opposite way into the park.  Thank goodness we got out here early!