Fishing the Madison and Gibbon Rivers

Today was our third and last fishing day from West Yellowstone, although we hope to do more when we spend a week at the North Entrance to the park in Gardiner, Montana.  We explored Ranger Roy's third suggestion:  the spot where the Firehole and Gibbon Rivers join to make the Madison River.

The rivers join in a wide, grassy valley, and for the most part each of the streams is flat and shallow, although there are some riffles and some channels that are deeper.  Here's a photo looking downstream on the Madison...

... and here's one looking upstream toward the confluence of the Gibbon and Firehole:

We were advised to get out early in the morning.  Today, as on the other streams, the flies started hatching just as the sun rose high enough to hit the water, and that's when the fish started feeding.  We found enough feeding fish to keep us busy all morning, although this was the first place we had fished where we had company.  Most of the morning there were three other fishermen within sight.

The fish were also well fed, on what looked like caddis flies, so they could be picky, and while we had no trouble figuring out what they were eating, it was very hard to present the flies to the fish so that the fishies would take them.

So we also had time to gaze around.  Kathy spotted a family, or convoy, or convention, or crowd, of perhaps a dozen Canada geese who just marched in a line up the valley, parallel to the stream.  We're not sure where they were headed.  We think it might have been a goosey backpack, but, wherever they were headed, they were definitely walking and not flying.

We both got hits.  David was able to bag a 14" cutthroat, and even able to get the camera out and take a photo of it before it had recovered enough to swim off:

By 11:00 am, the sun was high and it was getting very warm, which ended most of the fish feeding.  In addition, a stiff breeze kept all the flies down.  So, knowing that our fishing session was done, we waded back across the stream and marched up the hill to the truck and headed home.

Now we have to do some investigation to figure out what streams are good fishing in Yellowstone near the North Entrance!