A few days to go until the Memorial Day weekend opener in Yellowstone. The most fishable river the 1st weekend is always the Firehole and it does draw some attention in early June. A few years back I started filling fly boxes specifically tailored to specific waters and specific times of the year. I just completed my three Firehole (June) boxes in anticipation of the opener next weekend.
One box is dedicated to the big weightless streamers (Pine Squirrel Buggers) I’ll use in the deep sections with my precious Sage XP 590 2-piece and a SONAR 25 Cold sink tip spooled on a Ross Evo R. Great setup that is perfect for the dozen or so extremely deep sections of the Firehole. I will start exploring these deep sections during the twilight of pre-dawn.
The second box contains some smaller streamers (Mini-zonker, Firehole Demons, Soft hackle streamer, etc). These can be used both on the Sage XP or the other rod I’ll tote to the park, my Scott GS 884. I use a Ross Evo LTX on the Scott spooled with an SA Amplitude Creek Trout. This rod is versatile enough to handle the smaller streamers on a longer leader as well as the traditional bugger/soft hackle rig so often used on the Firehole. It is also ideal for any dry fly activity I might want to try. The third box is really dedicated to the bugger/soft hackle approach while containing a few essential dries.
As I write this the Firehole at Old Faithful is ~75 CFS (which is a very fishable number). But it's tough to tell whether will get another bout of run-off after the warm week we will have. There is still plenty of snow showing on the hillsides on the Old Faithful webcam and it's got to go somewhere. Nighttime lows in the park aren’t going much below freezing so we should see a bump in flows on the Firehole. High tea-colored water might be haram for the dry fly types, but it's perfect for the big streamers. So with fresh bear spray at my side the Memorial Day tradition on the Firehole will commence soon. After Memorial Day I suspect I'll be making the 240 mile round trip to the park several times in June despite the high fuel costs. Can't keep the fish waiting.
One box is dedicated to the big weightless streamers (Pine Squirrel Buggers) I’ll use in the deep sections with my precious Sage XP 590 2-piece and a SONAR 25 Cold sink tip spooled on a Ross Evo R. Great setup that is perfect for the dozen or so extremely deep sections of the Firehole. I will start exploring these deep sections during the twilight of pre-dawn.
The second box contains some smaller streamers (Mini-zonker, Firehole Demons, Soft hackle streamer, etc). These can be used both on the Sage XP or the other rod I’ll tote to the park, my Scott GS 884. I use a Ross Evo LTX on the Scott spooled with an SA Amplitude Creek Trout. This rod is versatile enough to handle the smaller streamers on a longer leader as well as the traditional bugger/soft hackle rig so often used on the Firehole. It is also ideal for any dry fly activity I might want to try. The third box is really dedicated to the bugger/soft hackle approach while containing a few essential dries.
As I write this the Firehole at Old Faithful is ~75 CFS (which is a very fishable number). But it's tough to tell whether will get another bout of run-off after the warm week we will have. There is still plenty of snow showing on the hillsides on the Old Faithful webcam and it's got to go somewhere. Nighttime lows in the park aren’t going much below freezing so we should see a bump in flows on the Firehole. High tea-colored water might be haram for the dry fly types, but it's perfect for the big streamers. So with fresh bear spray at my side the Memorial Day tradition on the Firehole will commence soon. After Memorial Day I suspect I'll be making the 240 mile round trip to the park several times in June despite the high fuel costs. Can't keep the fish waiting.
