Lamar River...recent winter weather has it off-color



Managed what looks like a nice cutt-bow hybrid on a two-nymph rig below an indicator. It took a beadhead red copper john.

Going to Slough Creek tomorrow fingers crossed

very jealous, this thread is inspiring me to go visit my parents, get in the garage and dust off my old gear

please keep sharing photos

also looking into getting a very light rod for those super narrow new england trout streams, thinking a 3 weight or something like that - i'm pretty much in love with orvis but wondering if anyone has any other recommendations because i believe my main rod i recall beings a 6 or 8 weight which was great for streamers on lakes where i mostly fished but wasn't ideal for winding streams

might be too late for you but slough creek is great but the spot to go and its an adventure is up to the 3rd meadow. its about 7 or 8 miles in . i havent been in many years but you have a small river thats slow and great dry fly fishing for larger cutts and can catch as many as you want. watch for grizzly bears as they are feeding heavily trying to put on weight for the winter.

rick, make sure you dont get a wippy 3 weight. no fun casting. i use short 6 foot fast ones and can easily cast 40 or more feet of fly line and control the line. you dont need an expensive rod nowadays as even the cableas rods are just fine. production rods have come a long way and arent junk anymore.

thanks this is highly informative and not what i would have expected, i haven't fly fished in well over a decade as mostly been living abroad and would have just assumed anything non-primo would be trash

i distinctly remember when my dad tried to talk me into upgrading to a high end rod and i didn't see the need, and then the shop keeper let me try it out and i was shocked at the difference

Thanks, Ray...I didn’t think we would make 3rd Meadow on a day hike and have a reasonable amount of time to fish, so skipped 1st Meadow and went straight to 2nd Meadow



I’d read a fairly recent report that with the weather there wouldn’t be much activity until midday which was perfect given how long it took us to walk in. Just downstream from that rock outcropping on the right I saw some rises, got a follow, changed flies, got a strike & missed, changed flies and then



Not too big for the area but that’s a big trout for me

Caught another slightly smaller downriver and then started moving up past the campground where a fish story ensued. I saw a couple of big fish holding in a deep pool and didn’t think things out too well as I put on a big October Caddis and then a l-o-n-g dropper with a bead head copper john and ended up hooking one of them. Unfortunately there was a submerged deadfall in front of me and as I started getting it closer, it dove for the junk and as I tried to horse it out it came unbuttoned

That was it for the day and it looks like we’re getting weather the next couple before we leave so I might try swinging something big and ugly in the Madison in the rain and call it a trip

Also, so cute that someone brought their chihuahua on the trail



(That’s a size 10 Merrell for reference)

its a little early for the big browns but some will be in the madison. they will be in the outside bends. use a spruce fly or a muddler. be absolutely the first to hit any hole in the morning. each hole will have a brown or two in it. cast agaisnt the bank and start stripping right away and hang on.

there will be rainbows about 16 inches down from them in the faster water looking to eat eggs. they hit hard too.

back of the barns holes are bvest but too crowed. hiking in past the old dump gets to good territory. or even hitting around bakers hole campground at first light.

if you have a float tube henrys lake is a must for a day of hooking the biggest fish of your life in numbers.

do take a short hike up duck creek to below the beaver dams and some giant browns go up that way.

or hit the lower madison outside the park towards varney bridge. or the river around the slide inn. for rainbows and browns in faster water.

a classic place to fish is harrimans ranch in idaho down a ways from you. a must spot to fish at least once in your life. tough fishing slow water for giant fish.

stay and fish in the bad weather if you can. thats when the big fish move up in the fall.
i used to stay till i got froze out. about oct. 15 starts the best fishing and most of the guys leave around then because of the cold.

Thanks...I’m going to be confining my activities to within the park and we’re still trying to squeeze in a short hike or two before the weather really sours. I might hit the Firehole today, we’ll see

Or maybe not...exiting the park a day early because a winter storm is supposed to be heading in

So that didn’t go so well, tried swimming a tung head streamer with a nymph trailer with no luck. Trip ending with a whimper and not a bang, but still had a great time and considering the focus was not fishing, it worked out pretty well given the time I carved out for it.

We have done this trips much earlier in the past, usually late August, and this whole weather thing was kind of a drag.

The Beartooth Highway was already closed when we got in but we decided to just drive as far as we could to see what was out there (neither of us had been). Pretty sweet...

Re: Slough Creek, I was legitimately confused as to how such a relatively small body of water could support such a population of big fish until I saw a youtube video of a guy hiking the trail in the spring, just after the thaw. Once I saw the meadows largely underwater...it must be like a casino buffet for all those trout.

and mostly the low fishing pressure as not many want to walk 7 to 9 miles in to find fish and grizzly bears abundant.

i used to go to yellowstone and camp there for a month or more in sept and oct. every year. always did at least one hike in to the creek. hearing the elk bugling, seeing moose and grizzly bears was also a big highlight.

also a trip deep into the bechler river country is supreme. hard to find fish but they are huge. and huge is much bigger than anything in slough creek. bears and bugs join you on that one.

It's a rerun but I just saw it pop up in my podcast feed and reminded me of how great it is.

This episode of This American Life should be mandatory listening to anyone here.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/654/the-feather-heist

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/654/the-feather-heist

My wife's job is now 100% WFH and I had a small business that I folded due to the pandemic, so we were all lined up to spend a month in Bend at an airbnb starting next week, but they issued a new directive following their initial reopening since I guess there was a flareup of new cases. Oh well, maybe should have held off on buying that out-of-state license.

oregon was closed to non residents for awhile now open to them for fishing.

the dechutes salmon fly hatch brings so many people it isnt fun to fish anymore.
the metolious and fall river are beautiful but mostly small fish.
in eastern oregon except for the southern part, the lakes are where the great fishing is.
within driving distance of bend. float tubes and kayaks rule.

early season the yakima river is great if it isnt too high.

good luck on the job front, but things are looking good to pick up and return to close to normal. and a sharp business person will find a slot to slide in to make a score.