This morning I found myself peering out the back seat window of fishing guide and longtime friend Josh Gallivan’s truck. It was a sight to behold as it was sunrise on the Tetons. We were on our way to Yellowstone Lake. A place I honestly haven’t fished in a number of years.
Josh worked for me when he was in high school back in my Jackson Hole fly shop days. He was a great kid then and now has worked his way up to the point where he’s one of the most requested fly fishing guides in the region and works for Grand Teton Fly Fishing. While he specializes in a number of waters from the Snake to the Green Rivers, his latest passion is lake fishing in Yellowstone.
I got to fish with Josh today by luck. His client, Steve Buck, has grown into a good friend of Josh’s and somehow my name came up when they fished together earlier this week. Turns out Steve and I met back in my fly shop days and he keeps track of my adventures and art. He even sent me a Chicago Tribune the day after the Cubs won the World Series in 2016. Steve told Josh to ask me if I wanted to come along. I was in!
I left my house at 5:20 AM and met the guys in Jackson and climbed aboard Josh’s truck. It took about 90 minutes from there to the lake. Josh has a boat slip at Lake and we loaded up quickly. It wasn’t much more than 8:30 and we were heading across a glassy calm Yellowstone Lake.
We arrived in a pretty little bay. All the shoreline here is deep backcountry. Seriously, on foot it would take two days to get here. You expect a grizzly to appear at any second. But better than a big ole bear, Josh spotted three beautiful native cutthroats heading our way.
I relaxed and watched. I enjoy watching others catch big trout as much as catching them myself. Furthermore, I’m always game for taking photos to update my PowerPoint Shows and what a great new segment this will be for my “Four Seasons of the Yellowstone Trout Bum”. Steve made a cast and in seconds hooked up with our first cutty of the day.
For most of my life, Yellowstone Lake has done nothing but produce huge cutthroats. There was the period of the so called “introduced lake trout” and the park started recklessly gillnetting for them. Populations of cutthroats took the brunt at first and not lake trout. We were later enlightened that the Park themselves stocked lake trout in the early 1900’s. Soon they took more strategic placings of nets and these days, as you can see by this beautiful fish, the cutthroat fishing is incredible once again.
Our first hour of fishing was sight nymphing. We had big cutthroat weaving over the weeds and sand searching for Callibaetis nymphs. If you got a Hare’s Ear Nymph in front of them and twitched it you had him. By 11 AM the nymphs emerged and we had some rising fish.
The Callibaetis Mayflies were thick. They jumbled every inch of our boat. There were times you could hardly breath. My new Yeti hat was covered. Now you would think fishing would be easy, but actually when the hatch is so intense it can be hard to convince a fish to eat your fly over one of the millions of naturals.
I chopped off my Parachute Adams (an excellent Callibaetis pattern) and put on a flying ant. In these situations being different can save the day. We saw a huge cutty working just a few feet from the shoreline. He was completely focused on the mayflies when I dropped my ant his direction.
The first time the cutthroat saw my fly I thought I had him. He lunged forward and rose towards the fly. But just as I thought he was going to eat it he got distracted by an emerging Callibaetis a few inches away. He ate that. But I’m persistent and on my next cast I got him. Yellowstone Lake is back!
It was an amazing day up on Yellowstone Lake with an old friend and a new one. A very special thanks to Steve for inviting me along. Being there was a real treat and we caught a ton of fish. Additionally, what pleasure to fish with Josh and actually see him in action being a top fly fishing guide in Yellowstone. If you want to fish with Josh, contact my friends at Grand Teton Fly Fishing and get that trip set up!
In order for Josh and I to thank Steve for letting me join their trip I brought along a little gift. Josh called me a few days back and wanted to buy one of my Cliff Boxes for Steve. I said no way are you buying it, I’ll do one up from the both of us. Steve almost cried!
Speaking of my art. Don’t forget you too can order a Cliff Fly Box with one of my Sharpie drawn fish. And also, speaking of Yellowstone Cutthroats, I have plenty of decals with my fish art of not just cutties but also all of the trout and a few saltwater fish too. You can order my beautiful decals here.
Back to the office for a few days and then believe it or not, I’m giving a full day fly fishing seminar on Monday up in Big Sky Montana. It will be outside and everyone will be six feet apart. Have a great weekend everybody!
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