I took the boat out today for the first time this year to treat some longtime friends of mine, Mark and Linda, to a day on the Rizzo River for some big cutthroats. I met Mark and Linda when speaking in Albuquerque about ten years ago and they have since joined me on trips for tigerfish in Africa and peacock bass on the Amazon.
The problem however, we (all the Yellowstone Country) are still burdened with high water from spring runoff. This is a good thing however. Trout need water and most years we don’t have enough. If fishing doesn’t get good around here for another two weeks we’ll survive. They day was stunning fish or no fish with temperatures in the 80°’s and almost no wind.
After not seeing hardly a splash of a fish all morning, in the last run before the take out we had a surprise. There was a good PMD hatch literally covering the water. Lo and behold I spotted four big rising trout. I anchored about 40 feet away and Linda and Mark took turns. You can see the tail of this brute of a cutthroat. This is all we saw of him before he shook himself loose.