Slough Creek Sortie

Sometimes you have to share!

For a fun change of pace, Paul and I lit out for Yellowstone National Park yesterday. The Lamar River was pretty well colored up from the previous night’s rain, so we decided to hit Slough Creek. It was a good decision. Surprisingly, there were only a couple of cars parked along the road to the campground, so we just stopped there, rather than making the short by strenuous hike to the first meadow. We pretty much had the place to ourselves, besides some grumpy bison that sent us on a hasty retreat from one of the pools we were fishing.

The fishing was good, though not spectacular. There was no real hatch activity. We saw a total of one

Bring your bear spray!

PMD and one green drake all day. What we did see a lot of was flies, mostly just annoyingly buzzing around our faces, but a few that took chunks of exposed flesh. So we mostly fished attractor dries with beadhead nymph droppers. Both were effective. We caught fish on a lime Neversink Trude, black Yeager’s 409, and Chubby Sally. Ant and beetle patterns should also do well, and soon it’ll be time to start throwing smaller hopper patterns. And when the green drakes get going, well let’s just say that you might want to have some of the big mayfly dries in your box. As far as nymphs, the winner was Kyle’s Beadhead Yellow Sally, but we also got fish on a CDC Pheasant Tail. Paul hooked and nearly landed a beautiful cutthroat trout that he estimated at 20 inches. Bet he’s still going over that one in his mind today. We caught most of the fish in the riffly water, especially at the heads of pools.

We caught mostly cutties, but a bit surprisingly, also landed several purebred rainbow trout. By YNP fishing regulations, all rainbows caught in the Lamar drainage, including Slough Creek, must be killed. That presented something of a moral dilemma to a couple of longtime committed catch-and-release anglers. But the regulation is intended to protect the native Yellowstone Cutthroat from out-competition and hybridization from the rainbows, so we did the right thing. Luckily, we had a small soft cooler and ice (gotta keep the beer cool, after all) to transport our catch.

Slough Creek is a gem of a stream. The fishing can be difficult at times. But even if you don’t catch a single fish, it’s a rewarding experience for the scenery and wildlife alone.