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The story begins……

Met JR/AB at airport to pick up Alamo rental minivan for the trip. Rented a Chevy Astro with extended length (no extra charge). JR/AB took it back to JR’s, removed the rear seat and loaded gear. They left for Spokane. However, due to work schedules, AM was to fly out after work and meet them in Spokane. However….it was a dark and stormy night…….and while AB/JR had headed out in the early afternoon for Spokane, the Seattle-Spokane Alaska Airline flight was delayed from a 5:30 load to well after 7pm load. Got to Spokane to meet AB/JR about 8:45 p.m. and left the airport parking lot about 9 p.m.. The journey had begun! Arrived St. Regis approx. midnight to stay in the Super 8. So-so lodging but it worked for us.

Left about 7:10 am on Saturday morning and headed eastward on I-90. Approx. milepost 72 in Montana, the Clark Fork (which is big by now!) had some good-looking water, but we continued onward seeking the promised land. Stopped at Missoula at 0815 and visited the Kingfisher Fly Shop. No good info on Yellowstone – kind of a chi-chi place for visitors. Despite our hopes, it was a cool and showery morning; we hoped this was not to be the pattern for this trip! Had breakfast and great coffee at "The Break" coffeehouse. Good baked goods. French Roast coffee was super! AM picked up a rainshell jacket at a local outdoor supply shop – kind of an impulse buy that would be a very good investment for later in the trip.

Took break at rest stop on milepost 169 that had good access to Clark Fork that was a much smaller river by this point. May be worth fishing some time . Headed eastward. Exited I-90 at mp 298 in Belgrade about 12:20pm. Started looking to pickup Yellowstone Park fishing licenses. Everyone told us to check with someone else. One young fellow told me that he thought West Yellowstone was in Wyoming. {Looks like Montana needs to work on their education system.]

Continued on down southerly now towards the Park. Stopped by Greater Yellowstone Flyfishers; no licenses but suggested a good place to fish the Gallatin River was where Spanish creek entered the river. Apparently there is access there. Picked up some Chernobyl hoppers that would prove to be a consistent fly later in the trip for fish with no taste.

Continued on toward the Park with the Gallatin River a constant road companion and stopped by Eastside Anglers in Big Sky. Nice fly and ski shop. Picked up Yellowstone Park fishing licenses. Fellow said that while they had something like 30,000 summer visitors there, in the winter they would have 300,000. Surprised he didn’t have less fishing stuff and more ski stuff.

Headed south again and finally crossed into the Park (about mp 32) with the Gallatin River continuing to run by the road. Terrain changed from a river in a canyon that it had been for some miles to a meandering stream in grassy meadows with no trees. Decided to pull over and hit the River, the first fishing in Yellowstone Park! Kind of windy; fishing was slow. JR located 5 dead elk carcasses probably from winterkill. Time was around 2:40 p.m.

[As a footnote, there was a Seattle hiker mauled by a Grizzly bear right after we returned to Seattle. He was 4 miles back on the Black Butte trail and had to hike his way after the mauling back to the road to get help. The Black Butte trail intersects the highway we were on at about mp 28 only a few miles from where we fish; we were close to some real wilderness excitement!]

We continued on southward to West Yellowstone, arriving at about 5 p.m.. Checked in with Becky at the One Horse Motel [Dunraven & Firehole Streets, PO Box 878 West Yellowstone, MT Tel: 406-646-7677 Fax: 406-646-0060, http://www.wyellowstone.com/clients/onehorse/ ]. Had 3 separate beds with two connected rooms plus a bath. Had a refrigerator (small), microwave, and TV which picked up cable, including the ever popular Montana All-Gun channel – it seemed they were always having shooting contests and hunting shows. Made me want to join the NRA (and I don’t even own a gun!) We judged the accommodations to be above the minimum one ass rating and well away from the dreaded half ass rating. Probably was not a 2 or 3 Horse rating. (No Jacuzzi!) [All kidding aside, this was a pretty good place from which to base-camp for fishing the western side of the Park. To prove my point, we have reservations again for the One Horse Motel for the 2000 odyssey!]

Visited the local fly shops to help generate cash flow for them and to get the info on all of their secret spots that they would never tell anyone but us close friends (who they had never met before). Went to Bud Lilly’s first (http://www.budlillys.com/). Then across the street to Arrick’s (http://www.arricks.com/). Agreed we needed to write an article for Trout and Salmon Leader about Arrick’s describing the patch collection he has and how he had helped Earth Day Banquet this last year. He has patches from Vancouver, Ballard, Labeugten, Clark-Skamania, current NWSSC, and others in the collection on the wall. Suggest people visit his store when in W. Yellowstone. If you have some cool patches he may not have, I recommend you send them to him and he in return has offered to give some cool flies which can be auctioned at fund raisers such as the Washington State Trout Unlimited Earth Day Banquet. Seems like a win-win for everyone! Other cool shops we visited included: Jacklins  and Madison River Outfitters (http://www.flyfishingyellowstone.com)

Went to fish the Madison River just inside the Park. Had a $20/car fee for a week for the Park. We got our value from that investment on this trip. Going into the Park from W.Yellowstone, take the very first left after the guard entrance – you should still be able to see the entrance buildings in your rear view mirror. If you can’t, you’ve gone too far! There are two major parking areas to start fishing from right next to the River. The first one had better fishing water (in our opinion) than the second area. This is called the Barns Hole(s) – it looks like one hole but it is considered to be three holes by the aficionados. Charles Brooks discusses these holes in his book written in the 60’s – Larger Trout for Western Flyfisherman. About ¼ mile upstream are some concrete pads for a fishing area known as the Cable Hole (previously some time long ago there had been a cable car crossing of the River). Even further upstream is a structure left over from when there had been a stream gauging station; we called this the Gauging Station hole. Fishing action was slow until sun came off the water. Bugs out en masse!! Fish started surface feeding and some very BIG fish jumped out of the water chasing bugs (unfortunately none of the big ones were attached to my fly line!). I think all of the big fish looked to be brown trout. Nailed fish on Chernobyl hopper (about 12"). Talked to 2 guys fishing nymphs ‘til dark. They had fished Slough Creek down by the Lamar earlier that day and claimed to have done pretty well. They used nymphs, hoppers, and a griffith’s gnat. They said to keep the hoppers small (around 10- 12).

Headed back to town well after dark. Had dinner at the same bar we had done so last year. The smoke, bar smells, the video poker, the same sleaze ball clientele….all in memory of the places Chet found for us last year!