June 1, 2010 - YNP opening weekend.....
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 4:00PM Another opening weekend has come and gone, and the 2010 fishing season is underway.
I fished the Firehole with Fran and the boys just like we've done for years. Conditions have been pretty ideal for hatches - cool, rainy, skuzzy. Reports from Saturday ranged from stretch to stretch along the river. Franny and the boys saw a blanket baetis hatch, but not too many fish on them. Their best action came to pmd's. In other areas we heard of just the opposite. Cool weather forced most of the best action to the later hours in the afternoon. Sunday brought more cold wind and fewer bugs. Fish rose sporadically to baetis and pmd's throughout the afternoon. We found inconsistent risers, but it seemed that if you saw a fish rise and got a fly over him, he'd eat. The skies cleared a bit and warmed on Sunday evening keeping the boys out chasing caddis until nearly dark.
One thing that both days shared was more people, both fishermen and tourists, than I think I've ever seen on Memorial Day weekend. Parking lots were packed from the top of the Firehole Canyon all the way to Biscuit Basin.
On Monday we headed down to float the Madison. Flows and clarity were still low, and relatively clear. We headed down in a couple of boats from Lyons to Ruby passing by the two new Walmart parking lots that have become the Windy and Pallisades fishing access sites.
We had a fun time (some of us more than others) fishing streamers and big dries to early season browns and rainbows. Jamie did well fishing a big, nasty, yellow cone-head. P-Man had a few on a smaller black, bunny leech. A very few march browns came off sporadically, and we managed to bring a handful of fish up on a #14 para-wulff.
All in all a good day in May on the Madison. We'll see how the water conditions hold up for the next week. Temps are expected to remain low, but there's a lot of rain in the forecast.
Stay tuned...