Monday, August 22, 2011

SLOUGH CREEK

This highly anticipated trip to Slough Creek started out with a twist ; when we went to pick up our camp site permit for site 2S6 the ranger notified us of a dead Buffalo near the site. Wolves had actually killed the beast and then the Grizzly bears took over the kill, it was the presence of 5 grizzlies in the area that caused them to relocate our camp to 2S3 which is located in the second meadow. The camp site was actually quite nice with great views.


The first day we fished the second meadow which was actually some great fishing, this creek is for sure something special when it comes to fly fishing. You better bring your "A" game; these fish would only eat a perfectly placed fly and even then they still needed to like the fly. I spent a lot of time changing flies and narrowing it down to what these fish would eat, and it varied at different times of the day. The views while fishing the creek were unreal.





Some of the fish caught in the 2nd meadow, these native Yellowstone Cutthroat trout are a special fish!







The 2nd day we decided to push our luck and hike up to the 3rd meadow and do some fishing, hopefully the grizzlies in the area had the day off!


 We only fished the 3rd meadow for about 4 hours but did manage to catch a fair amount of fish.The fish did seem to be a bit smaller in the 3rd meadow.




After spending the previous 4 days fishing the Lamar river, Hellroaring creek, Cache creek, Gibbons river and  Soda Butte creek by far Slough Creek is hands down the best fishery in the park. The 3 days spent in the back country of Yellowstone National park was great!

CACHE CREEK/HELLROARING CREEK--YNP

After fishing just about every well known river/creek in the park, we decided to get away from the crowds and hike back in a few miles and hit a couple of creeks that see minimal fishing pressure. Actually the days we fished both of the creeks we didn't see one other fisherman, that's hard to come by in Yellowstone!

CACHE CREEK
This creek had some awesome scenery, it was heavily wooded on both sides of the creek which makes you wonder what could be watching you! We arrived around 2pm at the creek so we only got about 4 hours of fishing in before we needed to leave, to avoid hiking in the dark.






The fishing was great I lost count on how many Cutthroat I caught, most were feisty little guys but there were a few decent fish worth taking pictures of.



The biggest one I caught in the creek!


This creek has to be my second favorite in the park, hiking, adventure, and the fishing is great!

HELLROARING CREEK
This creek may be a bit more well known in the park than some of the other back country creeks, the hike crosses over the Yellowstone river with an impressive suspension bridge. The creek itself is more of a pocket water fishery with little fish hiding in every hole! Once again the fishing here was non stop catch and release, all in all just a fun day of fishing with some beautiful scenery all around!






Some of the fish caught on the creek.....





I would most likely not venture back to the creek; but don't let that take anything from this little gem, if you like no crowds and your rod bent this is the spot!