Fly Fishing with Pookie
Written By Dean Reiner of Hatch Finders Fly Shop
FALL FISHING
BIGHORN, YELLOWSTONE RIVER & THE PARK
After four years of avoiding the Bighorn River I took the opportunity to take two anglers, Paul and Rick two guys from Wisconsin for a two-day float. The reports I have gotten all summer indicated the Horn was fishing better than ever. These guys really wanted to catch some big trout. Doing a day trip on the Horn requires a 5AM departure from Livingston with a 3-hour drive in order to put in at after bay by 9 AM. Pookie is not an early riser and was not to happy about being pushed out of bed at O Dark Thirty.
I haven't tied for the Bighorn in a long time so we stopped at Alvin and Roda's Cottonwood Camp and picked up some likely flies. Bates and Black Caddis was what was happening and the Horn being a nymph river we picked up a new patterns called the Skinny Nelson along with a few CDC Black Caddis. We no sooner put in and floated a few hundred feet and Rick had his first brown on. It was non-stop from that time on.
One of the reasons I stopped floating the Bighorn were the crowds. This was no exception. There must have been a hundred boats on the river with us. The difference being the trout were hitting the nymph s on the float and we didn't have to stop at any of the runs.
After a few nice trout were brought to the boat, Pookie said OK I can get into this. On that first day, Paul and Rick landed 15 trout apiece. With twice that number either lost or missed. It was constant smiles all the way around.
After what I would describe as a great day and we were looking at another long drive, Paul decided that we could get more fishing time if we spent the night. There wasn't one bed available in Fort Smith, does that tell you how crowded the river was, so we found a room in Harden. This let us get on the river by 7AM and well ahead of all the other floaters. To my pleasure we were able to stop at the breakfast hole for over an hour before we saw another boat. The guys did rather well with two big rainbows landed.
By the end of the day neither Paul nor Rick could catch another trout. Both were crying for the Ben-Gay. Paul wanted to know if they came back next year would they get the same experience. I said, " Go home, brake your rods and never come back again"! This was once in a lifetime day.
After a long ride back to Livingston and a short night's sleep I picked up a good fishing buddy Cloyd and his son, Mark from Ohio. Cloyd has fished with me every year for the past 12 years. Some years were good and some not so good. The day we did the Yellowstone, the wind was blowing about 40 MPH, or at least seems that hard. All I know was my arms were 4" longer at the end of the day. We floated Carbella to 26 and the water looked really good. With the wind we settled on the Pink Pookie as our go to fly. Right out of the gate the Pookie was being hit. The problem only small trout were doing the hitting. We boated a fair number of trout but the biggest was about 12". I changed flies all day, but always came back to the Pookie.
Two days later, Cloyd invited me to go along on a trip to the park. Not being a guided trip I was able to fish for my self. We started on the Lamar, as this was Cloyd's favorite stream. Walking up from the Cottonwood hole I found a nice little pocket that looked promising. Starting with a black beetle, just to see if there was anything in there, I casted to the head of the riffle. I was rewarded with a fat 16" cut. After a few more casts I noticed green drakes in the flat water. Wasting no time I switched to Koichi's CDC drake with immediate takes with aggression. It was fun from that time on. We fished till 6PM with fish on all day. It was one of the best days on the Lamar I've had in some time.
To some up for the week, the best performing flies were the Skinny Nelson in sizes #16 and #18. Pink Pookies sizes #10 to #6 and Size #10 CDC green drakes. With the cooler fall weather the BWO's will be making their appearance on the river and though hoppers will work for some time yet start looking for pods of rising trout feeding on small mayflies and midges. Fishing will just get better as winter is just around the corner. Get out there and catch a few yourselves.
Volume # 4 Number # 7
Dean Reiner
Hatch Finders Fly Shop
113 #3 West Park St
Livingston, MT 59047
na3d@hatchfinders.com
WWW.hatchfinders.com
1-406-222-0989 Shop
1-406-223-1330 Cell