Soda Butte Creek - August 19, 2009

The "Cone"

On this day, the Chief experienced his finest day fishing ever. Well, while not fishing with the Fair Maiden. Never in his forty-five years of fly fishing had the Chief experienced such a day on the water. This section of the creek had changed quite a bit from last year. Despite the summer rains, the water was noticeably lower.

Words alone cannot describe the beauty of Soda Butte Creek (2008)

The Chief arrived at the Lamar Stock Trail parking lot around 10:00 AM. There was a bunch of flatlanders in the parking lot preparing to get saddle sores up in the Lamar Valley. The Chief took time to explain the virtues of American Mammoth Jackstock to the wranglers saddling up their draft cross horses. These types of horses, with their wide backs, will stretch most riders to the point of misery. Jackstock, with their ergonomically shaped backs allow for much more pleasant riding. They were impressed with the Chief’s rather unusual knowledge of equines.

The Chief in 2008 enjoying the beautiful Soda Butte Creek

It was a déjà vu all over again for the Chief when he reached into his beer cooler. Seems that he was here just last year drinking beer. The Chief downed two Moose Drools to prevent dehydration. Moose Drool is far and away the best-selling beer brewed in Montana. It is chocolate brown in color with a creamy texture. A malty beer with just enough hop presence to keep it from being too sweet. They went down easy. The Chief then filled his gel-cooled hydration bladder with three Scape Goats in preparation for the day’s fishing. This English-style pale ale is very smooth, refreshing and well-balanced. A perfect ale to enjoy while fishing! This soon became the Chief’s favorite brew while fishing YNP. He also packed a water bottle in case he ran out of beer.

The Chief hydrating with a fine Montana Ale.

From high atop the water, the Chief could see that the trout were already rising. They were rising continuously. There were spinners in the air, #14 olive brown spinners...Small Western Green Drakes, Drunella flavilinea, or Flavs are quite numerous in the Lamar Valley and can provide excellent fishing. Flav spinners typically fall in the evening, but possibly due to the damn near gale force winds the past several evenings, they decided to fall this morning. Today was calm, partly cloudy and a delightfully balmy 48 degrees.

Small Western Green Drake

The Chief tied on one of his famous RBF Gum Wrappers in an olive, #14 variety with three strands of BRF Zelon for wings. Those hungry Yellowstone Cutthroats that were off the feed for three days began to take the RBF #14 Olive Gum Wrapper with reckless abandon. The Chief has no idea how many fish he caught, but remembers that he had to use three RBF Gum Wrappers due to excessive fish damage. He now has to work on the durability factor of his deadly spinner pattern. I suppose the Chief landed about 20 cutthroats during this one-hour spinner fall, not moving more than 100 feet.

The rises subsided. The Chief took a break and ate two cans of sardines with hot green chilies and watched the flatlanders cross the creek. Having good success previously with a Chernobyl Ant on the Lamar River during mid-day, the Chief decided to walk the banks and cast this ungodly contraption into the depressions and at the water edges. The Chief caught 18 cutthroats before stopping at the footbridge. It was time for a late lunch.

"Rollin', rollin', rollin'...man is my ass swollen"

The Deadly Black & Tan Chernobyl Ant

While the Chief was enjoying some turkey pastrami sandwiches, the fish began rising again. They were on a feeding frenzy again! They were taking something just below the surface. The Chief got out his RBF mosquito net and slipped it over his ungodly Frabil landing net and captured several Flav duns! Oh, the excitement! An evening hatch appearing at 2:00 PM! He quickly knotted on a RBF #14 Olive Sparkle Dun. This magnificent mayfly emerged for a solid two hours and the Chief was into it again! The pace was feverish! Damn near one fish every other drift!

The Chief believes that he caught this fish four times!

The most remarkable thing about this emergence was that the Chief never saw one dun make it into the air! He has never seen anything like it! Those hungry trout were so proficient in sucking in those emerging duns that none survived! Again, the Chief could not tabulate the number of fish landed. He just knows that 99.9999% of the fish hooked were landed except for the bruiser that shot directly downstream in a shallow riffle. The smart trout pulled a tricky maneuver and swam free.

The hatch subsided, the sun came out and winds started to blow. The bison forded the creek. It was now time for some Scape Goat and a fly change. The Chief tied on his one-legged Chaos Hopper that took a dozen trout earlier in the week.

One of many that took the Chaos Hopper

It was back to leisurely fishing, slapping the Chaos into likely lies. Sixteen more trout were caught. The sun started to set and the Chief made his way back downstream. Trout were again feeding below a shallow, shelf riffle. Baetis spinners! A tippet change and the Chief was back into business catching seven beautiful cutthroats on a tiny RBF #18 Rusty Spinner.

The Chief wasn't the only angler to catch this dumb trout

The heater in the Surburban felt good on the drive back to Cooke City, MT. Some days you can catch’em and some days you can’t! The Chief will forever remember this incredible day on the beautiful Soda Butte Creek.

Sunset on Soda Butte Creek