Another Lousy Day in Paradise Valley

Apologies to John Gierach for bastardizing the title. The Better Half, Cricket the Flyfishing Beagle, and I spent 10 days meandering from Bismarck to Livingston, MT and back at the start of September. We spent the first day trying to drive as fast as the highway number (I-94) to get out of the plains and into the mountains. Along the way we detoured to take in the Little Bighorn battle field near Hardin, MT.

Son of the Morning Star

After overnighting in Billings, we headed to Red Lodge and the Beartooth highway. Fortified with coffee and schneckens (a wonderful german concoction of cream cheese dough, sugar, almonds, and more sugar) from the City Bakery in Red Lodge we began the ascent of Beartooth pass. What a fantastic drive! We lost count of the switchbacks but the scenery and views, especially on the plateau, were breathtaking.

Beartooth Pass

Beartooth Plateau

Better Half with Cricket the Flyfishing Beagle
Once over the pass we headed into YNP for few hours fishing on the Lamar. Most of the summer crowd was gone but the river was still busy with fishermen and the bison were also crowding the river at several places. Landed a few Yellowstone cutts but I mostly took in the scenery and tried to become one with the water. After all, I hadn’t wetted a line since leaving State College in October.

For the main part of our stay, we stayed at Yellowstone Valley Lodge about 15 miles south of Livingston. Very nice place on the Yellowstone river with comfortable rooms, great breakfasts, and moderately priced. We gave it 4 stars. I was able to land a few modestly sized Yellowstone cutts behind the lodge along with a couple of whitefish.

I spent the next two days on Nelson spring creek and Armstrong creek. Hatches were few on both creeks and rising fish were scarce. Not to say that the fish were scarce. Plenty of big fish were lurking amongst the weeds sneering at the flatlander flailing a graphite stick in the wind. The only rises were to midges of about #26 to 28. My 55-year-old eyes can’t tie anything that small on 7x tippet so I was relegated to pounding the water with #20 BWOs on 6x and searching out the dumbest fish on the stream. Finally, I found him and was able to land it late in the day. No matter, it was a beautiful day, I was the only one on the stream, and I was not at work!

Nelson Spring Creek and Lodge

Nelson Spring Creek Cutt

Armstrong spring creek was nearly a repeat of Nelson’s except with a lot more water to explore. This nice sized rainbow finally felt sorry for my pathetic attempts to get a drag-free drift and slurped my #20 CDC BWO emerger. As at Nelson’s, I was in heaven simply wading the stream by myself and soaking in the scenery.

The next day I did a float on the Yellowstone with Bob Bergquist, a local guide out of George Anderson’s shop in Livingston. We floated from the Grey Bear put in point to Big Timber. It was a great day and a few more fish came to hand. In addition to some healthy rainbows and browns there were a few golden eyes and whitefish to be had.

Whelp, that was the fishin trip. It was good to feel the tug at the end of the line again. Best regards to my fellow Prostaffers.