[ARCHIVE] Yellowstone River Report 9/7/2020

Yellowstone 9/7: As the water as cooled considerably from this week’s weather, the hopper bite should continue to be good excellent most days in the afternoon. Try nymphing in the morning before the hoppers get going around lunch time. Hopper patterns like a Fat Frank, Yellowstoner Hopper, Water Walker or Chubby in peach, olive, purple, pink, red or tan size 6-10 have been working well. Try fishing a double hopper setup with a larger top pattern and a smaller trailing hopper smaller hopper pattern like an Otter Hopper, parachute hopper, Micro Chubby, or Fat Frank. Space them well apart to cover different lines of current on the water. During the afternoon, fishing a double dry fly setup of a Jack Cabe and a purple haze searching likely water is a good option as well. Nymphing early with a bigger lead fly like a girdle bug, rubber leg Prince Nymph, or Batman with an Optic Nerve or Hare’s Ear as a trailer should produce. Also try dead drifting buggers. Now’s the time to start think about streamer fishing, and The Grinch and Electric Goldfish are always good choices. There may be some Tricos on the water in the morning, so look for risers in the slicks and foam back eddies. A small parachute Adams or purple haze might do the trick. Sometimes there are pods of small whitefish rising. Fish are being found for the most part in deeper water, moving water that has some definition, gentle riffle water, deeper buckets and along gravel bars. There’s no hurry to get on the water this time of year as it’s best to let things warm up a bit. Note that Twin Bridges remains closed for access while the railroad bridge is undergoing repair.