Honeymoon Trip in the American West!
As most of you know, I married the love of my life a few short weeks ago. It ended up being 65 degrees and sunny making it the perfect wedding day. We really could not have asked for anything more. Hope and I want to thank everybody for the gifts and support over the years as we begin our lives together.
For months Hope and I have anticipated our honeymoon trip out west. We planned to go to Jackson, Wyoming and West Yellowstone, Montana. We were pumped when the day finally came to board the plane and travel. Although we had both been out west before, this trip was definitely one to remember.
Hope and I got the opportunity to fish the Snake River right outside of Jackson. Luckily we were pre runoff season. This meant we could actually get out and wade the river with no problems. There was surprisingly a good amount of fisherman out this time of year. Most of these anglers were very friendly and helpful as well. Hope had never fished out west before and had never caught a cutthroat trout. My main goal was to get her on a cutthroat trout. Once we started fishing we quickly noticed that these fish were holding in certain water types. Most of the fish we caught were deep in the water column and were not moving for much. You had to hit these fish on the nose with your fly to catch them. These fish were also very dormant which makes sense considering the valley was just beginning to heat up since coming off of winter. After noticing these clues we quickly changed our tactics and began fishing slower deep pools. We had a lot of success in this kind of water and caught many snake river cutthroat trout and whitefish. Hope was surprised that the fly selection doesn't matter that much once you find the right water type that the fish are holding in. In my experience this is true in a lot of scenarios. Anytime I fished out west or even here on the east coast, as long as you find the right water type and put the fly right on the fish, more often then not you would be successful. Every now and then you would run into some technical fish but for the most part it was straightforward. Below is a picture of one of the many cutthroat Hope landed that day.
The next two days we spent some time in West Yellowstone, Montana. If you have been in the fly fishing world for any amount of time this town should ring a bell. Nestled right next to Yellowstone National Park, this town is conveniently located next to some of the best fishing opportunities in the world. We were stoked for the opportunity to fish in this paradise.
The day after we arrived Hope and I met up with our good friend Brewer Butler from Sweetwater Fly Shop in Livingston, Montana. I had the pleasure of working with Brewer during my time at River's Edge Outfitters a few years ago in 2017. I had always wanted to meet up with him to fish if we ever made it out to Montana. Thankfully we got that opportunity this day. Brewer had drove a couple hours that morning to meet us on the Madison River. After giving me some pointers and how the Madison fishes, we dropped the boat in and began our float down the river. The Madison River is unlike any other river I have fished before. This river is one long riffle. Most streams you fish have a riffle, run, pool sequence. This makes it super easy to find out what kind of water the trout are holding in. When looking out of the boat down the Madison, it all looks the same. Every now and then during the float you would fine some eddys and structure that would break up the current. Anytime you found that you were almost guaranteed a fish or two. During our float we pulled the boat over several times to get out and wade for fish. While wading we practiced some euro nymphing techniques which proved to be very successful in the Madison. Even through the infamous strong winds we were able to connect to many fish euro nymphing. Once the day was finished Hope ended up catching way more fish than me. She caught rainbows, whitefish and one good brown trout. I am so proud of her for kicking my tail and sticking it out in the cold and windy conditions. We had such a fun time and cannot wait to come back one day. Huge shoutout to Brewer Butler from Sweetwater Fly Shop in Livingston. If you are ever in the area let Brewer take you fishing for a day. You won't regret it.
