Ralph Delph and I left at 6:00 this morning to take the boat up to Hebgen Lake and try some gulper fishing. There was a chop on the water and we decided to run down to the Campfire Lodge and get some breakfast. After a beautiful view of the Madison during breakfast, we headed back to the lake to see what had changed.

We launched the boat at Rainbow Point and took off. We did see some fish rising, but few, and hardly any bugs on the water. We trolled around looking for some rising fish and then cast to them, Ralph with a Prince Nymph and me with a Damsel Nymph.

Ralph caught a nice Brown Trout and I got a nicer rainbow. He held his closer to the camera to look bigger and it worked. The Rainbow won at 21 inches...

Love fishing Hegben

Nicely colored brown and rb there. Look like healthy fish!

Intermediate or floating lines?

thanks for sharing

I was using a 10 foot sink tip, Ralph a floating line...

Dont see many boats out there

Was Henrys packed?

Lovely.

I have no idea what was going on at Henry's. I have never fished there. The tricos and calibetas that used to proliferate Hebgen are not there anymore. I don't know if the silt from the fires of 1988 has changed that dynamic or not, but you don't see the large clouds of bugs in the morning that you used to see and the fish don't feed in a line like they used to as there are hardly any bugs on the water.

Years ago, there would be so many bugs on the water that you would have a hard time seeing your fly among them when you would be casting to fish. Now the fish rise sporadically and it is a better bet to strip nymphs around the rises and pick up these cruising fish...

Beautiful..

For those of you that don't know Ralph...

https://youtu.be/wjiHIMiuDRY

Darn nice fish and country.

Shrapnel
Enjoy your all your posts. Spent lots of time in the Yellowstone country as a young man. Married a woman from West Yellowstone. Are you familiar with the Stuart family?
Several friends fished with Ralph over the years. Retiring this year and we're heading back to Montana. Will be moving to Dillon, our son lives there and West Yell has changed too much.
Thanks for the memories and hope to cross paths with you someday

Row away from the rocks
.jd

Wow! Envious. All of our water here has about 5 inch layer of dry matter (ice) cemented to the top.

Reply to an old post, Had me fooled too.

Stuart's had the Texaco gas station on the corner of Canyon and Yellowstone streets. That was a long time ago. I am here forever, we still have a cabin out by Horse Butte...

Shrapnel
My wife is Walt Stuart's daughter.
She worked at the Texaco from age 6 until they sold. We have friends living out at Horse Butte, and family throughout the Gallatin Valley.
Always had some regrets leaving the Yellowstone region, but economics and wanderlust led us to Alaska. Someone once said "you can't eat the scenery".
Looking forward to fishing Hebgen and surrounding waters again


.jd

Maybe she used to work there with the Street girls. They really made that corner look good, very cute girls...