Early September fishing in the Yellowstone – shorts, sandals, and sunscreen still a daily mantra. Change? Guessing sometime soon. A few of the riverside cottonwoods are showing a little tinge of what may be coming ahead. A few branches here-there with some color other than green. We love fall and can’t wait to see the riverbanks all ablaze in gold…. Fishing is decently good. There are tough days to be sure. And others that have darn near every trout in the river seemingly willing to eat a well placed fly. The water is significantly cooler in the mornings making for a bit of a wait before the activity for the day begins. Mid morning onward has been the goods. On the surface, terrestrial patterns are good choices along with basic Yellowstone attractor patterns. Cloudy days, when they occur, we are starting to see a few fall mayflies kicking in. Both blue wing olives as well as larger hecubas which we like to call the Fall Drake or Mackeral Drake. The trout are seeing them and keying in as well. The fall drake is a sizable mayfly – 12s mostly and make for fun fishing. In another week or so, this will become a mainstay daily hatch and the terrestrial pattern fishing will go by the wayside. Those who don’t care for dry fly or don’t have the patience to wait for it to come on, sub surfacing bobber chasing will almost always result in a bent rod. Watch though as Mr. Whitefish is getting quite aggressive as he cruises into fall spawn
