Unseasonably hot days and warm nights were the order of the day for Montana this trip.  The locals felt like their summer had finally arrived.  All the heat, however, had an adverse effect on insect hatches on most of the rivers except for the Firehole which had some excellent Baetis and White Miller hatches.

Pat on the Firehole

The heat also kept a good number of animals at higher elevations when normally at this time of year they would already be in the lower valleys of Yellowstone Park. This was a combination photography and fly fishing trip so there was plenty to see and do even with the heat.

Nelson's Spring Creek

We spent a day on both Nelson and DePuy spring creeks.  Again blue bird weather with wind, but the fishing was good to sporadic Baetis hatches and terrestrials especially ants and beetles.  Both ranches are beautiful with some big fish and plenty of animals and birds including Trumpeter Swans which live all year on both ranches.  We even found fresh bear scat on one of the trails at DePuy!  The fishing on both these spring creeks is challenging to say the least. Conflicting currents resulting from large weed beds and highly educated fish make for a real learning experience; no matter how good a fisherman you are.

Elk along the Madison

Soda Butte Creek in the Lamar Valley fished very well using the dry and dropper technique.  The cutthroats are gorgeous and full of fight.  The word had gotten out how well it was fishing by the second week we were there.  That last week of our trip saw an increased number of fly fishermen on the creek and the fishing got harder.
The Madison River below Quake Lake at Three Dollar Bridge was its normal brawling self.  We used conventional indicator nymphing techniques to take some beautiful rainbows.  The wading was arduous but well worth the effort.

Slough Creek below the campground was its usual difficult self.  We had hoped to hit the Grey Drake hatch but never saw one of the bugs during the two times we fished there.  A combination of wind and heat seemed to have put the kibosh on any hatches.  We were able to take a couple of large cutthroats on small parachute ants in-between the wind gusts.

The Firehole fished well and had the best hatches in Yellowstone Park while we were there.  The mornings saw a sporadic Baetis hatch with a few White Millers while the evenings saw a good hatch of White Millers.  We used both dries and soft hackles to take browns and rainbows

Mammoth Hot Springs

As usual, the photographic opportunities were numerous.  There were several interesting sequences that I was able to film including a herd of bison crossing the Yellowstone River near Buffalo Ford.  The last time I saw that, I was without my camera!  I also got shots of great blue herons, antelope, pika, elk and , of course, scenics.