WY/MT Trip Day 3: Slough Creek

 Our daily routine for two weeks had been wake up early and fish then start all over again the next day.  I was concerned about Patty getting so sick of this to the point that she will never want to fish again. Au contraire, fueled by gorgeous views, she couldn't wait to get out there and fish.  Sort to speak....

 
On our way to the Slough creek.

Lone bison appeared and gave us a glance before passed us by.

At the entrance of the creek

We've decided to fish lower meadow as some heavy clouds started to form and dumped a good amount of rain water on us later on.

 

Patty's lesson continues on.

We didn't get to see large cutts in the lower meadow.  It was mostly small rainbows and cuttbows.

The bison bull on the right was getting annoyed so we moved out of there at heart beat.

One of larger rainbow.

Found this antler by the creek. Hope he had lived freely.

WY/MT Trip Day 2: Gardner River

Gardner River, 25 miles long,and it's entire length of the river is located within the Yellowstone National Park. It is considered one of easier river to fish within the park.  With our sore butt from the horseback ride, we were out by 7:00 am to meet up with Travis who will be guiding us for next 4 days.  Travis who has been fly fishing since 11 years young  married an argentinian woman who's family has guiding service in Argentina and been fishing and  guiding all year around both in Yellowstone as well as Patagonia.  He immediately put us at ease with his winning smile and down to earth personality and we were off to fish Gardner River. 

View of Washburn Range.

Lower section of the river.

Patty getting a private lesson from Travis.  This is a must strategy for anyone who want to teach their wife how to fly fish.  Just like driving lesson, it can save a relationship.

Patty's first fish in Yellowstone.

Our second bear sighting of the trip.  Travis had his eye on the bear the whole time until he casually passed by us.

Hike to upper reach of the river.

Travis on the Sheepeater Cliff.

 Beginning of the 20th century, this river was fishless.  I guess without thinking, fishery manager at the time decided to stock eastern brook trouts instead of cutts. Upper reach of the river is dominated by brookies and my entrusted ausable bomber did good job bring them to the surface.

 As you can see, Patty's smile gets brighter by the moments.

Behind me is where the Golden Gate Canyon starts. I don't think I ever spent more time looking at the scenery instead fishing as I have on this day. 

WY/MT Trip Day1: Fan Creek

Wow, what a trip that was!  This will be the trip to remember for years to come.  As I am sitting down to organize our trip, I am having a trouble figuring out where to begin as too many good things lingering in my head.  Not only Patty became a full blown angler during this trip but fact that we were able to truly enjoy the whole experience together made this very special. To top it all that, not a single typical husband and wife bickering during the trip.  I think the secret is to hire guide to occupy your spouse and relieve you from half fast guide duty which ultimately frustrate you due to lack of your skill as... patient husband.

We wanted to throw in different activities other than fishing to this trip and one of the thing popped out was the horseback riding.  Being an animal lover, Patty even with her limited experience on a horse, wanted to try the ride.  We found an outfit that specialize in horseback riding and fly fishing in West Yellowstone and decided to explore Fan Creek and it's trail, which is a popular horseback riding destination.

Met up with Yana who was our guide for the day at the west yellowstone and drove out to the trail.  Yana is born and raised in Montana with winning personality.  Upon introduction, Yana with smile told us that she never fished in her life.  Hmmm...It's going to be a challenging day... I thought.

 We prepped the horses at the trail head.  Little Wolf for Patty and Running Wolf for me.  LW and RW was great horses.  Little stubborn but sweet animals. 

 We rode about 6 miles, mostly in lower meadow crossing the creek a few times which added some excitement. 

 

 This region is also experiencing drought and unusual high temperature which I assume effecting the feeding and habitat arrangement as I did not see any spooked fish dotting away. 

 Amazing view of Fan Creek from the trail.  We did not run into anyone during our ride.

 Running wolf trying to get Patty's attention.

 Ran into this lone grizzly on the trail.  Most of the time, he ignored us but what a nerve wracking experience.

Even though we didn't catch anything, (later we found out from a local flyshop that due to the heatwave, the most of fish travelled to upper meadow) this was a great way to begin our trip as not only we got to experience long trail ride on horseback and ran into a bear on our first day. 

Even with sore bottom, Patty couldn't stop talking about our experience on the way back to our motel.  I can feel the excitment from her tone and thought to myself "Yup, this is going to be a great trip!"...