My brother Jim & I hadn't been back fishing Yellowstone Park since 2001 so we packed the ol' trooper and started out on the 14 hr. drive to the park. The weather was beautiful for this time of year and we didn't see even one evening shower the whole week we were at the park. With the cold nights and pleasant days the Firehole, Gibbon, and Madison rivers were back open to fishing and the forest fire danger down. We couldn't have picked a better week for some fly fishing fun.

After checking out the Gibbon, and Madison. We decided that we would go for the best bang for the buck only having a week so both of us agreed that what we wanted above all else was solitude (dislike crowds while fishing), fast (no time to hike unless you can fish at the same time), fast fishing (like to stay busy catching, not casting and figuring out hatches), fish (fish of a respectable size maybe not trophies but not minnows either). OK, not a tall order given where we are. We figured our best bet was the canyons and we were right. Why do you ask? 1) people don't like climbing around like a couple of monkey's to get fish... but we do. In fact we love it. It's our favorite especially if you get to climb up a cliff to get back out. 2) Fishing is fast and furious. The trout have to make a quick decision to take your fly or not. Fishing can be a little tough but with all of the plunge pools, eddy's, foam pockets and deep holding places 75+ fish days are all within a 2 mile stretch of river in the canyons. So after a quick fix at the Firehole we set off for Mammoth and a little morning fishing in the Gardner river canyon for browns & rainbows.