My first trip to fish the famed Firehole must have been around 1980. My usual stop is the Biscuit Basin area, and this has been great fishing through the years. I especially enjoyed the visits to West Yellowstone with Bud Lilly when he ran his shop there on the corner.

During the years on the Firehole here have been evening hatches of caddis where I was catching eight to ten fish within an hour. There was the recommendation of the philo fly by the Blue Ribbon Fly Shop (which they don't push now, but still keep some similar to the original ) that made a couple of years especially great, and then came my introduction into the soft hackle flies which I still enjoy when not fishing drys.

This year, after fishing the Biscuit Basin are one evening, I decided to try the Firehole at the Fountain Flats region. The water is beautiful in June and the hatches continued from noon until dark. Most days found me fishing 8+ hours and I often fished through several rain storms and several moments of sleet, but exciting fishing to almost continual rises like I experienced here made me forget (almost) the rain and sleet that passed through.

There were days the fish were especially choosy. Perhaps a dozen fishermen would occupy the one mile stretch and I would see practically no one take a fish even though they were rising all around them. They were determined to fish dry fly to the rises. This time of the year is usually PMD, Caddis, BWO, etc. usually work, but not always. I found a #20 black caddis hatch that would “come and go” during the day and my matches to it usually produced good fishing.  Most of the shops in West Yellowstone, oddly enough did not have this fly – and what I had tied quickly ran out in the fourteen days.

I caught fish every day and never had a day without a couple of 16” browns or rainbows (see pictures). Most days averaged a fish per hour, or better. One day only granted me two fish, but another day granted me two hours of a fish on about every ten minutes. Most of these were caught on a #18 emerger caddis that was black wing and dark grey body, or a # 14 bead head soft hackle with dark hackle and dark grey body. In both cases they were cast directly across the river to the edge of the other bank and allowed to drift and lifted as the line straightened out. Or, cast to the rising fish that were often mid-river. I think it is more in presentation without drag than matching the exact fly.

Having fished the fly some thirty trips into the Amazon jungles of Brazil, twenty six trips into Belize (where I caught a 13 lb. bone), Africa, Fiji, and some excellent fishing trips into Argentina – I still consider the Madison, Gibbon, and the Firehole some of the world's finest fishing.

My Firehole fishing records over the past twenty years show the flies that have taken the most on the Firehole have been: Elk Hair, Grey Philo, Dark Caddis, Bitch Creek, variety of Soft Hackle, PMD, BWO, Royal Trude, H & L, various Sparkle Pupa, and the usual hoppers and beetles in summer. My choice of rod is Orvis #4 and #6 for windy days with 5x or 6 x leader.

I especially recommend careful walking along the banks due to the many holes, and careful wading since some of the area near the entrance is not limestone bottom. There were the usual herds of buffalo, some elk, and a wolf pack that came down to the river just to smile for my stock photography section - during my June days on the Firehole June 2004. God has certainly blessed America! Happy Traveling.