When to Come and What To Expect:
Fly Fishing: Yellowstone National Park – June
Firehole River Opening Day through June
From opening day, the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend in May, though the month of June, the Firehole River is usually the place to be fly fishing in Yellowstone National Park. Most of the park’s streams are too cold to provide good fly fishing opportunities on the opening day and that situation usually is true for much of the month of June. The Firehole River is an exception because of the effects of the warm water from the geysers.
Anywhere from the uppermost section or the beginning of the first section of water that is open for fishing below Old Faithful, all the way to the Madison River, you will usually find the water warm enough for plenty of action, even on the dry fly. You will also find plenty of aquatic insect hatches that helps keep the trout looking up, meaning feeding on the surface.
If there is a problem fishing the Firehole River, it will be making sure you don’t get hooked in the head by another angler. I’m kidding, but the stream can become congested in certain sections during the month of June. There’s plenty of water for everyone and although many of the anglers may think only certain areas of the river is where they need to be fishing, that’s never the case. Most of the entire river holds plenty of trout and there’s always many areas that will produce that are ignored by the copy cat anglers. For example, if you hear Biscuit Basin is hot, then rest assured it isn’t the only area in the Firehole River that you can catch plenty of trout.
Blue-winged Olive mayflies will be hatching the entire month. The sizes will vary from 20’s to 16’s depending on the species. Pale Morning Duns usually start hatching about the first of June and will continue all month. You may also encounter hatches of Mahogany Duns, hooks size 18 during the month of June but they are not as plentiful as the PMDs or BWOs.
Caddisflies will consist of Little Black Caddis from opening day on through most of the month of June. You will find Spotted Sedges and White Millers hatching most days during the month of June. The little Speckeled Peter caddisflies should also be plentiful starting about the middle of June.
Salmonflies normally begin to hatch in the Canyon Section of the Firehole about the first week of June. These are big, hook size 4 to 6 insects that can really turn the trout on when they are crawling out of the water to hatch and later when they deposit their eggs. Little Yellow Stoneflies, hook size 14, are usually plentiful during the month of June in the fast water sections of the river.
Copyright 2012 James Marsh
