Yesterday was a perfect September day in Montana, 60-70 degrees with only a slight breeze. I took the opportunity to go to “the park”, and hiked from the Fountain Flats parking lot up to the Goose Lake meadow stretch of the Firehole River, which has now cooled into the 60’s. I gradually worked my way downstream, and had several miles of water to myself, except for the resident buffalo and a pair of trumpeter swans!
When I first reached the river around 9:30 am, there was a sparse hatch of White Miller Caddis in progress, which brought scattered rises of small trout to the surface. After playing with them for a bit, I switched to a sinking-tip line, and attached a small, pink-headed wooly bugger, and tried a variety of trailing nymphs and soft hackles. The trout consistently favored the bugger, and over the next few hours I landed about two dozen fish, mostly browns, in the 13-16 inch range.
The fishing should only get better, until the park closes for the year, after the first Sunday in November.