Arrived in West Yellowstone, a dormitory and service town just outside the park. The fly shops are awesome. Huge fly cabinets with amazing patterns in every imaginable material. Foam is very big. Many flies are size 8 or 6, huge things. I will make a display of some when I get back. On the other extreme I saw some brilliant caddis and midge patterns smaller than #20 too.

The staff are great and love to hear stories from Australia and New Zealand. There are at least six major fly shops in West Yellowstone. Our shop stacks up very well against them. A night in a cheap motel is called for, so I crash where I can get a good bed and a long hot shower, the Ho Hum Motel. I slept in.

When I headed off about 10am I stopped at the Madison where it crosses the highway. Millions of small fish and a huge pale morning dun hatch. Only a quick look and on to Duck Creek. I missed the camp ground turn-off and the rest of Duck Creek had serious “keep out” signs all over it, so I gave it a miss and headed around the northern end of Hegben Lake.

This is famous for big rainbows and I could see blokes rigging up float tubes to fish the mirror calm bays. I wanted to fish the tailwater between Hegben Lake and the Earthquake Lake.

I parked at Refuge point and walked down to the river. This section is renowned for having the odd monster so I ignored the obvious water full of small fish and worked the pockets and runs. I still caught fish, each time expecting it to be a monster, but all to no avail. The water wasn’t cold like the Goulburn, so I waded across to get a nice braided bit that I could see. The grass is always greener, etc. When it was time to return I realized the flow had increased and I just made it back after dancing tippy-toe through rapids up to my chest. I nearly lost it, camera and all. I had managed to get a conversion cable for my charger from a Radioshack shop in West Yellowstone.

The walk out gave me time to dry and I drove on past Quake Lake as they call it, to Randall’s Crossing. This was a fishing and access point. I worked the water hard with big terrestrial. I watched two guides using high lift nymphing techniques with their clients to no avail. I headed back to West Yellowstone and the Ho Hum.

Beaver Creek enters the tailwater between Hegben Lake and Quake Lake so I decided to climb down into the valley and give it a try. After being nearly swept off my feet and drowning, Beaver Creek would be a nice change.

I had fished up a couple of pools quietly to a thicket of willow and as I pushed aside the bush a huge brown hairy animal leapt into the air and landed with a great splash and crash in the creek, bounding up onto the far bank. I recoiled in shock, I thought it was a bear. My heart was in my mouth.

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