Fishing Nez Perce Creek in YNP

So this Saturday seemed like the time to make the most of July 4 weekend by cruising down to Yellowstone and hiking up Nez Perce Creek several miles to flyfish for some YNP trout in the midst of some awesome backcountry. Joined by Ghetto-C, the much anticipated dayhike adventure was underway.

We left the Bozone around 6:30am and headed down to the Park. Once there we rigged up at the Mary Mountain trailhead and headed upstream. When you see steam coming up from the ground, you know you're in YNP yo!

The first 1.5-2 miles of the trail goes around an area of thermal features called the Culex Basin. Due to the water from these features, the fishing here is non-existant. Once above the Basin however, the water cools and the fishing improves greatly. If there was a trout-stream designer, this is what he would dream about:

The trail passes by many small backcountry thermal features. Don't fall in Ghetto!

Eventually we hike up a few more miles and look for a place to begin fishing. There was so much snow this winter (200% of normal) and rain in June that water is everywhere. Eventually we find a nice meadow where we can make it out to the stream's edge. Ghetto-C gives it a go and starts hooking up on small 8" browns on a Prince Nymph.

The trout are mostly small (6-10") but beautiful, and on a light 3-wt flyrod plenty of fun. I have some good success on the surface with a #16 PMD Sparkle Dun, which is surprising considering how bright it is out.

Eventually we are reminded we are not alone by a couple of bison passing through:

Better than a bear, I say! Considering that they don't even open this trail until June 15 due to grizzly activity and the fact we could easily find claw marks on the trees.  And, of course, bones:

We passed  through several more lage meadows, with similar fishing throughout. We missed alot of strikes, but landed a few small browns before it was time to hike the 3-4 miles back to the car.

Not epic catching, but epic fishing!