Yellowstone Park, July 18th, 2023

Upper Slough Creek Meadow

Nearly all streams are in fishing condition, excepting the Firehole River where water temps have risen to the point making it difficult for caught, played, then released trout to survive. Major northeast area streams ( Slough and Soda Butte Creeks and Lamar River are in great shape). Drake mayflies, PMDs and caddis emerging and trout taking. Terrestrial insects will soon be dominant as a fish food especially in meadow areas which are plentiful on each of these. On the down side, much of these streams are roadside, and thus are heavily fished and visited. All the above comments apply to Fall River Basin streams, excepting the latter on crowding, which are physically equivalent in terms of meadow reaches. But Fall River Basin streams require some walking to approach. Thus they are less “hammered” waters.

On the Lamar River, crowds of anglers and tourists can be escaped the further one walks upstream above the Soda Butte Creek confluence. For Slough Creek, one must travel as far as the uppermost meadow to escape crowding. That requires a walk of several miles from the trail head. For Soda Butte Creek, there is no way to escape crowds on the best fishing locations.

Fishing in the largest Park Lakes, Heart, Lewis, Shoshone, Yellowstone ( excepting its endangered cutthroat) has slowed as warming waters mean fish are migrating to deeper areas until cooling fall weather brings them back to shallower waters either to spawn (lake trout ) or forage.