| SILVER
GATE, Mont.--
Green water comes swirling, boiling and
then easing out over a sand bar. This is snow
melt, still running down from the mountains, slightly
chalky but clear enough to see brookies rising
in the eddies, jumping in the fast water. There
are beaucoup brookies in the Clark's
Fork of the Yellowstone River.
"You go down there, you
can catch 'em on boogers and a safety pin,"
advised Ralph Glidden at the Cooke City General
Store, a twinkle in his eye. "Sometimes you
may have to resort to belly button lint though."
Glidden was talking about a
spot on the Clark's Fork we now refer to as the
"Booger Hole." There are brookies everywhere
there. So abundant, so aggressive, so hungry,
that any fool can catch them, most of the time.
Brook trout
are members of the char family. They're so
willing that they don't survive heavy fishing
pressure, but there isn't much of that on the
"Booger Hole". To get there one must
hike through one of the "moosiest" forests
in the area. It is at least spooky if not intimidating.
There isn't much pressure on
brook trout anywhere in and around nearby Yellowstone
National Park. The big time trout boys are a lot
like the big time bass boys. They're out after
big rainbows and cutthroat trout, not the diminutive
brookie. They're out there on all those famous
waters -- the Madison, the Firehole, the Big Horn,
the Yellowstone itself. That leaves those beautiful
little brookie holes for the blue collar crowd,
and that's what the brook trout is, a blue collar
fish not unlike the bluegill down South.
Brook trout, called "specs"
for speckled trout by our neighbors across the
Canadian border, are the bluegills of the North
in many respects. They're aggressive. They're
found from the East Coast to the West Coast. They're
easy to catch most of the time; they'll bite anything,
and they put up a good fight on light tackle.
And, sometimes you see a real lunker.
In the North American freshwater
sport fish beauty pageant, brookies and bluegills
rank one-two. A brook trout's mating coloration
features multi-colored spots or "specs"
on the sides. Bright orange highlights the lower
jaws and surrounds a snow white belly. A delicate
blue-white edge outlines the pectoral and anal
fins. Their bodies are streamlined and covered
in mucous to help them in swift currents where
they live.
 So far as eating is concerned, most bluegill fans will prefer a nice bream
fillet, but a 12-inch brookie, roasted over the
fire or pan fried, is right up there.
In general you don't see brookies
as big as bluegill, although there are some extreme
examples on record. The world record brookie weighed
14 lbs., 8 ozs. and was caught in the Nipigon
River, Ontario way back in 1916 (July). That's
much larger than the world record bluegill, at
4 lbs., 10 ozs., but the Nipigon brookie was a
"lake run" variety specific to Lake
Superior. Brookies that size aren't seen many
places these days, but 2 to 3 lb. specs are said
to be common in Maine, and 7-pounders aren't unusual
in Quebec. You won't find any 14 lb. brook
trout on the Clark's Fork or anywhere else in
the Rocky Mountains either, but you can find small
ones by the score, and you can actually keep enough
to eat--the limit is 10 a day at the Booger Hole,
but they must be UNDER nine inches long. Fishing for brook trout
in these Rocky Mountain streams is not unlike
smallmouth bass fishing on a favorite Midwestern
stream, except the water is so clear that you
can see your quarry.
That's the way it is on the
Booger Hole, and on a good day, it doesn't matter
that the fish can see you too. Drop a tiny Mepps
or Panther Martin or Rooster Tail into the current
and let it swing out into an eddy as it passes.
Float a tiny dry fly in the fast water and watch
them rise to attack it. As Ralph Glidden says,
boogers on safety pins will work. If you run out
of belly button lint, check your shorts for a
fresh berry.
"I like fishin' the corn fly hatch,"
joked a mountain-sized red-headed fellow called
"Big Jim"at Hoosier's Bar in downtown
Cooke City. "You know, you throw about a
half a can of corn into the creek, chumming. Then
you wait a little bit and bait up with a kernel."
Fishing the corn fly hatch is
illegal here, but it isn't in some other places,
and it does work. Ozark trout in Missouri and
Arkansas are famous for their dietary interest
in Jolly Green Giant Yellow Corn (canned, not
frozen).
If you've never fished for trout,
the brookie is a great starter fish--again
not unlike the bluegill. Kids in these parts get
their early experience fishing for brookies and
little cutthroat, just like southern kids learn
on bluegill.
All trout love
nightcrawler pieces, but if you're heading West,
be sure to check local regulations on live bait
use. You can't use live bait in the Clark's Fork
or anywhere inside Yellowstone National Park,
for example.
 The good news is, you
won't need worms. A variety of small spinners
will do the trick, and any floating fly will work
when they're rising. Larger, brightly colored
flies like the Royal Wulf are favorites. They
float high and are easy to see.
If you're a camping angler,
your best bet is to settle into one or more of
the U.S. Forest Service campgrounds that surround
the park. Along U.S. 212 in Wyoming, the Shoshone
National Forest offers camping on the Clark's
Fork. There are numerous "people's" camping spots
along the river.
Camping inside Yellowstone
is not recommended. Number one, the campgrounds
are almost always full. Number two, the park campgrounds
tend toward RV cities and tent slums--screaming
children and adults, 4-wheelers, motorcycles,
even fireworks are common. Grizzlies also like
these campgrounds, because they know where the
garbage is.
Close to the park in Montana,
the Gallatin National Forest has campgrounds in
the mountains (lots of mountain lakes to fish),
and on the banks of Soda Butte Creek. The Soda
Butte flows into Yellowstone park and feeds another
famous trout stream--the Lamar River, one of the
best fly fishing stream in the world by some accounts.
Don't expect to find electrical hookups out here,
but do expect to find some of the most beautiful
spots you'll find anywhere in the country.
Unfortunately, the U.S.
Forest Service has stopped operating these campgrounds.
The campgrounds have been given to private industry
to operate at a profit as has happened elsewhere
(H-T, July 4, 1993) .
"That's probably why they're
not as nice as they used to be," said one unhappy
Soda Butte camper upon hearing that news. They
are affordable. You can camp on a great fishing
river, in campgrounds that seem never to be filled,
for $11 a night. Just about everyone can afford
that price.
Check out the U.S. Forest
Service Home Page at http://www.fs.fed.us/. Ask
why they don't have a list of campgrounds on-line
via their feedback link. Here are the telephone
numbers for the various national forests that
surround Yellowstone:
Gallatin NF: Bozeman,
Mont., 406-587-6701
Beaverhead NF: Dillon, Mont., 406-683-3900.
Targhee NF: St. Anthony Idaho, 208-624-3151.
Bridger-Teton NF: Jackson, Wyo. 307-733-2752.
Shoshone NF: Cody, Wyo. 307-527-6241.
Custer NF: Billings, Mont., 406-657-6361.
3/10/97
& 11/24/97 ...Indy
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