Flat Creek

I've been guiding on the Snake the past couple of days on Teton Park stretches and the fishing has been marginal. My clients were decent anglers and a lot of fun to be with, but the fishing just never popped. We caught numerous fish both days, but finding any larger fish was difficult. The weather this week has been warm and very bright, with zero cloud cover. A weather change would do the river good. This past weekend, I took a break off the oars and headed out to Flat Creek on the National Elk Refuge to test my dry fly skills. There's plenty of water left in the river and a tremendous amount of grasshoppers all over the refuge. I fished right through the middle of the day, which can sometimes be slow, but I found a great bank-feeder right as I started fishing. Flat Creek fishes like a typical spring creek (although it is not one, technically). Long, delicate, upstream casts are required only after crawling on your knees to spot your fish. The fish I found on Sunday was a gift. My first cast to him with a small hopper was eaten, but my hook set was junk...I totally missed him. After that, he wouldn't look at the hopper anymore. I continued with small mayfly patterns and actually stung the fish, not once, but twice! After missing him once, stinging him twice, I decided to rest him awhile. After about twenty minutes, he was back up feeding and I grabbed him on a mahogany dun. Sometimes, even on Flat Creek, you can get more than one chance.