I don't think there's a better way to describe our day better than "tough fishing."  It was typical down low stakes, rolling the dice for big fish or getting skunked.  With every cast it felt like we had a legitimate shot at a monster but the fish weren't on.  Down low it seem so often that the fish are either on or off, there's no dimmer switch down there.  You can tell yourself that you're "just happy being out there" but let's not kid ourselves.  That's just a lie we mumble when the fishing turns off -  similar to "Man, what a beautiful day it is out here."   You want to see Mr. Big in the net just as badly as I do.   I had a nice brown smoke my streamer about 10 feet off a riprap bank.  I put the heat on quickly and had him churning in circles close to the boat when he gave me a head shake and busted me off.  So much for a photo finish.  Loosing a lower Yellowstone fish isn't like loosing a Bighorn fish.  It hurts a lot worse.   Derek saved the day for us with so at least we didn't get skunked.  At the end of the day there was no doubt - the fish won that round.

This just in:  Bob Bergquist, our senior guide at the Yellowstone Angler floated ahead of us on the same stretch and got his client into 8 good fish, one of which was a 24 incher!  Nice work fellas. The angler was a good fisherman from Japan and was getting 'er done.  Usually it's not a big deal to have boats in front of you because the fish are either in the mood to eat or they're not.  It's more of an issue of being in the right place at the right time than getting those nook and cranny shots and retrieving your fly right.  That being said, I guess it wouldn't hurt to be the first boat in the water.