Today I went for a hike in YNP along with Steve to Grebe and Wolf Lake. We hiked in with many folks from Patagonia shops around the country to conduct a study of fluvial grayling. The study that we participated in is aimed at finding numbers and ages of grayling from Grebe and Wolf lake, as well as investigating their migratory behavior into the Gibbon River.

I must say that we certainly had a very enthusiastic group of fly fishers for this trip. Even with the less than desirable conditions, everyone was happy to be there helping out with the data collection. After all, we were going fishing to gather this information so how bad could it be? We arrived at the lake to find that the wind had picked up just enough to put down the surface activity so we opted to fish with Evening Stars and Sparrows. These flies certainly worked their magic allowing us to tag and release fifty-five grayling. The group was able to catch many more grayling. However, Amber, who is working in conjunction with the park service through Montana State University, had more fish then she could handle. We were never certain how the fishing would pan out but it certainly worked out better then we dreamed for this study. If memory is serving me correctly, Amber stated that the last study on Grebe Lake was back in the fifties. That study put the population up over twenty thousand for the lake. So needless to say, we’re all very excited to get the results back from all of our hard work since the last estimated numbers are over fifty years old.

Along with the excellent fishing, we were treated to beautiful sights and sounds of mother nature engulfing our group. After fishing for grayling in Grebe Lake, we proceeded up the path a little further to Wolf Lake. Again, the wind was a dominating force that allowed us to only use streamers. Once we all found a piece of water to work with, within two short casts, most of us were hooked up with either a grayling or a nice rainbow. Steve and I were both a little surprised to see that most fish caught at this particular site were really decent rainbows. Steve and I both landed several bow’s over twelve inches in length. As the parade of yellow buckets passed by with study bound grayling, a herd of elk emerged from the woodland edge into the meadow across from our location. It was truly a perfect setting. Young elk romping around their mothers only made me think that some predators may also notice this great site.