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3. Yellowstone's Slough Creek Backcountry, 2020, Day 3

I started fishing around 11:00 am to some difficult risers near camp, then worked my way upstream. In total for the day, I only caught 5 big fish (16–19") and one small one, but the big ones were all different and memorable:
1. I caught one fish by precision sight nymphing from above and behind it, close on a high cut bank.
2. I caught one that was cruising a very shallow, sunny, slow-moving tailout using a bonefish-style lead/cast/strip of a nymph in front of the fish's path.
3. A rising cruiser patrolling a deep pool tail took a caddis pupa dry, before it had started sinking.
4. I cast across a backbar channel and part of a gravel bar to a fish feeding up off the bottom of a shallow gravel bar, using a Galloup's pheasant tail nymph just below the surface.
5. While resting for a snack on a high bank over a pool, I saw one huge swirl from a fish chasing something. I cast a streamer and a nice fish slammed it. That was the only streamer action all day except for a few lazy follows.

I hooked and lost many nice fish throughout the day, more than twice the number I landed. Fish were generally not very active, and I had to work hard and get creative for every strike. There was lots of action on dry flies, mostly tiny, but I didn't land many fish on those. The most memorable lost fish was a big one from a high cut bank, below which was a submerged, undercut clay shelf. I hooked the fish, but there was no way to alnd it except by horsing it upstream 20 yards, which wasn't happening on a size 20 dry with a 6X tippet. I also broke one off on 7X while screwing around trying to fetch my net and camera after hooking the fish during a snack break.

Hatches were sparse. There were sporadic yellow sallies and some small (size 18), yellow-bodied Heptageniid mayfly duns. A few caddis and craneflies were around. The water temperature peaked at 65 degrees.