If there’s a single fly that best represents summer dry fly fishing on the Yellowstone River in the last decade, it’s the Chubby Chernobyl. It’s the epitome of the modern attractor dry, big, foamy, visible, and available in just about every color combination you can think of. Don’t get me wrong, the “Chubby” probably does get more surface eats than any other dry pattern on the ‘Stone, but at least part of that is because it’s also probably the most fished dry pattern on the ‘Stone, by far.
All that said, this is the one time of the summer that I wouldn’t fish a Chubby. The big stoneflies, the salmonflies and goldenstones, have come and gone. The few grasshoppers that have hatched are still small. The nocturnal stones haven’t started emerging. There’s simply not many larger bugs hitting the water right now. The aquatic insects that are out and about on the Yellowstone are on the smaller side, multiple caddis species, little yellow sallies, pale morning duns…. And smaller terrestrials, ants, beetles, and the like.
Right now, if I had to pick a dry fly rig for the Yellowstone, it’d be a #16 tan caddis, trailed by a smaller ant. Don’t worry, “Chubbie Time” will return in a few weeks. But for now, maybe give the big foamy stuff a well-deserved rest.
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