Legendary fly tier and angler Jay Buchner remembers his first day fishing on Flat Creek at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole, back in the 1960s. “Spinning rods, worms and anything else” were permitted, he said.
On opening day, “it was a stampede,” he said of the rush to catch and take home a fat cutty. “In a couple days, they were pretty much all gone.”
About a decade or so later, managers revised regulations, limiting anglers to artificial flies. “The nature of it changed literally overnight,” Buchner said of the fishery. These days, starting Aug. 1, anglers test their skills on large and wary fine-spotted Snake River cutthroat trout in an unparalleled setting.
You can’t go out to Flat Creek for a walk. You can’t go to the creek to picnic or meditate. “Access to Refuge waters is only permitted for the purpose of fishing,” rules state.
“Even if you can’t catch one of those beautiful, big fish, usually you see one,” Buchner said.
He’s encountered the gamut of anglers, from those ignorant of protocol who wade into a pool he’s fishing to the struggling novice dragging a fly across smooth waters.
“I’ve never yelled or hollered at anybody,” he said. But he has offered a fly or two to the struggler who might be casting something out of her grandfather’s kit.
Buchner created a small, delicate mayfly imitation nicknamed the dandruff that’s good for one strike on Flat Creek before it gets soggy. “It’s nothing you’re going to find in a store,” he said.
“One of the more important things you can do is sit down and watch,” Buchner said of Flat Creek, “see what’s going on. The views are great, the fish are wonderful. Having an opportunity to see a couple is neat, whether you can catch them or not.”