Snow and ice fail to put a damper on fishing trip after 1,500-mile

Every fisherman knows the disappointment of having a fishing trip gone bad. Sometimes it rains, sometimes the motor won't start, sometimes you get a flat.

So try having one rained out after driving more than 1,500 miles to get there.

Gerald and Sam Barbee of Powell, Tenn., know the feeling, although it wasn't rain that knocked their plans of eight or nine days of western trout fishing in the head. It was snow.

Snow falling made fishing cold and in some places snow melting made fishing impossible.

"It was the last week of May and the first week of June so we took some shorts with us," Gerald Barbee said. "We never put them on."

The good news for them was cold and snow and the occasional rain didn't matter. They were on a fishing trip, but just as important they were on a father-son adventure.

Gerald and 12-year-old Sam were on a 12-day excursion to some of the fishing holes Gerald visited a few years earlier. The trip took them as far west as the Idaho/Wyoming border, and the drive itself took three days. They passed through Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and the width of Wyoming just to get to their first fishing hole.

That's also where they got their first taste of bad news.

"We got to the east side of Yellowstone (National Park) to fish the Snake River and we couldn't do it," Barbee said. "The runoff of the snow up in the mountains was so bad you couldn't fish."

That's also where they realized that not fishing wasn't synonymous with not having a good time.

"It's just gorgeous out there," Barbee said. "The scenery is spectacular."

And so it went.

From the Snake, they traveled to the Firehole River, which gets its name from all the geysers that drain into it. Like the scenery that dazzled the Barbees at the Snake the Firehole was bewitching as they fished among an incredible array of wildlife.

Elk, moose and buffalo shared the area as the Barbees finally got to fish the Saturday before Memorial Day.

"We caught some fish, but not a whole lot," Barbee said. "But here you are on this stream that you see in all the magazines."

From the Firehole they went to the Lamar River, but snow runoff had it running out of its banks, making it unfishable. From there they went to East Yellowstone to get a room, but found out Memorial Day makes the park a popular place.

"We camped out," Barbee said. "We booked a fishing trip with Madison River Outfitters for later in the week, so we did some sightseeing."

They got to experience the The Grizzly Bar in Cameron, Mont., which this month's "Field and Stream" rates as the second-best place in the West to have a beer after a day of fishing. They also got to enjoy a two-hour traffic jam on the outskirts of Gardiner, Mont., which wasn't caused by endless rows of orange-and-white barrels but by a slow-moving herd of buffalo.

"Before we went out there Sam was hoping he was going to get to see some buffalo," Barbee said. "By the time we came home he was sick of buffalo."

What stood out among the moose, elk and eagles was a lone grizzly bear the Barbees saw on the road to Gardiner. During the elder Barbee's previous trips west he had seen only one, and now there was another close enough to snap a picture of.

"We tried to get a picture, but of course we were in the car," Barbee said. "If you see a grizzly bear, the car is the place you want to be."

They finally got on the Madison -- and in a hotel room -- after the tourists had gone. While Rick the guide tended to Sam, the Barbees fished what might be the most famous trout waters in the world in a mix of swirling snow and rain.

Barbee said the Madison could throw even experienced trout fishermen for a loop because what works in the East doesn't necessarily catch fish in the West.

"The water out there moves twice as fast and you find the fish in different places," he said. "They hold close to the bottom and close to the bank and that's where we were finding the biggest ones."

The Madison is where they caught the best fish of the trip, with Sam landing a 20-inch brown trout and his dad catching one an inch shorter.

"The point of the trip was for Sam to catch a big trout," Barbee said. "We never caught a really big one, but what a great place to fish.'

Then the Barbees were knocked out of another day of fishing by five inches of snowfall. In all, seven days of fishing were squeezed into four, but water wasn't needed to make a whole lot of memories.

"I wanted Sam to see just how big this country is," Barbee said. "I wanted him to see people who live 40 or 50 miles from a grocery store and ranches that you drive by at 70 miles an hour and 45 minutes later it's still the same ranch. We got to see all that."

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