Bozeman’s Jon Yousko wins Jackson Hole fishing tournament with Team Worldcast
By BEN PIERCE Chronicle Outdoors
Imagine your looking out over the Snake River in northern Wyoming. The Teton Mountains are rising sharply to the west and trout are surfacing for small dry flies. The hatch is a good one, but you have a feeling it might not last.
You’ve seen a few hoppers leaping around in the grass and word on the river is there’s a stonefly that has been coming off in the evening. You’re looking through your fly box trying to decide what to tie on the end of your line.
Now imagine you’ve got to fish the rest of the day with that single fly. If you lose it, your day is done. If it’s shredded by an angry brown, well bud, tough luck.
Welcome to the Jackson Hole One Fly – the West’s premier fly-fishing tournament. For Bozeman angler Jon Yousko, that one fly was a size 6 water walker.
And it worked like a charm.
Yousko, along with Team Worldcast members Mike Dawes, Don Watson and Geordie Gillett, out-fished the competition to take home top honors at the Jackson Hole One Fly in early September.
“Being a fly fisherman for the better part of 20 years, the Jackson Hole One Fly is the one legit fly-fishing tournament out there,” Yousko said. “It is something the way a golfer would look at the U.S. Open.”
The Jackson Hole One Fly was founded 25 years ago with a simple goal: “the celebration of fly fishing dedicated to the betterment of trout and trout habitat.” It achieves that goal by bringing together enthusiastic anglers and regional guides to “celebrate the joy and spirit of the sport during fishing, social and fundraising activities and events.”
Team Worldcast captain Mike Dawes said Yousko embodies the spirit of the One Fly.
“First and foremost, Jon is committed and he’s worldly,” Dawes said on Tuesday “He fishes a lot and he fishes in a lot of places. He is a great angler and a great ambassador for the sport.”
The Jackson Hole One Fly gets its name from the tournament’s greatest challenge, to fish the whole day with a single fly. Teams consist of four anglers that fish for two days on the Snake River and South Fork of the Snake River. During the tournament, teammates are separated and assigned a guide for the day. They fish from a boat with that guide and another competitor from one of 40 other teams. Each day of the tournament, three team members fish the Snake River and one fishes on the South Fork.
“The South Fork is always where the better days happen,” Yousko said.
Competitors are allowed to fish any conventional fly pattern as long as it is no longer that size 6 and is 3X or shorter in length. The fly can have one bead, cone or dumbbell eye and may have lead or non-lead wire used in construction of the fly. Flies must be tied on barbless hooks or hooks with the barb pushed down.
Flies can be repaired with glue or an adhesive, but re-tying of the fly with thread or any type of fly tying material is prohibited. Broken hooks can be honed or filed to a usable sharpness with a sharpening tool if required.
Yousko said the biggest challenge was choosing a fly that would perform well using a variety of fishing techniques under variable conditions throughout the day.
And not losing it.
“I was thinking a small fly was going to be good for catching fish, but I might lose it or have it damaged removing it from fish’s mouths,” Yousko said. “I ended up fishing a big bug I bought in one of the local fly shops.
“On the south fork, there is a nocturnal stonefly that hatches and a PMD hatch in the afternoon. The big bug was good in the morning. My strategy was I’d get enough fish in the morning and in the afternoon when it was sunny I could fish it like a hopper and get a few fish and it turned out that’s what happened.”
During the tournament each contestant is allowed to select eight trout to measure. Six of those fish will have a bonus score based on their length. Additional points can be earned if an angler lands more than 30 trout during a day.
Yousko said the first day of the tournament presented difficult fishing conditions. He was casting on the Snake River that day and said water temperatures stayed low until the late afternoon. Action was limited, but he said he caught enough trout “that it wasn’t a disaster.”
Dawes, Watson and Gillett did their part and Team Worldcast came out of the first day of fishing with a tourney-leading score of 1552 points – 254 points ahead of the closest competitor, Nebraska Fly Casters.
Of course, it didn’t matter much.
“When I got back after the first day of fishing the Snake, I felt like I had a horrible score,” Yousko said. “I didn’t even fill my card. In hindsight it wasn’t a disaster. I don’t really think any of us knew that we were in first place after that first day of fishing. We did our own things that night, so we didn’t see each other.
“I was so disappointed the first day I just went to my hotel to try and get my game face on for the second day.”
On Sunday, Yousko was representing Team Worldcast on the South Fork and the pressure was on to come up big for the team. He chose to again fish the water walker.
“Word got out we were the team to beat on the second day,” Yousko said. “There were no disasters. Everybody kind of did their job and we were consistent.”
Yousko led the team with a Sunday score of 435 – their cumulative two-day point total of 2670 good enough for first place.
Yousko said winning top honors was great, but taking home the trophy is not what the Jackson Hole One Fly is all about.
“This was the 25th anniversary of the tournament,” he said. “The event is incredible in terms of the camaraderie and the how it is put on. They do such a nice job of bringing awareness to what fly fishing means and how important clean and clear water is for our lives. All the money generated goes back to improving stream conditions and the resource in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
“I had heard about it, but until I had the chance to participate, I had no idea how much of an impact it makes,” Yousko said. “It would be so cool to have something like that in Bozeman.”
Related posts:
- Fishing report: Spring midge hatch on the Madison River has trout looking up
- Hunters, outfitters and conservationists to gather at Wolf Impact Rally in Jackson
About The Author
Loading ...
Comments