Early travelers to the area that became Yellowstone National Park depended on the abundant fish in the Yellowstone River watershed to supplement their larders, but they often they went hungry after discovering other streams and lakes were barren.
Fishing
Two Ocean Pass and the Mystery of the Fishless Waters
"it is certain that there is no obstruction even in dry weather to prevent the passage of trout from the Snake River to Yellowstone Lake; it is quite evident that trout do pass over in this way; and it is almost absolutely certain that Yellowstone Lake was stocked with trout from the west"
A Tale: First Report of Cooking Live Fish in a Hot Spring — Hedges, 1870.
" I attempted to land my prize beyond the spring, but unfortunately for the fish, he escaped the hook to plunge into this boiling spring."
A Tale: Grub Pile, Preparing a Camp Supper — Ingersoll, 1880
"If a stream that holds out any promise is near, the rod is brought into requisition at once; and, if all goes well, by the time the cook is ready for them, there are enough fish for the crowd."
A Tale: Fishing the Once Barren Firehole River — 1897
"Zip, something struck the end fly and started up stream, making the line hum through the water and the reel spin. ... It was a good big trout. There is only one thing that acts the way this something on the end of my line did."
A Tale: A Woman’s Trout Fishing In Yellowstone Park — 1897
"I climbed around the edge, past its heated springs and over its mosaic paving, and was seldom disappointed in coaxing a rise where the hot sulphur-tainted streams dripped into the water of the Fire Hole."
A Tale: Lord Blackmore Riles His Guide by Catching 254 Fish in One Day — 1872
"Sport hunters condemned commercial hunting, but reserved their own right to blast away at anything that moved."
A Tale: Rudyard Kipling Goes Fishing With Yankee Jim — 1889
" It seemed to me ... that I might hold my own with the old-timer if I judiciously painted up a few lies gathered in the course of my wanderings. Yankee Jim saw every one of my tales and went fifty better.
Paul Schullery Comments on the General’s Fishing Tackle
"No doubt [Strong's] relatively light tackle, which included a silkworm gut leader that may not have been strong enough to horse a big fish in heavy water, had an effect on his handling of this fish.
A Tale: “The Rod Bent Nearly Double,” General W. E. Strong — 1875
"I pressed my thumb firmly upon it and drew gently back the rod. At the same instant something struck my hook that nearly carried me off my feet."
M. Mark Miller, Author 