While not like the pre-lake trout days, it's coming back. Numbers are low, but size is really good. I've fished it the last couple of late July's, and found some good fish on big bugs like drakes and Callibaetis. It's still sad to be there envisioning and remembering what it was, but its nice to see some life back in the river. The crowds are coming back a little too, but you can still find a parking place at Buffalo Ford and a few turnouts on up to the falls. A little walking takes care of crowding, and you need to hunt a lot to find some heads. I think you'd like it with proper expectations.
I fished it three years back the same time of year I did for a decade+from the late 90's to late early 10's. It was devastating to me how poor the fishing was. We saw ONE, I am not kidding, ONE cutthroat at fishing bridge. It was beyond sad.
I fish YNP annually, mostly along the Madison (early) and Lamar (later in summer). We always make a trek to try the Yellowstone. Back in the 1980s the Yellowstone below fishing bridge was lined with fishermen; indeed full of fish. The past 3 years we've tried fishing one day each year at Buffalo Ford (Nez Perce Ford) without any luck. We've heard stories of an occasional large cutthroat caught, but haven't seen any.
I mostly agree. You can catch a fish of a lifetime there. You can also fish 3 straight days without a take. Not the place to go and catch 15 or 20 15 - 16 inchers. It's the hero/zero thing. I missed going last year. But was there a few times 2 and 3 and maybe 4 years ago. An especially discerning tape measure deprived me of landing my biggest fish ever by 3/10, yes that's .3, or 30/100 of an inch. And i spent 5 hours in two days casting to a fish that was easily on the scale of 25 to 30 inches which never once moved towards the several dozen different flies i tossed his way.