Happy Mother’s Day Caddis hatch! We hope you can get out and fish it today, because some nasty weather is rolling our way. Highs over the next few days will continue to drop while the chance of rain will increase through Friday.
Not to worry the fishing will still be very good as we have a great March Brown and Baetis hatch that will be prolific with the cloud cover.
In the video fishing report you’ll see that the caddis hatch really just started yesterday. While the number of bugs on the water are not epic they are starting. Farther downstream near the 89 bridge the hatch was much heavier and we expect to see more of that today.
Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted!
Summary:
On Saturday we guided on the Lower Madison. Once again conditions were a bit tougher than we’d like. A front moved in and the majority of the day found us challenged by 20 mph downstream winds. The combination of small nymphs and heavy winds made it difficult to get the right drift. Fortunately, we are always prepared and brought out 7 weights and got the job done. We only landed about a dozen fish, but a number of them were in that great 15 -17 inch category. Surprisingly, most were brown trout.
Best Technique:
Our only real option was to nymph based on the conditions. Indicators about 5-6 feet above a BB or AB split shot with a double nymph rig.
Weather & Water Conditions:
Fifty-five degrees, variable clouds, 20mph downstream wind. The water was flowing at 1,130 cfs and had been stable for a few days. The water color is a great green/olive color – perfect for the lower.
Hatches:
Light baetis hatch around noon.
Best Bugs:
Our best nymph size 18 olive Lightning Bug fished behind a San Juan or small Bow River Bugger.
Summary:
On Friday we guided on Armstrong’s spring creek. The predicted overcast and rainy was typical Montana weather, by that we mean completely opposite. It was a bit tough, as the hatch never got really going, but we managed to catch several nice rainbows on the nymphs.
Best Technique:
Our only real option was to nymph based on the conditions. We concentrated on deeper holes and the tailouts of pools with very small indicators and baetis and midge patterns dropped about 2.5 – 3 feet below.
Weather & Water Conditions:
Fifty-five degrees, bright sun & a 10-15 mph west wind. The water was gin clear, as always and low as the weed growth hasn’t started too strongly yet.
Hatches:
Light midge hatch throughout the day and light baetis hatch around 2pm.
Best Bugs:
Our best nymph was a Micro-Mayfly Baetis sz 20 and Brown-Olive Surface Emerger size 20-22. The best midges were BH Zebra Midge & Miracle Midge both in sz 20.
Happy Earth Day!
Earth Day
Today, April 22, 2010 is the fortieth anniversary of Earth Day. Before 1970 factories could release black clouds of toxins into the air or dump toxic waste into rivers and streams, and it was perfectly legal. In 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day as a ways to “force this issue onto the national agenda.” President Nixon and Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency in response to an increasing public demand for cleaner water, air and land; this agency would be known to tackle environmental issues facing the United States and world today.
What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day? Walking to work, taking public transportation, planting a garden? Comment on your ideas….
Do you hold to this Spring Fishing Philosophy?
Many of our loyal Montana Fish Bum Blog followers have asked why the fishing reports are always so varied this time of year. The short answer: it’s spring fishing. We have to go back a ways for the longer, geek-ier answer. All the way back to ancient China and the philosophy of Yin/Yang. The Chinese philosophy of Yin/Yang espouses how seemingly contrary forces are interconnected in the natural world and how these forces give rise to one another. For example light leads up to periods or darkness, which in turn yields back to light. I lost some of you so here’s the short version = opposite yet related. Most Montana anglers would loosely agree with this line of thinking, especially when it comes to spring fishing. Of course you still don’t see many Yin/Yang bumper stickers pasted to the back of mud covered trucks driven by guys with cowboy hats.
Spring is the time when most anglers are getting excited for the first warm days of spring and the hopes that eager trout will feed with abandon. However, for as many days as this holds true the opposite occurs. Our warm days and nights in Montana raises the water temperature to excite the baetis, caddis and March Browns, but it also starts melting snow in the mountains. The melted snow raises the river flows, colors up the water and in most cases cools the water temperature down delaying the hatch or putting the trout off the feed.
Or the Dude's Philosophy?
This situation holds particularly true during late April and early May here on the Yellowstone River when the Mother’s Day Caddis hatch occurs. Caddis fishing in here in the spring can be a real start and stop adventure. One day the caddis will pour off the river then a couple days of warmth with blow the river out. The caddis hatch will slow down and when the river gets warmer they’ll start going again. This could scenario could last several days, even weeks. Damn the Yin Yang!
So as anglers are anticipating the greatest of all spring hatches here in Montana we would suggest taking up the philosophy of “The Dude”*, which would be “forget about it and just go fishing man” (PG version). It’s not possible to plan for good fishing, you have to put in your time. When you fish enough you’ll realize that all fishing days are great, the catching just balances itself out over the years. In the battle of holding to the best philosophy of spring fishing in Montana we hold true to the Dude.
* If you don’t know who the Dude is we suggest watching the Big Lebowski next time the river blows out.
Mother's Day Caddis Hatch from 2009
As many of you know (since we love talking about it!) we are getting close to our annual Mother’s Day Caddis hatch on the Yellowstone River. We have seen some – I repeat some – caddis on the river. In total we’ve seen a few dozen adults over the past several days and plenty of pupa starting to drift and migrate. So, we are getting close.
The recent warm weather has melted some of the lower snow and the Yellowstone has come and cooled off a bit. The magic number for the full blown hatch is when the water temperatures go upwards of 54 degrees.
So if we had to guess? Within the next week we should start seeing some good caddis fishing. So keep your thermometers handy and check the river temps often over the next several days – or you can just read our blog and we’ll let you know.
Remember we do have a great spring fly fishing rate from now until June so come on out and enjoy a Montana fly fishing trip this season!
