As you may have noticed Montana Fly Fishing Guides is undergoing a bit of a make over. In the past ten years we’ve been fortunate to have a great crew of guides, lodging partner and most of all great clients. So things have been great, but as Paul Getty once said, “nostalgia often leads to idle speculation”. We are determined not get caught up in that trap.
So along with our new logo you can expect a few more changes in the near future. What’s up next? We’ll be over hauling the website to start. We’ve really gone into detail and found out what YOU think is informative on our Montana Fly Fishing Guides website and plan to continue to develop those areas. So look for the new website overhaul in the next month.
In the mean time what do you think about the new logo? Please post your comments below.
Montana fly fishing is never boring, in fact the 2011 season was exceptionally exciting. We thought we’d reminisce on some of the more notable highlights:
#5 – This one is our personal favorite – us getting to fish with fun people! This might seem a bit sentimental, but we have to start this list off with the quality of people that we fished with last season. Over the past 10 years we’ve meet some exceptionally great people and continued to develop long lasting relationships with others, and we look forward to it again in 2012.
#4 – PMD mania. DePuy & Armstrong Spring Creeks had some fantastic hatches this season and this past July was exceptionally good. Guide Eric and client Kris were able to capitalize with a remarkable 5 fish over 17″ in a few short hours. They also had a shot a fish well over the 21″ mark but were unable to coax him to the fly. I guess we’ll have to save that highlight for 2012.
#3 – Salmon flies on the Madison. We had a two boat crew on a spectacular day from Lyon’s to Ruby. Guides Eric and Zach saw more salmon fly dry eats in one day than in the past 4 years combined. What made it especially memorable is that one of our clients has degenerating eye disease that will make it unlikely he’ll ever see a fish eat his fly again. Certainly a sad condition we are just happy that he’ll remember that day for the rest of his life.
#2 – Fishing the Missouri River at 22,000 cfs. No one has ever guided (our research) this river at that level. Despite the high water the fishing was absolutely amazing. Typical days were 20 – 40 fish averaging 18 inches. Simply incredible!
Drum roll please…
#1 – Without a doubt was the record setting flows on the Yellowstone River. The Yellowstone River peaked in early July (a month later than usual) at a record setting 38,000 cfs which equates to 284,000 gallons of water going by every second – a once in a lifetime sight! While this definitely screwed up the fishing on the Yellowstone River until early August it was cool to see. Check out this video take from Carter’s Bridge just south of Livingston.
“Where the Yellowstone Goes” is a documentary film scheduled for release in the spring of 2012. This will be a truly unique look at our homewaters of the Yellowstone River. The guides and film crew for this project floated 680 miles – the entire length of the river from Gardiner, Montana to it’s confluence with the Missouri River in North Dakota. Fellow guides Robert Hawkins and Shannon Ongaro along with the film crew not only show the uniqueness of this one of a kind river, but also share their experiences with local ranchers and anglers in this special journey.
We can’t wait to see the full version this coming spring, but for now the trailer will have to suffice – this is why we do what we do…
O.K. there’s nothing we can do about it so let’s have some fun with this.
We aren’t all gloom and doom over the crazy amounts of rain and snow here in Montana (see the pretty rainbow picture), but it is crazy right now. As many of you know this is how we get our averages here. Average 80 degrees in the summer time = Monday it’s 100 + Tuesday it’s 60 degrees. However, this is getting a bit ridiculous. Granted it’s heading into Memorial weekend so the weather should be pretty crappy, but they didn’t forecast rain – they forecasted HEAVY rain. Oh, and did we mention the Winter Storm Watch in Paradise Valley and Yellowstone National Park for to day through Monday?
To put it in perspective last week Livingston received about 2.5 inches, the forecast is for another 2 or 3 inches, our annual rainfall is 12 inches. That’s about 45% of our total rainfall for the year in a total of two weeks yippie. In eastern Montana last week they got 8 inches in one storm – it washed out bridges and closed the interstate fun.
Once again if you didn’t catch our previous post about the large amounts of snow we still have check it out and consider adjusting your fishing plans this summer.
I remember a story about this, what was it? Oh, yeah Noah can you get us the building specs on that ark you built? Maybe we can use it to float from Yellowstone National Park through downtown Livingston.
Blogging with a snorkel on somewhere near the approaching water…
Yep - that's over 20 feet of snow!
Apparently Old Man Winter is clinging on to it’s final few weeks with an icy grip. Over the weekend Mammoth and Cooke City reported several feet of snow. This photo was taken yesterday in Hayden Valley in Yellowstone National Park, which is located on the Grand Canyon Loop a few miles north of Yellowstone Lake. WOW! That’s over 20 feet of snow along the roadside – crazy.
Our current snow pack in the Upper Yellowstone drainage is 162% of normal – those are similar numbers to 1997 when the Yellowstone River had a 100 year flood event (see flood photo). While it’s difficult to forecast, the weather National Weather Service has predicted a cooler and wetter June than average (see Forecast).
What does this mean for fly fishers coming to Montana this summer? First off the best time to come fishing is whenever you can – this isn’t a gloom and doom post. However, this summer plan for some high water and preferably push your fishing dates until at least until mid/late July – unless you’ve already planned your trip on the Missouri River or any of the private spring creeks of Armstrong, DePuy or Nelson. The Missouri is a tailwater (dam controlled flows) and still fishes quite well at higher water levels. The spring creeks are not effected by heavy snow melt as they are feed from ground water springs. As one of our seasoned guides always likes to say, “full rivers fish best”. Those of you coming in August and September could see some fantastic fishing this season. Another bonus is the low probability of forest fires this season if you want to look at the bright side of things.
If you have any questions or concerns about water levels and conditions make sure to give us a shout and we’ll get you the latest updated info.
Just in case you follow the blog, but haven’t signed up for our eNewsletter here’s a brief summary or you can see the entire April eNewsletter:
The fuzzy, fat, liar himself...
Punxsutawney Phil is a fuzzy little liar, at least here in Montana – early spring, yeah right. Anglers here are getting twitchy for some warmer weather. We’ve had an unusually cool spring and it seems our fishing is about a week or two behind schedule…
Read more…
It’s officially spring here which means warm and sunny weather today, whiteout blizzard tomorrow. While anglers are obviously excited about hitting the first good fishing of the season, there’s also a sense of urgency, as the impending seasonal run-off starts on most rivers statewide in mid-May.
Read more…
Every spring we offer our spring special and every year it gets more popular. Mainly because the fishing is awesome!
Read more…
The late spring weather has slowed the hatches a bit in our area, but there are midges and baetis on many of the local rivers…
Read more…
Want to stay up on all the latest fishing reports? Subscribe on our blog via email or just check in on the Montana Fish Bum Blog.
Sign up for our eNewsletter.
So along with our new logo you can expect a few more changes in the near future. What’s up next? We’ll be over hauling the website to start. We’ve really gone into detail and found out what YOU think is informative on our Montana Fly Fishing Guides website and plan to continue to develop those areas. So look for the new website overhaul in the next month.
