It was another beautiful day in Paradise Valley, just South of Livingston, Montana. It seems spring would like to change its tune from 2011 and try and make a very early appearance. However, as most long time Montana residents will tell you – well you never can tell.
This gave us another opportunity to do some more winter fly fishing. Highs were in the mid-40′s and with light winds and warm sunshine it was quite pleasant.
There was a steady hatch of midges on the Yellowstone River from about noon till 3pm. We fooled a few Rainbows with a Harrop CDC Midge and a few Whitefish fooled us as well. Overall, for fishing the Yellowstone River in February it was a great day.
That sunset certainly warmed the soul as well.
OK, it’s 45 degrees in Livingston, Montana and feels more like spring than January. So as we are sitting here working on a few bookings for next season we keep looking out the window and thinking about, what else, fishing of course. Every year we spend the spring time hunting heads on the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. It’s still a couple months away from good dry fly fishing, but here’s a great video from our friends at 406 productions and a few of our local friends up on the Missouri. For those of you looking to improve your dry fly technique check out the great down stream drifts these anglers are getting.
There’s nothing that will get you stoked for the upcoming fishing season like some good fish porn!
Montana is getting pounded with snow – FINALLY! Well it’s taken a while, but I guess the weather guys are right la Nina is starting to show it self. Good news for all Montana fly fishing anglers and those nay-sayers talking about the potential lack of water in many of Montana’s drainages. We’ll keep you posted to what this system does to the snow pack, but current predictions are for several feet in the mountains.
Snow means water and water levels equate to summer fishing quality so here go:
After the past several seasons our this Montana winter is evening out. With record setting levels last year this season is looking a bit more “normal” even by Montana standards. Huge snow packs can be good for keeping the rivers cool and the trout happy, but it does tend to spread them out which can make it more challenging to fish. In lower water years the fishing can be quite good as the fish are condensed, but water temperatures can be an issue. So at this point our experience level tells us that this looks to be a quality 2012 water season, but we’ll have to just keep following it as the season progresses to know for sure.
Current snow pack levels by drainage:
Upper Yellowstone: 79% of average
Lower Yellowstone: 91% of average
Madison: 64% of average
Missouri: 70% of average
Smith: 77% of average
Bighorn: 92% of average
Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted as a huge weather system is currently moving into western Montana.
Well at least the weather has been getting better in Montana, we don’t feel like we guiding in Alaska any more (no more wearing rain jackets everyday). However the fishing is very inconsistent. One day it’s good the next not so much. We had the McCord’s from Houston Texas up for the last several days and we’ve seen both mediocre and great conditions.
Day one was on DePuy spring creek which was good but the fish were extra picky, mostly due to a light PMD hatch (and the afternoon hail storm). Day two was one of the best dry fly days in recent years on Armstrong spring creek as the PMDs poured off the stream from about 9am until 2 pm. Meredith caught this taped 18″ on a No Hackle dry at about 1pm and it gave us a beautiful fight. That evening we ran up to the Missouri River and after Watching the Fly Fishing Film Festival in Craig, Montana we spent today working hard to boat about a dozen fish. The fish up here are spotty mostly due to the 20,000+ cfs of water they are releasing from the dam. It’s not that the fish aren’t used to big water, it’s that they, like some kind of stability. When the boys at the dam keep upping the flows every day the trout aren’t super happy. Regardless the fish can be caught and when the dozen or so fish you land average about 16″ and extra fat the day still seems like a better day than you could spend working in an office
Well that’s all for now, but we’ll post some more reports again soon seeing as it’s full on go time for fishing.
- somewhere near the water via iPad
So after a great day of fishing on the Missouri River how do you follow it up? Obviously you celebrate one of the owners of Headhunters fly shop Mark Raisler’s birthday with a barbecue then head up to Great Falls for a night out in the big city. I mean why not, especially when you get a call from some beautiful women friends that are going for night involving limos and dancing. Really you don’t have any choice.
So what do you do after the big night? Again there’s really no choice but to gather up the pieces, find your friends and hit the water. The best cure for a hangover is to put a bend in the rod and release a few big fish. As you can see the 20″ rainbow Steve is gripping looks like it’ll have a slight hangover tomorrow.
- somewhere near the water via iPad
It was another beautiful day in Paradise Valley, just South of Livingston, Montana. It seems spring would like to change its tune from 2011 and try and make a very early appearance. However, as most long time Montana residents will tell you – well you never can tell.
