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
Fly fishing DePuy spring creek today would have been a challenge for anyone. The breeze, no make that full on wind, was brutal so the baetis and midges on the surface were hard to come by. However John and Jeff, fresh from the Bighorn River and Steve Galletta’s Montana Trout Anglers weren’t detoured. We caught enough good trout in the morning to make it interesting, and then even with the wind picking up speed in the afternoon we managed to find a small piece of water that was relatively unaffected. Patience was the name of the game and a small (18) Zebra Midge under the smallest pinch-on indicator was the ticket. We land about 15 trout, which is good for any day on the ever technical water of DePuy’s – especially with the tough conditions! Hats off to the boys from Ohio.
Best Bugs
Tungsten Zebra Midge, Brown Olive Surface Emerger and Harrop’s CDC Last Chance Midge (sizes 18-22).
As the Yellowstone and surrounding waters are blown out due to high spring water and will be for the next five or six weeks we are off to the Missouri River for the next several days, so we’ll keep you posted.
If you’re looking for some good fly fishing in Montana in the near future join us on the Missouri or one of the local spring creeks or make sure to check out Montana Trout Anglers on the Bighorn.
- somewhere near the water via iPad
Wow nice Brown Trout
Wow, there are some big Brown trout in Depuy’s Spring Creek right now. This big boy was caught a few days ago by angler Bob K. and the photo was sent to us by Stream Keeper Daryl Smith. Bob caught this remarkable fish above the house pond (just below the first culvert) where there has been significant stream restoration over the past several years. Looks like it’s working!
Remember if you’re in town this winter the DePuy’s offers a winter season pass. Contact them for more details at DePuy Spring Creek for more information.
Well it’s a couple days late, but we guided some great folks from the Bozeman area the day before Thanksgiving on DePuy’s spring creek – thanks to Sweetwater Fly Shop. It was a beautiful sunny day and about 50 degrees. The biggest bonus was very little wind, which is something special on a warm winter day to be sure. There were midges and some Baetis (blue wing olives), but not a strong hatch. It would have been a better hatch with a few more clouds, but we managed. We saw several brown trout redds, but didn’t see any fish on them.
We fished mostly subsurface with small midge pupa’s and Baetis emergers. Our window of opportunity was very short, but best between noon and 2pm. We managed to hook a nice brown and rainbow, but they both won the short lived battle.
That will probably be the last time we are out on the water for this season, but you never know with the variable Montana weather. We’ll be sure to update you if we get out again. We will however be updating all of our subscribers on the snow pack throughout the winter season – we might even throw in a few ski pictures!
