Eryka with a nice 15" Yellowstone River Rainbow
Our fishing…
A fishing guide bitching about the weather – that’s strange… Today has us sidelined with 50 mph winds, so we are catching up on some blogging and paperwork. We did manage to get out yesterday afternoon for a bit on the Yellowstone River. Fishing was fair at best. The bright sunny skies had the baetis and midges holding tight and the hatch was light at best. We did however find a number of trout stacked in the foam holes. Until the hatches of baetis, March Browns and Mother’s Day Caddis hatches really start rolling that’s where we suggest you concentrate your time.
Our best technique is still shallow nymphing between 2 and 4 feet with small nymphs.
The Highlights:
Yellowstone River:
It’s all weather dependent right now, with some warmer weather and increased water temperatures we’ll start to see stronger baetis hatches and the March Browns. Obviously the word on every anglers mind is Caddis. The Mother’s Day Caddis is nearing it’s emergence date. The key is to keep your eye on the water temperatures – 52 to 54 degrees is the key the start of the major emergence. Currently there are sighting of March Browns on the lower river toward Big Timber. Caddis have also been sighted on the lower river and up river near Pine Creek.
Spring Creeks (Armstrong, DePuy, Nelson):
Midges and baetis have been very good on the cloudy days especially when the breeze is light. Take advantage while you can with the early season discounted rates until June 14th.
Madison River:
The Lower Madison River is off color from Ennis Lake and Cherry Creek spilling in off colored water. There are baetis, midges and caddis are right around the corner. The trout aren’t consistently keying on the dry flies so it’s a nymphing and stream thing right now. The streamer fishing, dragging a Bow River Buggers and small baetis nymphs dropped below are the best ticket right now. Look for the fishing to pick up with the increased hatch activity.
Missouri River:
The Missouri is much like the rest of the waters around the state, inconsistent. The nymphing is getting better, but the water is still higher than normal for this time of the year – 7,140 cfs (2,000 cfs higher than normal). Nymphing is a daily puzzle between flies and water depth – seems it’s between sow bugs and bright flies or baetis and midges. The streamer guys are hit and miss, but a few nice fish are a pretty sweet day, right?
Got any good fishing reports from the area? Then make sure to leave a comment and let us know.
Report Date April 24
Summary:
This weekend spring finally showed up in Montana and it is glorious! Today was almost 60 degrees with no wind, a remarkable
Bo looking for the next good spot
thing for this season so far. While we could have done with a few clouds we won’t complain. Our guides and fellow anglers have been giving us great reports from the Yellowstone, spring creeks, Madison and the Missouri Rivers. There are good hatches of midges and baetis on most of these rivers, and even a few March Browns are starting to show up on the lower Yellowstone River.
Today Eric Adams from Montana Fly Fishing Guides, Jeff Pavlovich from Angler’s West, and our favorite bartender from Montana Rib & Chop House Bo fished the Yellowstone River. As expected with the bright sun, the fishing was a bit slow, but we got them to eat in the right spots – foam holes are about the only consistent places right now. We didn’t put forth a huge effort, but small shallow beads worked best.
PREDICTION:
This week assuming the weather forecast is correct we should see some good to very good fishing so stay tuned!
Hatches:
Midges, baetis on the cloudy days and we are starting to see a few March Browns. The lighter the wind the better the hatches will be and the more risers you’ll start seeing. As the water temperature starts to rise the March Browns and Mother’s Day Caddis will be starting in earnest – at the earliest look for steady hatches by next weekend.
Weather & Water Conditions:
The water has that usual green color for this time of the year with a couple feet of visibility. Partly cloudy and nice temperatures in the middle fifties with variable SW winds.
Best Technique:
Shallow water nymphing with small baetis and midge nymphs – concentrate on the foam holes along the rip/rap. We preferred pinch on indicators 2.5 – 3 feet above the flies. If you’re looking for risers check the tail-outs of the long runs or the inside corners of the riffles.
Best Bugs:
Midge Hatch: Olive & Copper Brassies, Zebra Midges, Miracle Midges sizes 16 – 20
Baetis Hatch: B.H. Pheasant Tail Nymphs, Olive & Black Copper John’s Micro May size 16 – 18.
March Browns: CDC Bead Head Pheasant Tails size 14 – no dries yet.
Summary: Report Date April 15 & 16
- Montana fly fishing on the Yellowstone River
Great weekend for some Montana fly fishing on the Yellowstone River with the Moses crew from Texas. While the weather in our part of Montana seems to be a couple weeks behind schedule the fishing is worth getting out there. There are good hatches of midges and baetis. Fishing was spotty, but the right spots produced a number good Browns and Rainbows with a few Cutthroats. Our best of the weekend was probably a pair of 16″ Rainbows.
Hatches:
Continued midges and some beatis. The lighter the wind the better the hatches will be and the more risers you’ll start seeing. March Browns and Mother’s Day Caddis should be appearing over the next couple weeks.
Weather & Water Conditions:
The water has that usual green color for this time of the year. Partly cloudy and nice temperatures in the middle fifties with variable SW wind to 25mph.
Best Technique:
Shallow water nymphing with small baetis and midge nymphs. We preferred pinch on indicators about 3 feet above the flies.
Best Bugs:
Sizes 16 – 20 Brassies, Zebra Midges, Miracle Midges for the midges and very small P.T. Nymphs and black Copper John’s for the baetis.
Pat with a nice streamer caught brown
Summary:
Report Date: 04/13/11 – Well we finally got the new Adipose Boatworks Skiff in the water yesterday. Fellow guides Pat Joyce and Eric Paramore joined Eric Adams for a quick float from Carter’s to Ninth street on the Yellowstone River for a his boats maiden voyage.
Streamers were our primary choice for the day and Doug McKnight’s yellow Home Invader was the ticket. We didn’t catch a lot of trout on the streamer but the vicious strikes from the few nice brown’s that did eat made it all worthwhile. We also threw some bead headed midges and baetis in the foam wholes with some success.
Hatches:
light hatch with midges and some beatis. The hatch would have been a bit better but the heavy upstream breeze kept the bugs from going stronger. We did receive good hatch reports from farther up the Paradise Valley.
Weather & Water Conditions:
Upstream wind, partly cloudy and nice temperatures in the middle fifties.
Best Technique:
Shallow water nymphing with small baetis and midge nymphs; streamer fishing; looking for heads with small dries in the foam holes. For steamers a slower retrieve or dead drifting has been the best way to turn heads.
Best Bugs:
Sizes 16 – 20 Brassies, Zebra Midges, Miracle Midges for the midges and very small P.T. Nymphs and black Copper John’s for the baetis. Yellow/brown or black streamers have been moving some really good browns and rainbows over the past several days.
Summary:
Report Date: 04/10/11 - The Yellowstone River is starting to fish quite well – if we could ever get few nice weather days in a row we’d have some great fishing. The water is cool for this time of the season, but we are still spotting risers on midges and baetis. The streamer bite has also been quite good early on this season. We expect to start seeing some better baetis hatches this week and the March Brown hatch should be right around the corner.
Hatches:
Not a strong hatch, but midges and some beatis. The hatch would have been a bit better but the breeze kept the bugs from going stronger.
Weather & Water Conditions:
Windy, windy, windy. Partly cloudy and nice temperatures in the upper forties/lower fifties are predicted for the remainder of the week.
Best Technique:
Shallow water nymphing with small baetis and midge nymphs; streamer fishing; looking for heads with small dries in the foam holes. For steamers a slower retrieve or dead drifting has been the best way to turn heads.
Best Bugs:
Tiny, sizes 18 – 22. Brassies, Zebra Midges, Miracle Midges for the midges and very small P.T. Nymphs for the baetis. Yellow/brown or black streamers have been moving some really good browns and rainbows over the past several days.
Summary:
Report Date: 01/26/10 What a beautiful day for some winter fly fishing in Montana. Warm weather, light breeze and it’s January! A little bit out of the ordinary for this time of the year, but you’ve got to take advantage when everything lines up. We stopped out by DePuy’s Spring Creek for a couple hours to do some fishing.
Hatches:
Not much of a hatch, but a few midges and some small beatis. The hatch would have been a bit better but a light SW breeze picked up around 11am and kept the bugs from going stronger.
Weather & Water Conditions:
The weather was in the low 40s with sunny skies and a light and SW breeze. Water conditions as always on the spring creek were perfect.
Best Technique:
Shallow water nymphing all the way. Small indicators fished in the slower water and along steam lines was most effective.
Best Bugs:
Tiny, sizes 18 – 22. Brassies, Zebra Midges, Miracle Midges for the midges and very small P.T. Nymphs for the baetis.
If you missed our recent Montana Fly Fishing in Winter Article make sure to check it out.
