Bill with an 18.5 inch Yellowstone River Brown Trout
Summary:
Alright this has gone to just plain sweet spring fishing! If you can get here in the next 4 to 6 days do it. Yesterday and today were great fishing. When neither the guide nor the anglers can remember how many trout were caught we consider that a great day of fishing.
The weather is predicted to stay cool so spring run off should be delay until at least after the weekend. Today was the warmest it’s been in three weeks at about 55 degress, the wind was still blowing a bit but at a reasonable level. As expected at about 2pm the
March Browns and Baetis showed up. At 3pm or 4 pm the
Mother’s Day Caddis kicked off and it was the largest emergence we’ve seen yet this spring. Dry fly fish was very consistant – those fish are starting to look up. The rest of the week should be great so we’ll see you out there!
Best Technique:
The Dry/Dropper technique was most effective, however in the larger foam holes a shallow nymph rig (15-30 inches) with an nymph and emerger was best.
Weather & Water Conditions:
Mid-fifties at the warmest part of the day with variable ENE wind to about 15mph. The water was flowing at 2,010 cfs and had been relatively stable for a few days. The water color is a great caddis-y green with 2 to 3 feet of visibility.
Hatches:
Light Baetis, great March Browns and best Mother’s Day Caddis hatch to date. All starting around 1pm or 2 pm, caddis are starting later around 3pm.
Best Bugs:
Our best dry was a parachute March Brown sz 12, best emergers Cat Puke and P.T. Soft Hackle sz 14, best nymph Glass House Caddis sz 12.
Summary:
Yesterday was brutally windy throughout the entire state of Montana. However, it’s just like Montana to have an exception, happened to be in the middle of Paradise Valley. The wind was still blowing, but at a safe and reasonable level. The streamer fishing has been very consistent, but yesterday was a bit slow. Fortunately, at about 3pm the March Browns and Baetis showed up. At 5pm the Mother’s Day Caddis started trickling off at a steady pace. All in all fishing was pretty good and there was even some good dry fly fishing at times.
Best Technique:
The Dry/Dropper technique was most effective, however in the larger foam holes a shallow nymph rig (15-30 inches) with an nymph and emerger was best.
Weather & Water Conditions:
Mid-forties with variable West wind to about 15mph. The water was flowing at 2,240 cfs and had been relatively stable for a few days. The water color is a great caddis-y green.
Hatches:
Light Baetis, great March Browns and steady Mother’s Day Caddis hatch. All starting around 1pm or 2 pm, caddis are starting later as it’s been cold – around 4pm.
Best Bugs:
Our best dry was a parachute March Brown sz 12, best emergers Cat Puke and P.T. Soft Hackle sz 14, best nymph Glass House Caddis sz 12.
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!
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!
Yellowstone River Brown Trout
Summary: We received reports from two guides today, both floated in close proximity to town (Livingston). Both reports were good but less than spectacular, which was surprising due to the great water temps and perfect spring weather. Maybe such great conditions just freaked the trout out today as they’ve seen massive extremes in weather over the past couple weeks.
Best Technique: Both boats caught a good number of fish (about 15/boat), using a variety of techniques, but shallow water nymphing (about three feet) in the foam holes was definitely the most productive.
Weather & Water Conditions: 65 degrees, light downstream wind with water temps between 48 and 52.
Hatches: Light midge and baetis in the afternoon.
Best Bugs: King Prince, Tungsten Pheasant Tail sz 16 & zebra midge or black copper john sz 16-18.
