Top 10 Rivers to fish around Livingston, Montana

“What’s your favorite river to fish?” – probably the question we hear the most when guiding.  You wanna know?  Here you go:

1. Yellowstone River – obviously, it’s our home river.  We guide 120 miles of the longest freestone (un-dammed) river in the lower 48 States, how could you not love fishing that?
2. Boulder River – this small rafting stream is a half raft trip half fishing adventure.
3. Soda Butte Creek – this small little gem in Yellowstone National Park has huge Cutthroat that eat dry flies.
4. Armstrong Spring Creek – one of the best sight fishing for big trout spring creek anywhere in the world!
5. Smith River – walk/wading through the upper stretches of this small stream can produce some big brown trout.
6. Lower Madison – OK we know it can be a bit weird to fish and it’s mostly nymphing or streamers, but this is the river where you’ve truly got  a chance to catch a Montana trophy.
7. Stillwater River – it’s a bit of a drive, but it’s a bigger version of the Boulder River and stays floatable through out the season.
8. DePuy Spring Creek – with over 3 miles of spring creek and predictable hatches it’s another Paradise Valley gem.
9. East Gallatin – we might get in trouble for this one with some of the locals, but it’s true.  This tiny stream right by the Gallatin Airfield holds some huge trout which might be eating Trico’s in the morning and Hoppers in the afternoon.
10. Missouri River – Alright it’s not really that close to Livingston, but we head up there every June for about a month and it’s one of our favorites because it doesn’t experience the major run-off like the majority of the rivers in our area.  Oh yeah did we mention the huge trout.

What are your favorite Montana Rivers?

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