Mo Trip

Runoff is now in full swing in Sw Montana, making for some tough conditions on the areas larger rivers and low elevation streams around Bozeman. Fortunaltey for us, we have he Missouri, some spring creeks, and a few private water options as well which translates into some great fishing options despite what one might think. 

I just got back from a couple days of guiding a donated trip through TU up on the Missouri. The fishing was very good on nymphs. Pink stinks. There are caddis around up there, some small March Browns and plenty of Baetis out, but heads are tough to come by. The good thing is that the fish are in good shape with the average size being closer to 18" than 16", at least on the upper portion above Craig. Still haven't fished lower as the Deerborn continues to be pumping some mud into the river. I'll be back up there next week for a few days.

Catch Up

I cant find my sd card reader, so no pics. 

The Beaverhead was great on opening weekend. We didn't catch any monsters but a lot of 17-20 inch rainbows and browns. All Nymphing with pinkies, soft hackle rays and a few different midge pupae patterns. I pretty much fished just one hole all weekend, while Chris and Jared branched out late on the second day. The worked some fish in the spring creek between the bridge and dam and each hooked one. Very kiwi esq according to them.

The flows were low when we were there, but they have since bumped it up. The beav is a neat little tailwater full of some nice fish. There are always a lot of folks around though, this weekend, everyone was pretty chill.

Everything around here is pretty much a wreck right now with runoff just getting going. I'll be out of town the rest of the week an dgo to the Missouri on Sunday.

Wrapping things up

The Mothers Day Caddis have been going for the last week-10 days on the Yellowstone and for a week or so on the Madison. As usual, we've had some crazy spring weather so it looks like the river is going to blow out one day and then it comes back around just fine for a couple days. Things are fishable for the next few days.

I'm heading to the LM tomorrow for a play day and the Beaverhead for opener on Saturday. It's going to be crazy busy, but it should be fun anyway.

Mother's Day

The Caddis have been around for a bit now, but just really got going on the Madison just in time for the hatch's namesake. Some years it's early, but they're always out on Mother's Day. We ran out this evening and got some fish on dries, it was actually pretty good about the time most people were leaving. Prior to the rise, there was a real good bite on nymphs too. I caught a 3 good fish (16-17) on dries and a few smaller ones and several on nymphs. Considering we only fished a couple hours, it turned out pretty well.The water condition on teh lower is great right now, so once the Yellowstone does it's dirty dance, the lower will hopefully still be n good shape. The fish over there have been in great condition so far and this is te first thing of the year that gets 'em going crazy!

I could lie

I fished the Yellowstone last Sunday and had a tough time depsite good conditions. My clients got enough fish, but it was just pretty inconsistent all the way through. We'd get some on nymphs, some on stremers, some on dries, but never much of anything on any one rig. We did have the river to ourselves and the weather was pretty nice too. So I guess that the battle was won and things worked out alright. There were some caddis starting, but the brunt of the hatch is certainly closer to Livingston at the moment.

I was up on the Missouri for 3 days with a couple ladies from Bozeman the last few days. Despite some breezy breeze and inconsistent temps, things worked out alright and we put the hammer to some really nice fish each day. The Dearborn was just getting going, so we left the lower river to the mud rats and stuck up between the dam and Craig for the most part. There seemed to be plenty of fish back in the river and they were eager to get on some pink SH Ray's and Amex Czech Nymphs. During the Baetis emergence, they got on a little green machine very well. It was pretty good fishing all the way around and an even better experience!

Yesterday and Today

The LM fished very well yesterday. I think the water temps finally got back into that range that makes for some happy fish. It seems like as long as it's above 45 or so, there are some fish feeding on the shallow flats as well as the buckets. Best fishing early in the day was with a red worm followed by a size 14 PT, no bead or flash. No crayfish love all day for me. AFter Blacks Ford, I switched things up a little and settled on a double worm rig. They wanted the worm. Ended up being very good with 2 18's, a 20 and 2 that were 19-20, with a dozen and half or so 10-16 inchers.

Heading to the Yellowstone today to fish streamers. It's raining and the sky shows no hint of changing its mind on that one.

Before the Melt

The weather finally broke yesterday and what a day it was. Fishing wasn't really that great anywhere yesterday, but it was nice to not be wearing a beanie and gloves for a day. Growing up in Texas, I never had the 4 seasons experience like we do here. I really enjoy the different seasons, but after awhile...summer doesn't sound so bad!

Fished the LM yesterday and found the bite to be better than the day before, but still not great. dredging lots of caddis cases up on hooks and it looks like most of the little critters are pupating which means they shouldn't be too far away. This probably holds true for the Yellowstone as well and I wouldn't be surprised if they started over there today. Unfortunately I'm getting a late start and I don't want to deal with the madness which will surely be going on around Livingston today.

The best bite yesterday was on crayfish, and not the Clouser. Think bunny rabbits. We did get a few on some small nymphs, but not much. Still a lot of BWO's, even in the sun, and I did see some March Browns there as well yesterday. We landed a fish near Greycliff yesterday that was puking up worms, interesting because I've pumped several fish the last few days and hadn't seen any worms! Maybe I'll try them with more earnest today!