………and they had a blast.  At this point, I am not sure who enjoyed it more -  the twelve fishing guides from West Yellowstone, or the eighteen kids from our school.  Honestly, I think both the guides and the kids gained a whole lot of respect for each other over the course of the day.  Sunshine followed by rain, jumping trout, a dunk in the river, more sun and then rain with more jumping trout, sun and rain.  When the clouds broke, there was a fresh glaze of white in the Madison Range.

It started out as a bunch of youngsters, wide eyed and bushy, climbing out of the Karst Stage Coach and then on over to the array of fishing rigs parked at $3 Bridge.  There was an introduction from Mrs. Hoovler to us all; followed by waders, boots, backpacks full of necessities, a flyrod and a rain jacket.   In my mind, this was the field trip of all field trips – a pimpn’ bus ride along Hebgen on through the old Madison Canyon around Quake, dropping into the Madison Valley along the Slide, an entire day of fishing on the Madison (just a few days after the Opener) with a dozen fishing guides waiting patiently for a day on the water.   We knew the fishing was gonna be good, yet they had virtually no idea of what to expect.  A few of them had some experience on the river, but for the most part they were as green as grass. To watch these kids boil about with excitement made my day.

This was not just any day as these kids were from our town.  A town where most of us live year around and see each other on weekly, if not daily, basis.  We knew some of their parents, but most of them didn’t know us.  The guide community is pretty tight, many of us hunt and fish together in off season or work together in YNP during the Winter.   Three of the guide’s spouses teach at the school and one of the guides has four kids currently enrolled.  West has around 1000 year around residents, but there are folks who have lived here whom you’ll never meet, except for times like this.

As a child, I have memories of times like this.  It was all so new, so fresh and very real.  Experiences out-of-doors teaches us all about life.  Do yourself a favor – Take A Kid Fishing.  Your river karma will go through the roof.

Posted in - Ramblings of a Fly Fishing Guide, West Yellowstone Fly Fishing

The Madison is still green and fishing quite well.   How long will this last?  Who knows, but the cold weather around here will slow down the snow melt and keep things fishing for a little while longer.  I bet we get another week or so of great nymphing here on the Madison.    More snow has fallen the past couple of days in the high country and this morning, there is a glaze of white on the Toyota.  Some folks around here (my wife) are displeased with the cold weather and snow.  As for me, well, I love it.  The trout love it and all you should love it too.  This cold front is here for the weekend as well; so if you are coming up to the area to fish, bring some layers, a few hand warmers, that thermos of yours and a rain jacket.

Angling in Yellowstone National Park opens this weekend!  The Firehole is in great shape as is the Gibbon and Madison.  The nasty weather forecasted should bring out the blue wings.  This is a great time of the year to break out that 3 wt glass rod or that bamboo stick that you never fish.  The rivers on the west side of YNP will be busy this weekend, but that is nothing new.  If you don’t like the popularity of opening weekend, don’t forget that the Madison River below Quake Lake is fishing really well right now.  Just cause you can’t see the bottom of the river doesn’t mean that the trout can’t see your fly.

Posted in - Madison River Guided Fly Fishing

Almost 2 years ago, while at a board of Directors meeting for FOAM, Dennis Alverson (of Livingston, MT) brought up the idea of a program called Take A Kid Fishing – TAKF.  Last year, Dennis organized and implemented this program in Livingston, then brought all the organizational stuff to the rest of the board members of FOAM this past winter.  The idea is to get local fishing guides, outfitters and fly shops to promote fishing and the outdoors in their community amongst the kids.  As the Vice President of FOAM, I jumped on board and got in touch with the West Yellowstone School and the science teacher – Sara Hoovler.  Sara has been the driving force behind this entire program.  She obtained a waiver from FWP for the kids fishing license, received a grant for the payment of the substitute teachers as well as lunches.  All the guides are donating their day on the water and the local fly shops are donating flies and waders as well.

Tomorrow, May 22nd, 18 kids from the West Yellowstone School will be bused down to $3 Bridge for a full day of FREE guided fishing.  We’ll give a  full report in the days to come.

Flyshops and outfitters helping out:  Madison River Outfitters, Bud Lilly’s, Blue Ribbon Flies, West Yellowstone Fly Shop,  Bob Jacklin’s, Big Sky Anglers, Jonathan Heames, Yellowstone Fishing Guides, Riverside Anglers and Oarsmen Expeditions.  THANKS to all!

Posted in - West Yellowstone Fly Fishing

Madison River Flows

at West Yellowstone: 383 cfs

below Hebgen: 1050 cfs

at Kirby: 1580 cfs…..40 cfs lower than the day before

at Varney: 2300 cfs

Quake Lake has minimal visibility, the Slide has about 12 inches, yet as one travels further downstream, the Madison doesn’t look too bad at all.  The West Fork of the Madison is hardly off color.  All the tribs below Lyons Bridge are clear, so the bank water is very fishable.   Yesterday’s angling was great – we nymphed all day with a rubber leg and a sjw – red, pink and wine colored all worked.   Casting the flies into the soft water along the bank or behind a large boulder would almost always result in a tug from a nice trout.   It’s amazing how well the Madison fishes when the water is cold.  Bob and his wife Rae were a joy in the boat,  clients like this make my job easy.  I would like to give a shout out to Tim, a wonderful client of mine, who referred Bob and Rae to me.  THANKS TIM!

There were 16 rigs at Lyons Bridge, but the beauty of the Madison River is that while the boat ramp may seem busy, every boater has a different plan and is going either 8, 12 or 16 miles.  Before we ever put our boat in the water, the other boats floated on down and we were left alone….all day long.  The only other boat we saw during the day was a good friend of mine who was guiding as well.

Posted in - Madison River Guided Fly Fishing

Madison River Flows

below Hebgen: 1010 cfs

@ Kirby: 1620 cfs…..quite good for this time of the year.  Very floatable.

The General Season Opener is upon us.  Tomorrow, the season officially starts from Quake Lake to McAtee Bridge. Another guide and myself took a drive to the Madison Valley this afternoon for a look around.  Cabin and Beaver are pumping pretty good, with Cabin throwing a brown line half way across the river.  Quake Lake is greenish-brown and will hold up through the weekend…..maybe a few more days than that.  We are in full run-off mode, so expect the Madison to get a bit more brown.   Will it fish through the mud, you ask?  It did last year.  The photo above is from the Slide and up here, there is about 18-24 inches of visibility – plenty good, in my opinion.   As we headed on downstream, the river got a bit more green as some of the silt fell out.  The West Fork was tea colored and not nearly as brown as I would have thought – a thin ribbon of slightly off color water lines the left bank of the Madison below Lyons Bridge.  The gravel bars are visible and the banks look great all the way down to Mac.  2X, a rubber leg and dropper should work wonders tomorrow.  I will be on the water guiding, so stay tuned for a full report after the weekend is over.

Posted in - Madison River Guided Fly Fishing

Received this notice in the mail box as of this morning.   Why West Yellowstone was left out of the mix is still in question.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 14, 2012

Contact: Cheryl Morris, 406-994-6359

FWP APPOINTS MADISON RIVER CITIZEN ADVISORY COMMITTEE

BOZEMAN—Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks announced today the seven individuals appointed to serve on the Madison River Citizen Advisory Committee (MCAC). Members of the MCAC will develop recommendations for managing recreation on the Madison River. FWP will prepare a recreation management plan based on the recommendations of the MCAC and input from the public.  FWP anticipates having a draft plan for public review near the end of this year or early 2013.

33 people applied for positions on the MCAC. The seven members, listed below, are a cross-section of the public that recreates on the Madison River and those who are affected by recreation management decisions. The committee members’ interests are diverse and include angling, tubing, boating, nature watching, outfitting, conservation, and tourism.

The first meeting of the MCAC is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on May 30at FWP Region 3 Headquarters in Bozeman (1400 S. 19^th Avenue). There will be time set aside near the end of the meeting for observers to provide comments to the committee.

For additional information on the Madison River Recreational Plan, please visit the dedicated FWP website at fwp.mt.gov/recreation/management/madison/default.html. Any questions may be directed to the River Recreation Manager, Cheryl Morris, at 406-994-6359.

Posted in - Madison River Recreation Plan

The Madison River Recreation Management Plan has advanced in it’s planning process as of Friday, May 11, 2012.  FOAM announced that the CAC has been chosen, but it looks as if the total number of committee members has shrunk from 12 down to 7.   Throughout the scoping process, FWP touted a committee of 12, yet someone has decided that smaller is better.   There were three worthy applicants from West Yellowstone, myself included, who desired a spot on the Citizen’s Advisory Council.   Unbelievably, the town of West Yellowstone was left off the list by those in charge. I can’t wait to hear why.  What rationale can there be?

The Madison River Recreation Management Plan CAC members:

Robin Cunningham – Gallatin Gateway
John Way – Ennis
Joe Dilschneider – Ennis
Bob Gibson – not sure
Joe Fontaine – not sure
Lee McKenna – not sure
Philip Naro – not sure

The top three are friends of mine and in all honesty, are solid individuals from the outfitting and guiding community.  The other four are new names to me.  Where are they from?  I guess we’ll know shortly.    Hopefully, FWP will release all the names and their origins, of those who applied to the CAC.

Posted in - Madison River Recreation Plan

All winter long I write about Yellowstone National Park and post, from time to time, a few things about fly fishing.   During the summer, I hardly ever I write about the curiosities of Yellowstone as fishing consumes me.  Hiking without a fly rod is simply strange……as most of you know, the Park waters are not yet open to fishing, therefore I had to leave the rod at home.   Most of the rivers in YNP are muddy and should be clear by the end of June.  The Firehole will be fishable when the Park opens at the end of this month.

My wife, the Park Ranger, and I took hike yesterday up Specimen Ridge to look for petrified trees which have been exposed from wind, snow and rain erosion.  Yellowstone has the largest collection of petrified trees in the United States, some say the world.  A few trees are upright, in the growing position, yet geologists argue whether or not these trees actually grew right here or got pushed to this place by glaciers or mud flows…….geologists love to argue.    40-55 million years ago, these trees were covered in ash and volcanic mudflows.  At one point in time Redwoods grew here, telling us that the climate was much warmer and closer to the ocean, than today.

This blue grouse, or dusty grouse, was in full mating display for several minutes.  We sat down, watched and listened as he courted the female about 3 feet away.  Springtime in Yellowstone is one of the best time frames for seeing wildlife without the crowds of summer.   We saw eight different bears on our drive through the Park, two different sets of a sow and two cubs, and two different single griz browsing for food.  Don’t forget that bear spray!

Posted in - Ramblings of a Fly Fishing Guide, Yellowstone National Park Summer

While we patiently wait for the General Season Opener, May 19, there is some great fishing to be had in between the lakes – Betwixt.  I don’t head down there very often and pound the same holes and now, after the warm temps over the past two days, Cabin Creek is pumping again so the right bank is quite dirty.  Fish are eating all sorts of flies – rubber legs, pheasant tails, zerbra midges, eggs patterns and prince nymphs.

***Please Note****

Lots of rainbows are spawning right now in every channel on the Madison River – be careful where you wade fish.   Those shallow channels have enough water this spring, resulting in spawning beds (redds).  When you see fish stacked up in 12 inches of water, realize that they are procreating.

Snow pack Update

Madison River – 84%

Gallatin River – 91%

Jefferson River – 61%

Missouri headwaters – 73%

The white gold up in the hills is holding in there.  60-75 degree temps are forecasted for the next 5 days, so some of this is gonna melt.  Its May, therefore run-off is inevitable and this sort of thing is normal.  We didn’t get anywhere near the snow pack that fell last winter.  It actually feels like summer here in West Yellowstone.  Hopefully, we get some more snow up in the high country in the next 6 weeks.

Missouri River Report – there has been good to great dry fly fishing on the Missouri River below Holter Dam.  BWOs, March Browns and Caddis are hatching.  The Caddis are not hatching river wide, however, the trout are eating caddis larva/pupa below Craig.   The Missouri is fishing as well as it can – meaning that things up there are really good.  Big Sky Anglers will be on the Missouri from May 27 through June 13 -  we are booked solid for this time frame.  We get up to the MO all summer long and have ears and eyes in Craig on an almost daily basis.  Greg Falls, one of the best fishing guides on the river, works for us for over half of his season.   Contact us for more information on our Missouri River guided fly fishing trips.

Posted in - Madison River Recreation Plan, Missouri River Guided Fly Fishing

Many of you think I spend my free time ironing Joe’s fishing shirts and making guide lunches. Hardly. My home is the home of Big Sky Anglers, and its stuffed to capacity with rods, reels, flies, a shop’s worth of fly tying materials, boots, waders, hunting gear, and bird dogs. My worldly goods consist of a tiny, tiny closet, one coffee mug, and shelf of books. Can’t live without my books. I spend my mornings reading, mug in hand, with a variety of titles, from classics to contemporary fiction.

Recently, my good friend and West Yellowstone librarian Steve encouraged me to try a new release, The Royal Wulff Murders, by Montana author Keith McCafferty. Skeptical of reading a book about fly fishing (seems like I experience lots of it firsthand), I found myself quickly immersed in this book. Centered around the lower Madison, from Quake Lake to Ennis, McCafferty’s murder mystery is cast with fisherman. Main character Sean Stranahan is a divorced artist, avid angler, and semi-private investigator who gets involved with a dead body found just above Lyon’s Bridge. Sheriff Martha Ettinger determines this man died of foul play, partially because his eyeball is impaled on a stick downstream of the body, and a Royal Wulff is stuck in his lip. Stranahan and Ettinger are joined by a motley crew of Montana’s best locals: Rainbow Sam, a smelly fishing guide famous for exploits on and off the river; Vareda, a hot Southern redhead who literally tangles with Stranahan; and Doris, the sassy manager of the local bar. Locals will recognize lots of places, including the Grizzly Bar, the Sheep Creek trailhead, Ennis Cafe, and the Gallatin Gateway Inn. Stranahan even takes a jaunt up to the Missouri and catches a twenty-five inch brown near the Wolf Creek bridge. The plot thickens with details like whirling disease, cranky nonresident landowners, and of course, just a bit of sexual tension. Stranahan is quite a player.

I know just enough about fly fishing to get my line tangled, yet still found this book quite readable. He imparts a true sense of the conservation and profound love of the environment I see from so many in the angling community. A few lines stuck with me, like “Trout are the ghosts of moving waters, gone like the dreams one longs to remember.” I like the investment McCafferty makes in each character, detailing just enough about the personalities and physical appearances.  Vareda’s sultry southern belle-ness grew a little tiresome after awhile, but what crusty old fisherman isn’t a sucker for deep cleavage and impractical female fishing attire (both scenarios do appear in the book). I laughed in a few spots as well, such as Stranahan and Rainbow Sam’s favorite drive-thru espresso stand, staffed by ladies in bikinis and lingerie, called “Lattes & Lookers.” Can’t wait until that place shows up at Four Corners.

So, give this book a few afternoons in the hammock. I bet you will like it.

– Molly Moore

Posted in - Gear Reviews