Montana Fly Fishing Report
Fly Fishing on the Madison and Missouri Rivers
Really? This good?
The Missouri River is as good as it gets. It is 30 minutes until May 1, but yet the river is fishing like its the end of May. Prickly Pear is still dirty, but catching fish river left is not impossible……downstream of Craig the river mixes up to that shade of green that we all love. 3X works great right now as the fish are not leader shy one bit. The Dearborn is minty, has dropped a bunch and the Canyon was lights out…..even in the pouring rain – which only last about 30 minutes. Ric G. and I floated again today and caught fish on all three disciplines – nymph, dry fly and streamer.
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Back In Craig
Rolled into to Craig last evening and splashed the boat at the town ramp for a quick float down to Stickney. Saw some trout rise, caught some trout. The river is in good shape, a touch green, and flowing 6690 cfs from Holter Dam. Mother Nature seems to be ahead of herself this Spring, with river temps is 49 degrees….warmish for late April.
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Cup fulls
Rain is pelting the metal roof of the house, has been on and off since the sun set. There was a flash a crack, then a rumble – lightning turned to thunder…is it snowing up high? Shit, I hope so. The low tonight in West Yellowstone is 16 degrees, a far cry from the summer like temps we have enjoyed for the past week. I actually started a fire in wood stove, haven’t had to do that much lately. More time at the vise is needed, but tonight I cranked out BWOs for an upcoming trip to the Missouri River. I love the black wing for overcast days and the magic hour before dark. The weather for the weekend and early next week, all over Montana, is calling for rising fish and streamer fishing. We are headed north and you, where are you going? Word has it that the flows out of Hebgen may be dropping here in the next few days. That would be nice since the Madison Range is sitting at 82% of snow pack all the while the flow is sitting at 1290 cfs……just a little high……the 73 year average for today is 758 cfs. Madison River Flows: 04.26.2012 at West Yellowstone: 992 cfs below Hebgen: 1290 cfs Kirby Ranch: 1760 cfs Varney Bridge: 2490 cfs below Ennis Lake: 2810 cfs |
No News Yet – Madison River Rec Plan
The Madison River Recreation Management Plan is still in the decision making process of choosing those who will make up the Citizen’s Advisory Council (CAC). Joe Maurier, Director of Montana FWP, is charged with picking the chosen ones…..when will he decide?
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Madison River Fishing Report 04.22.2012
Madison River Flows at West Yellowstone: 670 cfs below Hebgen: 1260 cfs Kirby Ranch: 1430 cfs Varney Bridge: 1830 cfs……spiked to 1900 cfs today. Run-off has started on the upper Madison River…..yes….run-off. Cabin is puking chocolate milk, Beaver is grey and the West Fork of the Madison is pushing a heavy brown stain down the left bank. Just how long this will last is anyone’s guess….the weatherman says a cool down for week end, hopefully he’s right. The river is much higher than normal right now on the upper Madison and may rise a bit more if the rain and warmish nights continue. Cross your fingers that we don’t loose too much of the white gold……..of course next week there could be a huge snow storm – springtime in Montana brings it all. We floated Varney to Burnt Tree on THE nicest days I have ever seen in late April on the Madison River. At one point there was a young woman, in a bikini, fishing from the bow of another guide’s boat. I had to apply Sunscreen twice this afternoon with the high sun. A thunder storm blew up in the late afternoon producing double rainbows over Sphinx Mountain and more snow in the high country…..windows rolled down, cruising down the highway…….it felt like July. This morning started out pretty well, fishing with rubber legs and a red worm, but as the day went on things got tougher. Switching flies around seemed to help, but it was not too consistent around lunch time. The bite did swing back our way and we caught some nice fish, including this 20 inch rainbow on a rubber leg. Once the river drops back down, the dry fly game might get going, that would be so nice. I saw march browns, caddis and a few blue wings throughout the day.
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Spring in the Rockies
Wondering around Montana and Wyoming over the past four weeks has been super good fun. Winters in West Yellowstone can grind on you and if one does not get off the mountain and head to the lower elevations, things can get a bit stale. What I am talking about is that fact that Spring does exist in other places outside of West Yell during March and April. I wore flip flops, played golf in a t-shirt (still suck at golf) and witnessed someone actually mowing their lawn.
The joy of fishing and exploring new places this spring, has reminded me of why I moved out West 17 years ago. It’s huge and fishing every nook and cranny is nearly impossible. I get out on the local streams each spring, but sometimes, you just need to hit a river that you know nothing about. Maybe a rumor, here and there…. Driven by a few times…never fished….. A local friend who wants to fish on his days off…..another buddy willing to scout things out with….a drift boat and cooler full of beer. Road trips that revolve around fishing don’t suck. Plan one soon.
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Madison River Fishing Report – betwixt
The photo above is from today. Can you see all the debris floating in the lake? I’m not exactly sure when the two avalanches occurred, but there was a huge pile of trees and logs stacked up on the bank near the highway. My guess is that it happened in the last week or so, and I would bet that more debris keeps melting out of the slide. The motor boat in lake looked to be clearing out the race of larger trees. Downstream of Cabin Creek, the river was a bit off color, but green none the less. Lots of shit was drifting in the river – limbs with green needles, lodge pole pine stumps and a few full length trees had floated down and lodged themselves on the boulders throughout the river. A couple of new pools had formed from the debris……gotta love that. Since the wind was blowing, I nymphed through the late morning and early afternoon, snagging the bottom quite a bit. However, the trout were on the bite right away, eating stone flies and midge patterns. Some of the rainbows were in full spawning colors and others were chrome – all of them were hot fighters. At one point I hooked a brown, a large one, and after jumping to eye level, it ran straight at me and under the bank, only to come out about 5 feet downstream and break off. How big? At least 20, maybe in the 22 inch class…..girthy as well. We are headed back over to Cody again for the next week and will be dragging the drift boat with us. I can’t wait to get back over to Thermop.
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Mallard
We ventured downstream again today, this time to Mallard. Most of us had never been below 13, and honestly, after fishing this lower stretch, I wouldn’t float anywhere else on the Big Horn. Quality streamer water mixed with dry fly flats, almost alternating with each other was quite fun. One could have nymphed up trout along the way, if you wanted. We did not. There was minimal wind displacement, maybe the occasional north breeze, which made for stacks of midges rolling down the river…..all day long. They ate clusters and at times we had to find a smaller fly to fool a larger fish in the slow water. On one particular island chain, all six of us were out wade fishing to rising fish. Once the light was off the water, the river was alive with trout and fishing 3x with a #14 midge cluster was too much fun. Tomorrow we are out of here and headed for Livingston. They back to West Yellowstone for a couple of days on the Madison. This spring has seen some great fishing thus far, are you coming out?
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three mile and down
Apparently, someone thought this old school Simms uni was a good idea. Not so, but Tylor did stay warm, even though he looks ridiculous. He wore it while cooking breakfast and walked around the cabin bare foot, barking orders at us. The guy can make a mean batch of cinnamon French toast though…… It’s Easter Weekend and the river is not as busy as I would have thought. But it is the Big Horn and the river is quite low making for easy wade fishing. We mostly fished streamers from the boat and moved quite a few trout. Some would commit, but more often than not, they would chase 5 to 10 feet then peel away. At one point the midges popped, with just a few bwos mixing in, luring trout to rise. Just about when things would get good, the wind would come up and ruin it. There were spots when fish would rise in the faster current as the wind blew hard – those fish were petty easy to fool. Tomorrow? Another float.
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