It’s been a near perfect June with respect to weather conditions and fishing in the Park. Cool temps, cloudy skies, and mayfly hatches have been the daily story on the Firehole, Madison, and Gibbon Rivers. Forecasts look to keep water temps down on the Firehole for the foreseeable future, which is a real treat for the end of June. On many years, we’re starting to see water temps rise to the point where we leave those fish alone for the summer by late-June.

There are still some good fish, and fun dry fly opportunities on the Madison River in the Park, especially on overcast afternoons. And, the Gibbon River remains a fun spot to prospect with stonefly and caddis dry fly patterns in the afternoons below Gibbon Falls. 

The dwindling snowpack has eased run-off throughout the park, and some our the next fisheries we will start focusing on will be the Gallatin and Gardner Rivers. Water clarity on both of these rivers is really good right now, but they both remain very cold. Temps have been in the 20’s at night in the headwaters of these fisheries. So, we will need things to warm up before any significant hatches get going, but nymph fishing will be good this week, and stoneflies are right around the corner.

Lakes continue to be a great option across the park with Shoshone and Lewis standing out as highlights over the past week. Many fish are still close to shore cruising in shallow water right now making them great targets with leeches and small streamers fished on a floating line. Additionally, Callibaeits mayflies are emerging on Yellowstone Lake on cloudy mornings when the wind is down making for some early season gulper fishing around Gull Point.