Last Updated: 4/23/2008

The Yellowstone | The Spring Creeks | The Bighorn | Burn's Lake

Yellowstone River

CFS @ Lamar River | CFS @ Corwin Springs | CFS @ Carter's

Skwala hatch on the Yellowstone? Yup... that's right, there have been a few. We found this one just below Emigrant...

Choose your Weapon

There are basically three games to play on the Stone right now: fishing with midges (with fingers crossed for Baetis), nymphs, or streamers. All methods are fun and are very effective right now on the Yellowstone. If you have three rods, it makes most sense to rig one up for each. Or, if you are floating with friends, rig at least one rod up for midges that you can share. You probably won't want to take the time to switch up on the water, so it is better to have everything rigged before you hop in the boat. If you are just wade fishing, perhaps it is best to decide if you would rather go for big fish on streamers and sink tips, or more fish on dries or nymphs on a floating line.

Butch Craig with a solid brown trout from the Yellowstone. Butch fooled this fish with one of our smaller Black Lead Eye Buggers...

Streamers

Mmm....good choice. It's hard not throw streamers on the Yellowstone right now. Since the Stone has a little tannic green color to it, we've been doing better with streamers that show up better in the water. White or black streamers have been working best for us. For tippet we've been using 01X Grand Max (18.5 lb. test) Fluorocarbon. If you're not up for tying your own leaders, one of Umpqua's "freshwater shorties" (about 5 feet long) is a good way to go. If you are fishing a sinking line, you don't want a leader much longer than this, otherwise it defeats the purpose of the sink tip.

Although the CFS recently dropped a bit, there is still noticeably a lot more water in the stone than earlier this Spring. It seems fish are starting to come out of the holding spots and getting comfortable on the banks, but the fishing pressure has already increased quite a bit. I think quite a few big fish have already been caught this year, so in general the streamer bite seems to be slowing down a bit. It should pick back up once all the fish are in a feeding frenzy during the caddis hatch. Once runoff is here, only streamer fisherman who can still enjoy getting skunked should continue fishing the Stone.

Midges and Baetis

The midges have still been thick, and for the most days this is what the fish are actively feeding on. Bring a combination of hanging midges, griffith's gnats, midge clusters, zebra midges, miracle nymphs, red midge larva, and various midge emergers. Wherever the scum and foam collects, you'll see midges and most likely some fish will be snacking on them. 4 and 5X tippet is as low as you'll need to go here - in fact whatever you can fit through the eye of the hook is just fine. The fish are not leader shy at all and have even been taking a trude (which we've been using for an indicator fly)... We wish the Yellowstone was always this easy!

You should also be prepared for baetis however, because as soon as they start popping off, the fish tend to key in on them and forget about the midges. For the baetis to hatch, it will take warmer weather (40-60) with clouds. Typically such conditions won't last all day, so watch the weather and switch back to midges accordingly. Bring plenty of parachute adams, baetis sparkle duns, baetis short wing emergers, WD40's, macro mays, and any of you other favorite baetis nymphs. Keep your eyes peeled for good buckets and foam eddies as you can really rack up your numbers by anchoring and fishing the same spot thoroughly. I usually try to fish streamers between the "foam is home" spots.

Nymphs

Most guides who are racking up the numbers with clients are nymphing. Stonefly nymphs serve as a great lead fly, as they get down quickly in the water column and trout like them. I don't think you have to over think things for a dropper - anything from a size 12 bead head prince to a size 18 red copper john has been working well. Play with your split shot and try to get your flies within a foot or two of the bottom. We've been using 2 or 3X depending how big your 1st fly is, with a 3 or 4X for your dropper. If you seen some good water, take the time to hop out the boat and hold it there for your buddies. Let them get a handful of good drifts and you'll probably catch 3 or 4 fish out of the same riffle - sometimes even as many as 10 or more...

Strangely enough we've seen a few skwala nymphs here and there. I thought they were golden stones at first, but upon looking at the photos more closely, they were skwalas. An orange and brown Pat's rubber legs would be a match for these guys, but any rubber leg should do the trick. Try fishing these above Emigrant to Gardiner.

What about the Caddis Hatch?

We actually had a few guys come in the shop yesterday that saw some Caddis through the town stretch. Not enough to get the fish excited, but enough to get them excited. Your guess is as good as mine, but I'd say we are still a week or two away from the height of the hatch. Keep you fingers crossed for a slow transition towards warmer weather. If it all heats up at once, we'll have mud for sure and we might even be helping folks sand bag their properties. We'll keep you posted...

Paradise Valley Spring Creeks

The Creeks continue to be the hottest spot close to Livingston and Bozeman for solid numbers of nice fish. There's not many places that you can expect to catch a handful of 16 - 18 inch fish in a single winter afternoon, much less have a shot or two at a fish over 20. The icing on the cake is how gorgeous some of these fish get during the winter months. These fish are far more colorful and vibrant than the fish we have been catching in the Yellowstone.

If you want to get technical, you can fish midges on 5 or 6X tippet with a couple of micro split shots depending on the depth of the pools or riffles you are fishing. If you want to focus on primarily larger fish, don't be afraid to cut your leader back to 1 or 2X and tie on a small streamer, spring creek leech, or sculpin pattern.

This year DePuy's has marked off some of the spawning beds (like Eva's hut and Betty's riffle) which is a good thing. There's still plenty of egg fishing to be had below these spots, but for now the Yellowstone rainbows will have a safe place where they can spawn without being disturbed all day long. Major props to Daryl Smith for doing this - in the long run, it should be a better fishery for everyone.

Which creek should I go to?

The Creeks all fish about the same this time of year. Perhaps on a nice sunny day there might be a little less pressure on Armstrong's and Nelson's, (since people who have purchased the DePuy's Winter Pass will most likely want to take advantage of the good weather). Photographers will appreciate all the creeks, but a lot of the magazine shots come from DePuy's. Nelson's is a great pick for expert anglers. The slower water makes it tougher to get a good presentation, but the pay off here is big with the possibility of catching 20+ inch browns! Armstrong's or Depuy's would be a better choice for less experienced anglers, as the the moving water tends to hide little mistakes better. Plus the riffles are fishing very well and you'll have more chances should you bust a fish off. Armstrong's is often a favorite with the guides...

What flies should I bring?

Scuds, sowbugs, and midges are the main staple through the winter. A dead drifted sculpin is sneaky way to offer larger fish a generous meal as well. Strangely enough, some rainbows (and browns) will spawn in January and February. (So that's why those orange scuds work so well). This is one of the few times that your Yellowstone fly box will mirror your Spring Creek Box:

Mercer's Rag Sculpin (size 6)

Olive Whitlock Matuka Sculpin (sizes 4, 6)

Olive/Brown Gander (size 2)

Olive Woolhead Sculpin (size 4)

Shortwing Baetis Emerger (sizes 18, 20)
Baetis Sparkle Dunn (sizes 18, 20)
Baetis No Hackle (sizes 18, 20)

Red Epoxy Head Midge (sizes 18, 20)

Barr's Red Pure Midge Larva (sizes 18, 20)

Red Wire Nymph (sizes 18, 20)

Black BH Zebra Nymph (sizes 18, 20)

Burgundy BH Zebra Nymph (sizes 18, 20)

Miracle Nymph (sizes 18, 20)

Midge Cluster (sizes 16, 18)

Griffith's Gnat (sizes 16, 18, 20)

Student's Gray CDC Midge Emerger (sizes 18, 20)

Harrop's Gray CDC Midge Adult (sizes 18, 20)

Harrop's Gray CDC Biot Midge Emg. (sizes 18, 20)

Harrop's CDC Transitional Midge (size 18, 20)

Black Wing X midge (size 18)

Tan Larva Lace midge (size 18, 20)

Red Mini SJW (size 14)

Otter's soft milk egg (size 16)

Bighorn River Report

George Anderson

If you have a case of cabin fever after our long winter, the best way to eliminate this is a quick trip to the Bighorn. March and April fishing on the 'Horn is always a lot of fun an as a bonus you don't see the crowds that will appear later in the summer. I just went down for a three day weekend with a couple of friends, Bill Hart from Whitefish and Randy Brown from Sacramento. We were looking for some nice spring days with temps in the 50's and 60's but what we got was temps from 18 degrees to 42 degrees and one day with a sustained wind of about 30 mph, gusting to 50 mph! To say it was brutal weather would be an understatement.

The fishing though, was superb. At this time of the year, the fish are feeding mostly on midges, sowbugs and scuds. The Baetis hatches are just now starting at the end of March, and these will build now thru April and May. When the spring Baetis hatches hit hard, you can have some spectacular dry fly fishing, especially on calmer days.

We just hit a storm front moving through and normally it is never as windy on the Bighorn as it is here in Livingston. We stayed at the Bighorn Trout Shop, in their new motel rooms, which were perhaps the most comfortable fishing accommodations I've had

in some time. Large, spacious rooms with wonderful queen sized beds that were super comfortable. Steve Hilbers and Hale Harris and the crew made our visit a real pleasure as always. These guys run a first class operation in every way. Ditto for their fly shop.

My favorite stretch to fish at this time of the year is 3 mile to Bighorn Access. With the water flow at only around 1500 CFS, this is a good all day float in perhaps the best water on the river.

The water temps running out of the afterbay were in the 33-35 degree range in the mornings so the fishing got noticeably better as it warmed up 3-5 degrees during the day. The afternoons were

super fishing, right up until 7-8 PM.

I pumped the stomach of several nice big browns and as you can see they are working on a smorgasbord of aquatic life. Mostly sub-surface stuff since that wind was blowing so hard. My best nymph combo was running a sow bug pattern on top ( a tan Ray Charles in size 18) on 5x, followed with a small red midge larva (one with a clear bead head, a size 20-22) on a dropper of a foot and a half of 6X. I like to use the new Seaguar Grand Max FX, which is the strongest tippet material we have found. Landing those hot 18-20 inch browns was no problem even with 6X. What little dry fly fishing we had on midges, I go with 7X.

Once the Baetis hatches get rolling, you can get away with 6X fishing dry, no problem. I do use a light rod though, and even in the 35 mph wind my 9 foot #3 Sage Z-Axis was a rocket launcher

for the nymph rigs. I use this rod with a WF-4-F Trout Taper as the 3 is too light for this rod.

At this time of the year with low water temps, you'll find most of the fish in shallower, slower water. Surprisingly shallow water that is only knee deep or less and on the softer side of the runs. Most guys are out there fishing deeper, heavier water, but this is a big mistake until the water temp comes up into the 40's.

In some runs I would hook as many as twenty fish and they hit both the sow bug and midge larva about 50-50. Late in the day it seemed like they took the sow bug imitations about 75 % of the time.

If the sun is out, the sight fishing with nymphs is my favorite way to catch a bunch of fish. Without using any indicator. But when the wind was blowing and it was cloudy, then a small Thill indicator, the #1 or #2 size is the way to go. I put the indicator about 4 feet above the split shot, one B size Water Gremlin either lead or tin, depending on the speed and depth. Less weight is better in this slow, shallow water. Most of the time I was using the tin B sized shot.

It is important to get a perfect dead drift with your nymph rig, so much of the time I like to fish this across and down and across stream, using a reach cast and then using feeding mends to put just the right amount of slack into the whole system.

I'd rather fish dry flies but this early springtime nymph fishing on the Bighorn can be unbelievable. A good angler can expect to catch 30-50 fish in a day, maybe more.