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Call us for a wind report! 406-222-7130 Last Updated: 2/25/2009 by James Anderson The Yellowstone | Spring Creeks | Waters we fish | Guide Services CFS @ Lamar River | CFS @ Corwin Springs | CFS @ Carter's
A healthy brown from Armstrong's spring creek caught by JW Winter fishing - where should I go?Winter fishing in Montana be outstanding, but it can also be extremely slow, frozen, barren of fish, or even illegal to fish. In fact most of montana's western and central creeks are closed to fishing until the third Saturday of May. Most montana rivers are open year round, but many are simply not worth fishing until Spring. Here's a few spots that tend to fish more consistently than others during the winter months: Armstrong's Spring Creek Nelson's Spring Creek DePuy's Spring Creek Bighorn River Missouri River Bear Trap Canyon Lower Madison Yellowstone River (when air temps are higher than 40°) What flies should I bring?Midges remain the primal food source for trout over the winter months. I usually have two winter fly boxes, one for spring creeks / tailwaters, and the other for freestone rivers. My freestone box will have a much better selection of large/heavy streamers, sculpin patterns, red serendipities, large zebra midges, rubber legs, and a few midge dries just in case. My spring creek / tailwater box has a lot more midges, especially midge larva which make for great droppers off any fly. It also will have a good variety of scuds and sowbugs in various colors and sizes. For the Bighorn and Missouri, I like the pink and orange scuds, for the paradise valley creeks grey works better. I also pack a round of midge emergers and a full assortment of midge dries in case they start feeding off the surface. I tend to size my streamers down a bit for the creeks so they might like a sculpin or spring creek leech. Here's a few winter selections that we sell... Winter Freestone box: (4) Red serendipity #14-16 (2) Black Zebra midges #18 (2) Red Zebra midges #18 (2) René Harrop Grey CDC Hanging Midge #20 (2) Brown Pat's Rubberlegs #8 (2) Black leadeye buggers #2-4 (2) Bow River Buggers #4-6 (2) White Zonkers #2-4 (2) JJ Specials #4 (2) Black Woolhead sculpin #2
Tailwater Freestone box: (2) Black Zebra midges #18 (2) Olive midge larva #18 (2) Dave Student midge emergers #18-20 (2) René Harrop Light Grey CDC Midge Emerger #20 (2) René Harrop Grey CDC Adult Midge #20 (2) René Harrop Grey CDC Hanging Midge #20 (2) Grey Sparkle scuds #18 (2) Pink Sparkle scuds #18 (2) Orange Ray Charles #18 (2) Bighorn sow bugs #18 (2) Black leadeye buggers #6 (2) Bow River Buggers #6-8 (2) Rag Sculpins #4 (2) Spring Creek Leech #8 2/25
The lower elevation snow we got a few days ago has since melted, jumping the CFS from as low as 900 back up to 1,010. There was a slight color change a couple days ago, but things are back to clear again. As you can see the Yellowstone is flowing at a much lower CFS then the 83 year median average. The season for catching monster brown trout on the Yellowstone is just around the corner. If you are a bait fisherman, the time is right now. For flies however, it would help if the water temperature increased a few degrees. Pick a warmer day and dead drift those streamers slow and deep and see what you can come up with. So far this weekend looks good on paper... 2/21
The morning was cold and the fish were nippy at best. We tried a variety of streamers, nymphs, buggers, worms - you name it, we tried it. The wind was ripping through town. We had 4 nice tugs, 2 of which we got visual confirmation, a pair a nice rainbows but they got lucky and shook off. The bigger rainbow was actually holding in fast water down by the baseball fields. Sadly the only fish in the net were one 12 inch white fish and a 3 inch sculpin. There must be a few cases of cabin fever out there, we saw 2 other boats and about 5 wade fisherman. We talked to some other friends who wade fished the upper Yellowstone and netted 6 trout and 1 white fish.
2/16
James Warren and D. Holiway tearing it up at Armstrong's We didn't get to the creek until about 11:00. Although there were a few midges in the air, the dry fly fishing wasn't all that so we fished mostly nymphs and streamers. For nymphs we tried scuds, various midge larva patterns, and do I dare admit the occasional egg. As far as nymphs went it didn't matter, the fish were eating whatever was at face level and had a good dead drift. What did seam to matter however, was D.'s "Walmart looking" black streamer wrapped with gold mylar tinsel. D. was on fire. The fly looked like it could have fallen apart at any second, probably because it had been mangled so many times. I think both James and I went home that night with intension to tie up a batch of similar black ops prototypes. Perhaps the coolest part of the day was seeing an enormous brown just above the #2 riffle. He was smart though, and speed boated out of there before we could get into position to cast. I'm guessing he might have been a two footer or so... 2/14
Floating down to Greybear? Better bring your ice pick... I was down in Big Timber yesterday and checked out a few pullouts. Otter Creek is clear of ice and looking good. Greybear still has a solid amount of ice on the boat ramp. Springdale is clear again and ready to go. East End (exit 350) looks a lot better now - I only saw it from I-90 but I think it is clear and good to go. Pig Farm, Sheep Mountain, 89, Mayor's and 9th are all clear for now too. The conditions of these ramps could change next week with the hazardous weather outlook (Sunday through Friday). Looks like a big storm system with temperatures hovering the low 30's with a 20-40% chance of snow. Good news is that it doesn't look too windy, which means the creeks should fish well this weekend. 2/12
D. and Russell floated from Carter's to 9th today and had 25 fish day. They said the put in might be tricky for a drift boat as they had to pick up their raft and carry it over to the river. They had to get out a few times to push the raft over shallow riffles, but that was just as easy as going as the pullout at 9th. They spent most of their time in slow deep runs, especially those with warmer spring water running into them. They said it was cold, when they pulled off around 5:00 it was only 30 degrees. 2/10
This is the time of year when bait fisherman do really well on the Stone. A couple guys had caught some big fish below 89 on worms. I fished down below them for a while with streamers but didn't do squat. I talked to some other friends who floated Mayor's to 89 with streamers and nymphs but didn't catch a fish either. I saw a guy down by Springdale with a bag full of fish he had caught, "yup," he said holding up a 19 inch brown, "this one here's gunna make a nice fryer..." 2/8
Midges have been the only dry flies on the Yellowstone lately. I've been seeing a rise or two each evening, but it seems the fish aren't feeding on them nearly as much as last winter. Perhaps the heavy flows of the flood last year have taken a bigger toll on the midge population than we thought. Anyway, for midge dry fly patterns it is hard to beat one of harrop's hanging midges. Even though they are smaller than a griffith's gnat, they are easier to see with their white tuff on top. Part of the gig is getting a really nice drift which means 5 and sometimes 6X. If that game doesn't appeal to you, you can always nymph or fish streamers. A good nymph rig would be a small bow river bugger, rag sculpin, or a rubber leg with a red serendipity dropper 18 inches behind it. If you decide to pull out your big gun for streamer fishing, just make sure you give your fly ample time to sink. These fish are stuck on the bottom and aren't in the mood to chase anything three feet over their heads...
2/6
Butch Craig holding up the fish of the day... We floated 89 to pig this afternoon. We put on around 2:15 and were out by 6:00. We didn't catch many fish, but the ones we caught were nice. All of them came out of slow, deep water as you might suspect. Butch and Dale were dredging deep with their 300 grain lines and big streamers. I had a dry fly line going with a sculpin and a rubber leg dropper about 6 feet under an indicator. Both techniques produced fish. There were some clouds building up around us, but we didn't get wet. There were a few shallow spots here and there, but we didn't leave too much river graffiti on the rocks from our boat. We had a blast, it was fun just to be out there. I talked to D. who fished in town this afternoon and he landed a nice fat brown along with 5 rainbows. This weekend is calling for snow in the mornings, which means a guy could sleep in if he were so inclined. The afternoons look pleasant with highs around 45°F with only 7-10 mph for wind, so weekend warriors mount up! 2/4
The weather was so nice in town today, I couldn't resist getting out of the house and wetting a line. The wind was ripping but it was still a pleasant outing. I was fishing streamers, but didn't hook a thing, except for a couple twigs. I didn't see any bugs, not even midges. I even flipped a few rocks but I didn't find anything of interest. The best part of the day was when I grabbed a rainbow with my hands, but he slipped out and swam away. I was getting down low to take this photo when I saw him tucked into the rocks, just snoozing away the afternoon. He might have been 16 inches or so, but fat and healthy. I better watch Jeremiah Johnson again and take notes... 2/2
A nice cut-bow from Armstrong's Spring Creek. Photo: George A. George went out to the creeks on Sunday to test a pair Simms guide boots with the new Vibram sole. In general he said that he liked them a lot, but I'll let you read more about that first hand in our upcoming newsletter. He didn't see a lot of fish in the diagonal riffle either, but pounded fish after fish on scuds below the big rock hole. Size 18 grey sparkle scud to be exact. He said there were quite a few fish hanging out below the red barn as well, just above the DePuy's property line... 2/1
This brown was caught with our good friend Eric Gagel in mind, who passed away last week. We'll be thinking about you buddy... Recently the creeks have been fishing much more consistently than the Yellowstone. The water temperature is roughly 20 degrees warmer than the river, making the fish much more active and willing to feed. There are a lot midge larva in the creeks right now, if you look closely you can see one on the fin of the brown above. They will vary in color, but a long olive midge larva will do just fine. It will be another month or so before the spring baetis start to hatch, so for now concentrate on fishing midges, scuds, stonefly nymphs, mini SJW's, and who could resist - streamers.
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We fished Armstrong's on Saturday morning. The diagonal riffle and the slow lane below it had a few actively feeding fish, but nothing like this summer when it was stacked like cordwood. We moved up to the second riffle and D's black bugger was attacked on the first cast by a BIG brown. It tail walked in the shallows before bull-dogging into deeper water. I heard D's tippet crack like the sound of a black widow's thread. I fixed D up with some 2X Grandmax and it wasn't long before D had another nice brown on. We didn't catch many fish, but the ones we landed were all good sized browns with beautiful colors, sporting their buttery yellow sides and big spots. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day. If you're starting to get anxious to wet a line, I'd highly recommend heading out there. Don't bother using black buggers though... they don't work at all. 
