Fishing Outside the Seasonal Box

                          by Outfitter Bob Bergquist

Not much beats climbing out of the boat on a hot, breezy Montana afternoon and wet wading down a hidden back channel of the Yellowstone, then watching a big brown slowly levitate from a hole tight to the bank and inhale your ratty rubber hopper. Just where you knew he would be. Or the feeling you get leisurely rigging up with the guys and then quietly wading into ‘your’ pool on DePuys Spring Creek on a cool July morning, with the anticipation of the clockwork PMD hatch tickling through the nervous system. Nothing stirring, yet. Oooop, there’s a nose, and another.

That sums up my summer for you. Not a bad life, but it gets better. I get to be here for the good stuff that comes before what is considered the main show. This is when the guides fish.

When I first started coming out to Livingston many years ago it was to escape the stark endless winters of North Dakota. I’d stare disgustedly at the thermometer entrenched below zero with few prospects of upward mobility, and then steal a glance at the weather section of the paper. As expected, Billings had a high of 50 degrees and a forecast of 54. Road trip. The next couple days would be spent in a Nelson’s nirvana of 6X, #20 midge larva and the thick sweet smell of muck and beaver castor on my boots, while my wife had coffee after coffee with Helen or wandered the shops in Livingston chatting with shopkeeper’s that had another February afternoon to kill. It’s kind of slow around here between Valentines Day and Memorial Day, except for the fishing.

In truth most years January and February are best spent in the Bahamas or Mexico, but starting in March our world starts to wake up. The lower elevation snow is mostly gone, leaving dusty brown grasses and old dirty drifts marking the irrigation canals. Cattle are calving, the first grouse begin their hopeful drumming, and the Yellowstone flows are low and clear. As benthic life is freed from thawing anchor iced riffles, the fish stage in the shallow runs and behind shelves, starting to nymph and midge in earnest. This is when the guides get to fish, and they take full advantage of the preseason days off and the deserted river. The fish have not seen a fly for months and act like it. As sporadic hatches of March Browns, BWOs and midges come off during the middle of the day. A varied tandem of Parachute Adams takes fish after fish. When things slow down on top, streamers come out. It’s hard to find a guide around here that does not throw the big stuff when ever possible. The routine builds as the days get longer and warmer. Every few days we get shots of wet snow or drizzle that encorages the baetis to emerge en mass. First the pseudos, tiny 20’s and 22’s, then the real deal, the big 18’s and 16’s that every fish is up on. The spring fishing climaxes with the rightly famous Mother’s Day caddis hatch. When the water temps start creeping toward the low 50’s, Livingston is abuzz with rumors of who saw bugs where, guides swearing their shuttle drivers to secrecy about where they floated. Then boom, they are everyplace. The river becomes fuzzy with bugs. Trout of all sizes with grossly distended bellies gorge in every riffle and eddy. Car washes do banner business as locals do their best to dislodge thousands of sticky green egg sacks from their cars. Then it is mid May and the river is suddenly blown out. But that is not the end of our options...

                  Lower Yellowstone early spring brown

The Boulder River is in many ways a smaller version of the Yellowstone. In the early spring it runs low and clear, and as it heads nearby in the high Beartooth Range runoff is often delayed, perhaps a good week or more later than the Yellowstone. Hiking in from a bridge access we find the same hatches and eager fish. Thus it follows that the Shields River is a miniature version of the Bolder, but with the added bonus of small stoneflies to match and eager cutts, browns and bows to catch in the rollicking upper section as it descends out of the Crazy Mountains. Closer to Livingston it becomes a classic valley stream with deep holes and long glides that hold fish bigger than one might dare imagine.

Spring is also prime time on the Lower Madison, with caddis on top and streamers below targeting those huge browns that always disappear for the year as soon as the fishing pressure builds, the water warms and the bikinis hatch.

When the Meadowlarks return, the local ranch ponds and lower elevation lakes have begun to thaw, and the big rainbows and brookies slowly cruise the shore lines providing great sight fishing with small nymphs and scuds. We never have better opportunities to stick real pond hogs than in the spring before the weeds get too thick. 

                  A quite typical pond brown. Sitz Ranch.

When the rivers are running high, option one for many early season anglers are the spring creeks, with crystal waters and fish that are not yet the cynical feeders of summer. Often the early spring angler can have the creek to them selves, and at a reduced rod fee. Spring is the time for midges, baetis and scuds. And of course egg patterns, but fishing over the redds is discouraged as the actively spawning fish are too vulnerable and are busy repopulating our streams and rivers. Natural replenishment only is the rule for Montana’s wild waters… makes for hardy wild fish that figure out for them selves how many best fit a stretch of stream.

It is hard to decide between Armstrong’s, Nelson’s and DePuys at this time of year, as all offer good, but varied fishing. The lower end of DePuys will have river water backing into the pool. And with it, huge numbers of fish and caddis in from the main river. The stunning House Pond is clear of moss and dimpled with midging trout. Armstrong’s has resident bows and browns, easily seen feeding on midge larva in slow shallow water that later in the season becomes mossed over and unfishable. Spring is the time for delicately sight nymphing these areas. Nelson’s is a midge factory each spring, and is the only creek we regularly see clustering midges, making for some world class micro dry fly fishing. Spring is also when we have great access to McCoy’s Spring Creek, a bit of a drive but never a disappointment. Large fish, small pools, defined beats and a multitude of hatches in a meadow setting make this one of the premier Spring Creeks in the world.

Spring fishing in our corner of Montana as you can see, is full of opportunity, most of it under utilized. Certainly we have variables such as weather to deal with but we also have options, and even a plan C at this time of the year could easily yield the fish of the season. The dichotomy of fishing in warm spring sunshine, fresh green grass poking through the dead, surrounded by blazing white peaks against the bluest of skies certainly is amongst the most invigorating fishing experiences possible. You just sit back, breath the crisp air and pity the poor guy stuck in an office or sitting in front of that contrail 30,000 ft overhead.

This is when the guides fish, welcome to our world!