MothersDayCaddisHatchYellowstoneRiver2007

Brachycentrus Occidentalis, (commonly referred to as the "Mother's Day Caddis" around Livingston and Bozeman) typically hatch in late April through early May on the Yellowstone and Madison rivers. Heavy emergences of Brachycentrus Occidentalis will happen regardless, but whether the fish began feeding on them or not depends on the clarity of the water. If it is too murky as the hatch kicks off, the fish never get a chance to "turn on" to them. If run off is delayed however and the river remains clear as the caddis arrive, it is the best dry fly fishing of the year.

What will happen this year? Stay tuned to find out!

4/21

The river was finally clearing from a few days of rain. The visibility had drastically increased from 1-2 feet to about 3 - 3.5 feet - the perfect conditions for streamer fishing. We didn't see any sign of caddis. We saw a decent Baetis hatch in the afternoon, and plenty of fish rising to midges in the evening foam eddies. We didn't feel like tying on a midge dry, so we just stuck with our hi-vis parachute adams and that did the trick. In general it was a pretty slow day, but we did manage to catch a nice brown by dead drifting a black lead eye bugger.

A nice brown caught by dead drifting a black lead eye (4/21)

4/22

After having a great day the evening before, Chad Yoakam and I were tempted to go low again, but decided to check out the "Livingston Ditch" instead. We almost always see caddis here since the warmer waters of DePuy's spring creek pour into the river there. We saw a few caddis flying there but not many, so we drove up to Pine Creek bridge and fished the foam eddie there. We didn't see any caddis, but fish were rising to midges and the random baetis dunn. Before it got dark we stopped at the "Pop Stand" hole below Free River. Once again no sign of caddis, but fish were rising to midges, especially out in the middle of the river. Chad hooked a couple nice whitefish that evening and I had a little brown swipe at my nymphs but ended up getting skunked. That's just the way the Yellowstone is - one day she'll treat you with a 20 inch brown, the next a strike out. One way or another, she gets you coming back for more.

4/23

We could only do a short float after work which limited us to about a 4 mile float. We decided to go low again for another big brown. I saw one caddis the whole night, but it didn't matter - we had both rigged up sinking lines and streamers from the start. We moved some nice fish that night - one we moved twice which Doug McKnight caught on the second pounce. I tied on one of Doug's 8 inch whitefish imitation streamers and had a HUGE boil on it but never got tight. It wasn't on fire, but still a great day.

4/24

Seeing that very few caddis had hatched the past few days, we took a ride over to the Missouri for a change of scenery. Our goal was 29 incher - but that didn't happen. We did tape one female at 25 and caught a handful of 20+ 'ers. Later on the ride home we found out that the caddis popped big time on the Stone and people were slaying them through the afternoon. As Homer Simpson would say, "Dough!"

When I got back to Livingston around 5:30 I saw thousands of caddis at 9th Street bridge and the highway 89 bridge as well. I didn't see any fish rising at 9th street, and only a handful of dinks were rising under the 89 bridge. I ended fishing the bottom of the Shields, which also was covered in caddis. Unfortunately, I didn't see (or hear) a single rise so I stuck with a little black bugger which must have looked tasty to a few fish...

4/25

We were running a little late and didn't put in until about 6:00. The caddis had popped hard and in any given direction you could see about 20 caddis in the air and hovering the water. The fish weren't on fire when we put the boat in, but we did see or hear a rise every 3 minutes or so. That was enough to make us tie on caddis dries. Our best rig ended up being two caddis dries - a Hot Wing Elk Hair Caddis with a Goddard dropper. It seemed like the bigger fish were more interested in the Elk Hair. We must have had 10 fish catching air in 15 minutes.

One of the more memorable fish caught that evening took our flies 3 times. Hank Bechard cast his caddis into a drift line and immediately a nice fish nosed it but didn't eat it. It was a tricky spot to get a dead drift so Hank stack mended his line and the fish nailed his Hot Wing - there was just too much slack to get him. We thought the fish would surely be down after feeling that, but to our surprise we saw him rise to a natural. Hank tossed his dries in again and the fish ate, but as bad luck would have it he didn't get a hook up. We hadn't seen him rise after about 10 casts, so figuring he felt the hook I told Hank, "OK, 5 more casts and then I'm going to drop the bomb on him." After a few more great drifts floated over the browns head, the black lead eye plopped in. I didn't get him the first three casts, and figured he was done with our fun. He ripped it on the 4th cast and I was able to skate him into the net on 0X before he got a chance to take us down stream. Hank was shaking his head a little on that one...

Not 50 feet below from the first nice brown Hank spotted a nice tail. I can still picture it perfectly, the big brown took 3 caddis in 3 seconds, two being naturals, 1 being Hank's Elk Hair. Fish On! Hank stuck him quickly this time and it looked like we really kicking some fin now. We almost had the brute in the net, but he got a second wind and took a good 60 feet of line into the middle of the river. We chased him down to the point where Hank had the leader in his rod and the net in his left hand when... poof! The lunker pulled a Houdini on us and vanished back into the river.

We weren't the only ones kicking some tail out there that night. Simms rep Jon Yousko was out there getting fish on streamers before the hatch got hot. Tucker Nelson (of Nelson's spring creeks) had an awesome evening. Guides John Oppelt and Eric Paramore were out that evening railing on fish as well. Just as we were floating by John had a nice brown on which I tried to zoom in on, but didn't do fish justice. Not 15 minutes later we were anchored up tying on new dries (yup, Hank got cleaned by another good fish) when they floated by and reported that Johnny was "one upped" by an even larger brown caught by Eric's girlfriend. She smiled and shrugged her shoulders as the boys shook their heads... Good job Terra!

4/26

Have you ever heard one of those dreaded in boat conversations that start off something like, "Wow, you couldn't ask for a nicer day," or "This is such beautiful scenery." Well, you what that usually translates to - "Man, the fishing sucks!" And last night was one of those nights...

Last night we had "beautiful sunset" float from Pig Farm to East End. We didn't even turn a fish. Actually, we did belly hook a big fat whitefish with a bugger, but other than that it was terrible. We talked to several other folks who got their tail handed to them as well.

The clarity was less than a foot of visibility, but I think the major problem was we didn't see many caddis. I think the heavy rain from the night before threw a serious monkey wrench into the caddis factory.

4/27

The visibility at 9th street bridge looked like less than a foot. I just talked to the guys at Angler's West and they said the river was just as dirty up there, and the water at Corwin Springs has gone up in CFS. Looks like a good day to finally mow that shin high grass in the back yard...

4/28

By 7:00 AM, the visibility had increased at 9th street by a few inches, but was still only a foot of visibility. Hoping more clear water was on the way, we called up Park's fly shop in Gardiner. They reported that it was even worse up there and that unless there was a major cold spell early next week, that the river was toast. Looking at the weather in the Bozeman Chronicle, it looks like we may be doomed for another crummy caddis year. The good news, is you can still have incredible fishing this time of year on local and private lakes, spring creeks, and tailwaters.

Today: high 82, Sunday: high 78 with afternoon thunderstorms, Monday: high 69, Tuesday: high 71, Wednesday: high 69 with isolated showers, Thursday: high 61 with isolated showers, Friday: high 58.

If you float just to enjoy the hatch and have some fun try fishing dries 6 inches to the bank. If nothing happens after a while, switch to a black bugger with a big stonefly nymph dropper. As the CFS continues to rise, please take caution for the "cottonwood hatch" - dubbed after the huge logs and sticks that will be floating in the river through runoff.

This day had the thickest caddis hatch that I had seen so far this year. I didn't get any fish on caddis, but got one little rainbow on the Yellowstone and one little brown on the shields. Both fish were caught on a black leadeye bugger.

4/29

Ouch! The Yellowstone looks like the river from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory... only about 3 inches of visibility out there at 9th street. If you have the day off and want to fish, I think spending a little time behind the wheel would be best. Both the Bighorn and Missouri have been fishing hot lately. This would also be a good time to thump on some fish at Burn's Lake or the Paradise Valley Spring Creeks.

Doug and Rick fished Sitz Ranch (a series of lakes near Harrison Montana). Sounds like they did very well with bugger patterns, scuds, and chirnomids. Fish were even taking big midge dries off the surface! I will post their photos as soon as I get them, but from the looks of their digital cameras, Sitz would be a great spot to go this month!

4/30

Through the day I heard several reports that the Lower Madison was getting some caddis and was remaining clear. Mike Banville and I wanted to get on the water badly, and this was by far the best option for an evening float. When we arrived to the boat ramp at Warm Springs, the caddis were really swarming. A few folks had just pulled in on a raft and the guide smiled, "Boy you guys sure are in for a treat! They were really going good just now!" He was right. We rowed over to the other side an immediately found some rising fish. Mike's knowledge of the river really helped in terms of finding fish. Luckily the trout were quite active and were rising all around us. Nothing huge, but still a blast to catch. Once the sun went down, the bugs seemed to disappear too and the fishing went from frenzy to fairly slow in an instant. It was getting dark quickly - far too dark to see our dries, so that's when a tied on a Bow River Bugger. I only had one hit on it, but I could see the boil and it was a dandy.

5/6

Back in action! The guys who gave great reports were all fishing above Pine creek. They said there were tons caddis up there and the fish were eating dries. I wade fished around Pig Farm, but didn't see many caddis - if any. The visibility was about a foot and a half. I did see one rise by the cliffs, but other than that, surface activity non-existent. As a last ditch effort not to get skunked, we headed to the Shield's. There were a quite a few caddis around, but the water level was too high and the clarity was still too muddy...

5/7

Clarity in the morning looks like 2-3 feet, this could be the day we have all waiting for! The CFS is still dropping like a rock on at Corwin Springs and on the Lamar. Hopefully this pattern will continue, although the weather is calling for rain Wednesday evening and continuing on through the weekend.

For us, this was the best dry fly fishing of the year. As soon as we put the boat in at Emigrant we saw fish rising. The were taking emergers for the most part, but had no qualms about ripping into our dry flies. What made the fishing so good was the thick hatch in combination with clear water - or at least clear enough - about a foot. It looks like the window of good fishing is rapidly decreasing however...

5/8

We had high hopes for hot action again, but instead we had to settle for lots of bugs and lots of mud. We put in at Grey Owl, where the clarity looked like about a foot of visibility, but by the time we pulled out at Loch Leven, there was almost no visibility. The caddis were everywhere but the fish just weren't on them. We stopped at 3 or 4 places where pods of whitefish were working, (you know it is tough fishing when you're anchored up casting to 8 inch stone rollers.) As they say, "the tug is the drug!"

5/9

Nothing spells "it's over" like warm weather and Thunderstorms! The lower Madison is probably your best bet in terms of finding caddis action, or possibly the Big Hole...

5/10

Time to hit up local and Private Lakes! Doug McKnight has been on the prowl since the river has been muddy. He's quite a few toads this week, to say the least! From skinny leech like buggers, to scuds, pheasant tail nymphs, and midges Doug has been putting the hurt on some nice rainbows. Give him a call and he can book you on some incredible private water, or point you towards some local lakes that are free...