New Stream Reclamation on Nelson’s Spring Creek promises to provide better fishing in 2009.

by George Anderson

A photo of Nelson's Spring Creek from the early 70's

Nelson’s Spring Creek, seven miles South of Livingston has always had the reputation as one of the finest true Spring Creeks in the US.   But even the best spring creeks are prone to siltation over the years, which decrease water depth, providing fewer places for trout to hide.  The silt also dramatically decreases the amount of insect life, like the intense mayfly hatches that have made these streams famous.   

Now that these streams are protected by rock rip-rap along the Yellowstone they no longer get periodic flushing flows from the Yellowstone River have helped to blow all this silt out.  Of course those years that the Yellowstone flooded into the spring creeks caused a huge amount of damage and even threatened to wipe out the spring creeks altogether.   Good, well designed rip-rap projects and levees have helped to contain the river but now this siltation, caused mostly by waterfowl in the winter, has threatened these wonderful streams and if nothing was done, the quality of fishing would continue to decline.

Back in 2001, Roger Nelson took it upon himself to get the necessary permits to allow them to get into the spring creek late in the winter and using an excavator, actually deepen some pools and provide more holding water for the trout.   This worked but I could see that more could be done to turn Nelson’s into the fantastic trout stream it was when I first fished it, back in the late 60’s and early 70’s.  

So in 2003 I offered to help because of my love for Nelson’s spring creek and the hope that we could make it better than ever.  I drew up plans for more stream reclamation work to compliment what Roger had done but also to return the stream more to its original character.   The work was done again in early March and by fishing season after the grasses along the banks had grown up, you could hardly tell that there had been heavy equipment in the streambed.    These new improvements really helped dramatically and now Nelson’s was red-hot fishing once again.  The insect hatches were better than ever and anglers were enthusiastic about the work we had done.

But we could see that there was even more work to be done in the future, especially on the lower portion of the stream.   So this winter Roger got more permits and went back out in early March and did a lot of work that will surely compliment what work we had done earlier.    We had found that a few of the spots on the stream that used to be so good, like below the rock dam and the pool above the flume, were just not holding nearly the numbers of trout that they had in the past.   So these two areas were to be the focus of Roger’s work.

First he tackled the flats below the rock dam, re-routing the flow of the current so that it now goes well around to the West bank.   Then he deepened this bank substantially, which will provide lots of great holding lies for fish.   The rock and material removed filled in some of the flat, unproductive water, so that now this stretch of stream will be a bit narrower, but far more fishable.  The wading will also be easier as anglers will be able to sneak up and cast across at fish rising along the bank.  Roger did a great job of removing rock and material along this bank without damaging the existing willows and vegetation, and all this will provide great cover and hiding spots for big fish.  

Below this section is a nice flat that dumps off into one of the narrow, but deep pools that I had designed back in 2003.   Again, the idea was to provide some deeper water that provides both feeding lanes for fish but also makes them far less vulnerable to predators like eagles and ospreys.  

The tail out of this deep slot is already excellent water so this was not changed. Right below this however, in the past the stream blasted straight down towards The "flume" pool and there was very little holding water, since it was just a shallow, fast riffle.   We did some work here in 2003, but it still wasn’t right and didn’t hold many fish.   So this year Roger designed four short but deep pools where the current is forced to flow right and left before it all dumps out into the final “flume” pool.

These short and deep pools all provide lots of holding lies, but they will be challenging to fish.   These pools are more suited to short line nymph fishing, getting something down fast, even with some split shot.  Scuds, sow bugs and mayfly nymphs will all work well here.    There are also good areas in each of these smaller pools to find rising fish during a good hatch but approach and presentation will be the key to doing well, in addition to the difficulty of getting a good drag free presentation because of the faster currents running through these pools.

The final piece of work deals with the long pool directly above the flume, or bridge that carries irrigation water over the spring creek.   This is the lower boundary of Nelson’s property.    This lower pool has historically been one of the best pools on all of Nelson’s but for some reason, after that first work in 2001, it was never the same.    Both Roger and I agreed that with more work this pool could be one of the best again, so he did more work to deepen the lower end of this pool and make a more gradual drop from the top of the pool into the deeper water.   It sure looks much better now.   A big log placed in the stream here forces the current out to the far bank that has a heavy growth of buffalo berry bushes, willows and other brush.  

Anglers will now be able to fish the flume pool from both sides.   At the top they will be able to fish from the East bank, and from the middle down, from the West bank.  The water through the middle of the pool is now 3-5 feet deep with good weed growth and deep pockets.  It was this kind of water that produced such outstanding fishing in the past. This was always a great pool to fish deeper with small nymphs.  Big fish seemed to be packed in that pool like cordwood at times, and it was not unusual to stand in one spot and hook more than a dozen nice trout.   

In fishing these new pools last weekend, I could see that many fish had already moved into good holding lies and with some bright sunny days, the weed growth will come back quickly.  By the time most anglers arrive in late June and July to fish Nelson’s, they will be pleasantly surprised.   By then the grasses along the bank and in the fill areas will have grown up, and it will be hard to tell that major work had been done unless they remember what the stream had looked like in the past.    I’m excited about all the new work and I’m confident that anglers lucky enough to be able to secure spots on the stream in the summer prime time will be in for a treat!