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Last updated 6/26 by James Anderson. (Please scroll down for the latest information)...

6/14

Wow! Our Salmonfly season started off with a bang this year, as guide Eric Paulson (outfitter #6869) netted a 29 inch brown on the Upper Madison. This big brown hen put up quite a fight after gulping Eric's top secret salmonfly. The Madison typically gets the "big bugs" about 2 weeks before the Yellowstone. The Salmonflies start on the lower section of the Madison, crawl through Bear Trap Canyon, pass the edges of Ennis lake, and finally make their way from Jeffers all the way into Yellowstone Park. Once the bugs make it past Lyons bridge, the Salmonflies on the upper Yellowstone are usually in full effect. This is nice, as it spreads anglers out and everyone has more elbow room.

Eric Paulson holds a 29 inch brown from the Upper Madison

6/15

Although chasing the Salmonflies can be well rewarding, sometimes the best fishing is away from the Salmonfly frenzy. This time of year, when locals and the guides are focussing on the big bugs, the Smith River, Yellowstone Park, the Spring Creeks, and private lakes are vacant. These places are all good options to get away from boats and get into some BIG fish. The lower Madison had some nice PMD hatches, and several large browns were getting caught on small, technical PMD or caddis nymphs.

Nice brown Gunner! What is even more impressive is that his brown was part of a double! She caught it (and a smaller bow while fishing the Smith. photo: Rick Wollum

6/16

The Salmonflies were starting to show up thick on the Upper Madison, but we already had plans to skip the crowds at one of the exclusive private lakes we book. Later when we got back to town we heard that Eric Paulson landed a 29 inch brown on a salmonfly dry! We didn't catch anything that huge, but we did have some pretty damn good fishing with callibaetis dries, damsel nymphs, and leech like buggers.

We had to nick name Kip Guja "Trout Slayer" after landing several monsters in a row, one witch absolutely slammed his callibaetis dun. Once Howie started kicking around in the Super Fat Cat, fish were in trouble. He landed two awesome fish which both snapped off just before my shutter clicked - one huge brown and the other a huge cutthroat. For those who catch one of these fish, the memory will be as vivid as any photo, and I'm sure Howie will remember holding those hogs for years to come. We packed it in just in time to escape the deluge of hail on the drive home.

6/17

Luckily the heavy rain and hail from the night before didn't skirted around the Lamar Valley. Otherwise, the Salmonfly hatch on the Yellowstone would have taken a blow due to murky water coming. Thankfully we caught a break and the Stone continued to be green with 4 feet of visibility.

Since we had less snow this year, the Yellowstone cleared quickly, which makes for an incredible Salmonfly season...

The Golden Stones have been on the water recently as well. Sometimes big fish will sink into these instead of the Salmonfly, since so many people are fishing a salmonfly dry. I'd switch up your pitch from time to time and see if the big boy is willing to play ball...

6/18

Don't forget your yellow simulators & yellow sally droppers!

The Salmonflies were thick between Emigrant bridge and Loch Leven. Fish bellies were equally as thick. Jamie Benedict said the fish were so plum full nymphs were crawling out of their mouths! After fish have gorged themselves on giant salmonfly nymphs, Yellow Sallies, trudes, and Caddis patterns tend to work better than Salmonfly dries. You may not catch your biggest fish of the day on it, but it will certainly get you more fish to the boat.

To put things into perspective, it would be like us going to Chico or the Rib and Chop to enjoy a big buttery steak. After we finished it, not many of us would dig into another sizzling steak if the waiter plopped one down in front of us. However; if the waiter brought over a small serving of Crème brûlée - well, we might just have to pick up our desert fork for that! Moral of the story: tie on a size #14 yellow sally dropper 18 inches below your favorite Salmonfly dry!

6/19

We decided to get above the hatch a work on some hungry fish. We put the boat in at Carbella and floated to Point of Rocks. The fishing was good but not great. We caught several pocket knife sized trout on a yellow stimi and a couple nice ones on Salmonfly dries. We didn't see any dries, and I didn't see any nymphs either. Robert ending up with the nicest fish of the night - the brown shown above was caught on a size 4 King Kong Salmonfly dry.

Hey! I remember you from last year! Oh well - like they say, "The Tug is the Drug!"

6/20

I didn't float today, but I did take a drive up the Valley looking for big bugs. We started looking at Grey Owl, which didn't look too hot. Emigrant bridge - nothing. It wasn't until we got to 26 that we started to find consistent nymphs. I found about 10 nymphs in 10 feet of water. Most of the bugs were hiding under rocks with silt or mud near by.

Again no dries in the air or in the bushes. Strange. If you want to hit this hatch right this year, you may have to float 5 or 6 days in a row. I think the name of the game is from Carbella to 26 now - or you could do hot laps from Carbella to point of rocks. Hope to see you out there some evening...

6/21

James Warren with a nice brown caught b/n Carbella and 26

The River fished good for us, great for others. We were more or less the caboose of a 30 boat brigade, so all things considered we did pretty well. The guys who were pulling out in front of us said they caught a 25 inch brown on a salmonfly that day! No photo, but even in you take 5 inches off the fish, that is still a monster. Rick, Robert, and Jimmy said saw hundreds of salmonfly dries and got a few nice fish to eat them. One of the more eventful incidents of the evening was right out of the gate, when a rafter launched off Tom Minor Bridge. He said he just barely hit bottom at the end...

6/22

Guide reports indicated that the morning was better fishing than the afternoon. It seems from 2:00 to 6:00 the fishing has been a little slower, and then picking up again in the evening. So it makes sense to fish hard and take a later lunch. If you go out after work, be sure to bring lots of caddis as the sky (and bushes) have been filled with them. At one point the sky looked liked we were in a stars wars movie, traveling at warp speed. We caught 80% of our fish on the caddis, but the big fish were on the big bugs.

6/23

We didn't float today, but did get a chance to drive up and relax at Mallard's Rest. Talking to a few floaters at the ramp, the dry fly fishing was very good on trudes, caddis, golden stones, and get this - hoppers! It was nice to see that Paradise Valley was so vividly green this Spring.

The guides and folks who did float, saw Salmonflies all the way up to Gardiner. The cutthroats were still leaning towards small dry droppers as their favorite snacks, but the rainbows were crushing the Salmonflies. Smaller, more skinny salmonflies like the Stalcup Salmonfly or the Hedgehog were doing quite well up there.

Soon it will be time to hike into the park to continue the chase. Not many people are willing to do this, so if you are one of the few, come on in and we we'll give you a map and some bugs!

6/24

On a side note, if you don't want to fish in the crowds, the town section or below town has been fishing quite well with rubber leg nymphs, bead heads, buggers, caddis, golden stones, and yellow sallies... Since everyone has been up river, many of these fish have not been stuck in a while and are more apt to drill your dry or lead eye!

6/25

The Upper Yellowstone was on fire from Gardiner to Joe Brown. The thickest part of the hatch was around the Cinnabar bridge. A few guys hiked into the Black of the Yellowstone, but reported that they were to far ahead of the hatch too see any bugs.