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Last Updated: 6/30/2009 by James Anderson

The Stone | Spring Creeks | Yellowstone Park | Guide Services

Local & Private Lakes | CFS @ Corwin Springs | CFS @ Carter's

Yellowstone River

The Yellowstone has dropped quite a bit, from 18,000 CFS last week to 12,500. Despite the rather large drop, there's still only about 6 inches of visibility. The Salmonfly hatch is going to be challenged by high water and little clarity, but with hope we might see some action over this way. The bugs will come one way or another, whether the fish can get on them or not will be the issue. Fishing nymphs close to the willows might fool a few hogs, but you have to be willing to loose some flies. Fingers are crossed for good dry fly action. Fishing inside the Park should still be good. We'll keep you posted as things start looking better on the Stone - the first week of "green is good" should present some awesome streamer fishing as these fish haven't seen flies since Mother's day.

Looks like the Yellowstone is going to be dropping through the 4th of July. If we don't get any serious rain, (20-40% chance), then visibility should improve. I wouldn't bother heading out unless you have a foot and a half of visibility, fly fishing in anything less usually ends up being a boat ride.

RECOMMENDED FLIES (Chuck & Duck)

Black Home Invader

Black Sex Dungeon #2

Black leadeye buggers #2-4

Bow River Buggers #4-6

Black Woolhead sculpin #2

Black Sculpzilla #4

Black Circus Peanut #2

Black and Silver Double Bunnies #2-4

White Home Invader #2

White Zonkers #2-4

White Conrad Sculpin #2-4

Bow river Mud pup #2

Silver Kantellya #2-4

Gold Kantellya #2-4

Spring Creeks

Ken Dunston with a nice McCoy's brown. Photo: James Anderson

This one snuffed about 30 casts with various dry flies, only to take a PMD nymph the very first cast! We had a good hatch of PMD's and then a thick emergence of brown caddis in the evening.

The PMD's have been in full force on all the creeks. Tons of nymphs, but more importantly the big Ephemerella Infrequens duns have been hovering the water. PMD emergers and nymphs still had the edge over fishing dries, but the ultimate dry fly angler can still be in action through out the day. Depending on the day, the hatch will start around 10:00 or 11:00, sometimes going as late as 6:00. Be sure to have various different stages of PMD's if you want to be more effective and try to concentrate on what they are eating at any given time. To do this, you might wade below an active fish and watch closely to see what is flowing down his lane. If you see more emergers than dries, go for one of Harrop's short wing emergers - they are deadly. No surprise, the grey / than sparkle scud played clean up as a good dropper. Things are starting to get busier over here, so call before head out.

A female PMD Spinner with a large egg sack

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

Armstrong's Spring Creek

DePuy's Spring Creek

Nelson's Spring Creek

Read George's news on Nelson's Spring Creek

"Paradise Valley PMD Hatch" by George Anderson

HATCHES

The PMD's are here! We saw at least 2 dozen dries on Armstrong's last week and the fish were already on them. In flipping over a few rocks, PMD nymphs were crawling everywhere. We also found a ton of PMD nymphs in Matt Wilhelm's collected samples from DePuy's - which were used to show the kids at the FFF/TU kids camp last Saturday. Also found in the samplings were stone flies, caddis, midge larva, and scuds. Still, the PMD nymphs out numbered the other samples 10 to 1. Dave student's PMD nymph is one of the better commercial representations of these aquatic insects, mostly because it is sparsely tied. If you are tying these up yourself, try not to add too much material to the hook and keep it simple. For duns, a sparkle dun is a great pattern, especially if you plan to use a dropper. It will float high and can take a beating from the fish. If you have a more difficult fish that is consistently refusing your fly, try switching to one of René Harrop's PMD No Hackles. Solitude offers many Harrop patterns which work very well, but the "originals" tied by the René and his family are in a class of their own. They are truly pieces of art, and while any one of them could be shadow boxed to hang on your wall, they are made to fish. There's only a few shops in the world that carry them - lucky for us, we are one of them...

RECOMMENDED FLIES

Harrop's PMD Sparkle Dun #18

Harrop's PMD olive short wing emerger #18

Harrop's PMD half and half emerger #18

HD PMD Emerger #16-20

PMD Captive Dun#16-20

CDC PMD Transitional Dun #16-20

PMD Biot Thorax #16-20

PMD Last Chance Cripple #16-20

Angle Case PMD emerger #18

Various Dave Student PMD nymphs #16-20

Black Zebra midges #18

Olive midge larva #18

Tan (grey) Sparkle scuds #18

Olive Sparkle scuds #18

Bighorn sow bugs #18

Black leadeye buggers #8

Rag Sculpins #4-6

*Brown Home Invader #6

* Until Umpqua starts cranking these out, be extra nice to Doug!

Local & Private Lakes

James Anderson and Gerry Lenzen admire a lunker

caught by the photographer, Michael Gaffney

Looking to hook a hog? Let us hook you up with one of the local or private lakes we fish. The spring is one of the best times to target BIG fish. This time of year can be outstanding sight fishing, as many of these fish haven't seen flies in a while. Once the summer roles around, the same big fish will hang out in deeper, cooler water - so now is one of your best chances to catch them!

We realize that lake fishing isn't for everyone. It really isn't, but our combination of great guides and exclusive lakes usually makes for a phenomenal day on the water. Learning different stillwater techniques could prove useful back home too! A lot of our clients will pass at first on the notion of coming out to Montana to fish lakes, but those who give it a shot almost always come back for more. After getting hog or two under their belts, a few of our clients have even made the switch to only fish lakes, forgetting about our blue ribbon rivers altogether!

Gerry Lenzen with a 23 inch rainbow caught on a size 16 René

Harrop Callibaetis. Click here to check out more lake photos.

HATCHES

Midges, Callibaetis, Damsels, leeches, dragon fly nymphs, scuds, and snails should cover you. Since most Montana lakes will get similar hatches, it makes sense to buy a selection of lakes flies for your lake box. In the early season (Mid May - Early June) you'll see more midges and Callibaetis than anything. Chironomids and zebra midges work well for droppers. For Callibaetis, make sure you have some flies that represent every stage of the hatch including nymphs, emergers, duns, and spent spinners. Harrop ties the most impressive spinners that we carry, but we have several other good patterns that are hard to find. Once things get a little hotter damsel nymphs will be more important than the midges or callibaetis. We've caught a lot of big browns on damsel nymphs. John Barr's damsel has been one of our favorites, also damsels with a tiny petitjean cone. The Leeches, scuds, and snails will work well for you year round.

RECOMMENDED FLIES

Lake Chironomids #14

Copper bead black zebra midge #18

Purple or Red oversized zebra midge #14

René Harrop parachute Callibaetis #16

René Harrop Callibaetis Spinners #16

Epoxy bead Callibaetis nymphs #14-16

Grey Sparkle scuds #14-18

Olive Sparkle scuds #14-18

Pig Pen Leech #6

Beadhead Bo face leech #6

Olive multicolored wooly bugger #6-8

Olive multicolored leadeye #6-8

Barr Damsel nymph #14-16

Whitlock Dragon fly nymph #12-14

Yellowstone National Park

Heading to the Firehole? Bring your PMD box...

Fishing in Yellowstone Park can be challenging but also very rewarding for those willing to get off the beaten path. This time of year you can find a few larger fish in the Madison and Gibbon. On these rivers you have to be willing to cover a lot of ground - consider it practice for your next New Zealand trip! A good day on these rivers would be one or two 18 -20 inch fish, along with a few 12-16 inchers. For most people, that isn't enough fish to justify the gas, so they'll head to the Firehole for higher numbers of trout. Here an angler might catch 20 - 30 fish on a good day, but the size is rarely over 16 inches. Due to the thermals, the PMD's will be coming off early on this side of the park. Forget about the Lamar valley for now, things are still too high and muddy. Slough Creek will be the first to clear when things finally chill out on that side of the park.

Salmon Fly Fever

Guide Brian Sienkowski with a nice salmonfly Big Hole bow

So what is it about Salmonflies that drive anglers towards 10 day fishing binges, lack of sleep, "arm pump" from rowing hard, tunnel vision, broken rods, profanity, speeding tickets, lucent fishing dreams, excessive drooling, and otherwise near insanity? Perhaps it is seeing a big brown rocket off the bottom and explode on your dry fly like a cherry bomb, or seeing hundreds of mini choppers hovering overhead like a scene from Apocalypse Now. Perhaps it is the chase that is more fun than the actual catch. Naw, scratch that. EVERYBODY likes catching big fish, and catching them on big dries is the icing on the cake. This incredible hatch in my mind, (and many others), is the best dry fly fishing of the year.

Give us a call at the shop for the most current details on where the hatches are and where you should go! 406-222-7130.