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Call us for a wind report! 406-222-7130 Last Updated: 4/30/2010 by James Anderson The Stone | Spring Creeks | Yellowstone Park | Guide Services Local & Private Lakes | CFS @ Corwin Springs | CFS @ Carter's Yellowstone River
Mmm... fish likey the streamer! Photo: Marcus McGuire See, we told you the streamer fishing was good in late April! Even if the caddis hatch is not red hot or even if the river is muddy, Late april is one of THE BEST TIMES to book an early fly fishing trip. Plus, if you play your cards right, you might even get another "kitchen pass" from the Mrs. enabling you to come out in the summer as well! We think this fish actually swam up from Tierra Del Fuego, along the coast of Chile, through the Panama Canal, up the Mississippi and into the stone. Ha ha... glad I saved some coin by skipping that plane ticket!
4.29 The wind was absolutely ripping today. It was snowing pretty hard around Livingston and the fish were definitely not on. No worries, we'll take the moisture any chance we get. I only saw one nice rise in the Shields, which was equally colored up as the Jelly, maybe a foot and a half to two. Seems like yesterday's rain spiked the stone a bit, but looking at the charts, it is back on its way down. Between 40 mph gusts a slung a streamer close to the rip rap but didn't move a thing. Chalk another one up for paying my dues I guess. I did see some caddis eggs under the few rocks I turned. Nothing crazy, just globs or 4 or 5 or so here and there. The only consistent activity I saw were birds picking bugs off the surface. They were prowling along the rip rap to stay out of the heavy wind. At first I was excited, thinking that baetis were coming off, but after looking more closely they were eating midges. I don't have much hope for tomorrow, but with the Stone you never know...
4.27 What a day to fish! Over cast skies, a little sun to get the caddis going, and more than two feet of vis... sweet! The fish are finally eating caddis now, although the big eddies filled with caddis are yet to come. Look at the weather coming up this week, and streamer fisherman will start salivating at the bit. Dry fly guys could still be in business too, but you better have some baetis and march browns in your box next to the caddis...
4.24 Clear enough? Almost but not quite... Keep your fingers crossed for some cooler night temps and hopefully the Stone will clear just enough for some epic dry fly fishing. Streamers and big nymphs would be the best way to fly fish for now, although we've seen a few random rises here and there to caddis. It's on the fence for tomorrow, looks like next week might be the best...
The caddis are here... 4.21 The caddis have popped, but unfortunately the river is too muddy to fish effectively with caddis patterns. The edges of the river have just enough visibility for a streamer fisherman, but even for them, giving it a day or two wouldn't hurt. We have some cooler weather and possible precipitation coming tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday. As long as we don't get pounded by rain the river should drop and get clearer for the weekend warriors. Give us a jingle for an update. 406-222-7130.
4.20 Keep an eye on the CFS this week. Today the river spiked at 2,400. If things drop over the next few days, expect the river to get green again. On a side note, lakes are fishing hot right now!
Lower elevation snow melt has hit the stone although there is still about two feet of visibility. Not exactly "green is good" more like green with a dash of chocolate infusion. Still, I think some good sticks could put some fish in the boat, especially hucking junk. All the fishing reports that we've heard recently have been good. If your fishing days are limited, hold off for a bit and let the river clear up a foot and let the caddis continue to brew...
4.16 Hot and bright over here for the next few days, aside from a couple intermittent showers. That means the caddis will start becoming more active inside their shucks. Try fishing a peaking caddis for a dropper if the water is clear enough. There has been a little green flowing through town. If it were me, I'd go big and ugly and hope that the murky water keeps the big browns from seeing the boat. If we get a colder, cloudy day look for fish to be on baetis or possibly March Browns. Midge time is history (at least for fish keying in on them). The mother's day caddis are just around the corner, so get that yard work / spring cleaning over with soon!
4.9 Saturday may not be a good day to float the yellowstone, unless, of course you are joining the 50 boat clean up fleet! If you have the weekend off and are looking to have some fun and help us take care of the Yellowstone, come down to the civic center tomorrow around 8:00. That's pretty early for some of you weekend warriors, but you can also show up later and help clean up some of the FWP access points too. Following the clean up there will be a BBQ (catered by KMG), a boat wash to get that boat back in pristine condition, and fun for all ages... Sure would be cool to see more guides this year!
4.3 More snow overnight, making it a good cloudy day to see some baetis if you don't mind the frozen fingers. The colder water temperature should slow down the streamer bite, but look for fish rising in the eddies for either midges or blue wings. Looks like the weather this week is going to be a good one if you like fishing spring baetis. Give us a buzz for a wind report, as this is the one thing that could throw off your game. 406-222-7130.
4.2 Our Friday float was certainly cold and windy, but still well worth the effort. The fish were hanging deep in the slow water before the riffles, but also we found some squatters hiding underneath the foam eddies. In the deeper sections we moved our indictor up a few feet and dead drifted two streamers as deep as we could. For the "foam is home" spots we just through in one streamer and ripped it as soon as it hit. The foam was full of spent midges, but we didn't see any baetis - if there were any, they probably blew into North Dakota...
Welcome Spring Baetis! There are still more midges than baetis on the water, but the BWO's have finally started to emerge. There were lots of baetis nymphs hiding on the rocks in the faster riffles of town. I think you're better off going with small nymphs still, however the river has been gaining a bit of a green tint to it here and there. Sheild's was gin today, but has been muddy here and there due to the the lower elevation melt down. The "W" has been behaving well this week but you never know. Strip those streamers slow and deep!
"A different Perspective on Streamer Fishing"
RECOMMENDED FLIESWhite Home Invader #2 Bow River Buggers #4-8 Black leadeye Bugger #4-8 Rubberlegs (all colors) #6-10 George's Brown stone #4-8 Strom's Stone #8-10 Epoxy Back Goldenstones #10-12 Copper Johns (all colors) #14-18 Rubber Leg prince #14-16 Beadhead Prince #14-18 Beadhead Pheasant tails #14-18 JJ Special #2-6 Parachute Adams #12-18 Harrop Sparkle Dun #16-20 Harrop Baetis Emerger #16-20 Hi Vis Elk Hair Caddis #12-16 October Caddis #10-12 Lime Trude#16-18 Rag Sculpin #2-4 Egg Sucking Rag Sculpin #2-4 Whitlock Sculpin (black/white) #4 Articulated Streamers #2-4 Spring Creeks
A Shane Stalcup CDC #18 Baetis emerger, planted in the upper jaw of a 15 inch bow...
Report by George Anderson The gray Baetis mayflies have been trickling off on the spring creeks for the last two weeks but the bright, mild weather has limited the number of bugs hatching. April 1 was a nasty day here in Livingston, and it got worse as the day progressed. Overcast with light snow and little chance for the sun to appear. The hatches have been mid-day, so I went out to Armstrong's Spring Creek with high hopes of some dry fly fishing. By 1 PM the Baetis were rolling, and fish were starting to cruise and seek out the emergers and duns that were being blown across the water by a cool north breeze. The Temp. was right at freezing and never got above 34 degrees the rest of the afternoon. But by 2 PM the snow was falling faster and the day had gotten much darker. The Baetis were pouring off now and I switched to a #18 Baetis Sparkle Dun dry and landed a half dozen fish in perhaps fifteen minutes. The fish were feeding heavily but it seemed like I had to force feed them the duns, when they really were taking mostly emergers. Pumping the stomach of a 14 inch brown, confirmed my suspicions and I dug through my box looking for some god Baetis emergers. One of my favorites is Shane Stalcup's CDC Baetis emerger, which is tied with a z-lon shuck like tail, on a curved hook with some gray CDC and a gray thorax on top looking like the emerging dun. A size 18 was perfect. At first I dropped this in back of my floating sparkle dun with 15 inches of 6X tippet. The fish were taking the emerger almost every time, so rather than
Raters are now $75 until June 14th. The next hour was just crazy. This was the kind of day you pray for and the fishing couldn't have been better. By 3:30 though, it was over. In a couple of hours I probably released thirty rainbows and browns, many smaller fish, but mostly fish in the 14-16 inch range with a few up to 18 inches. As I was driving back into Livingston, I was thinking how wonderful it would be if a Baetis hatch like that would come off on a sunny day! I had experienced some sensational fishing, right in the snowstorm but that's typical of good spring Baetis hatches -they usually occur on the worst weather days. As a bonus, if you can pick a nasty day like this in the middle of the week, there will be few anglers on the creek. This was a thursday and the O'Hair ranch had only one other angler. I never saw him so I assumed he had gotten in a good spot and also had some incredible early spring fishing.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCESRead George's news on Nelson's Spring Creek "Paradise Valley PMD Hatch" by George Anderson HATCHESLook for midges in the morning, with possible baetis from 10:00 until 2:00. For nymphs look a scuds, midge larva patterns, sawyer pt's, spring creek leeches, and smaller buggers. Sight fishing can be great with nymphs on brighter days, when fish are less likely to snap at a dry. You might as well chuck something nasty before you go home, you never know... RECOMMENDED FLIESHarrop's Baetis Sparkle Dun #18-20 Stalcups Cellophane wing baetis cripple #18-20 Wollum's Baetis nymph #18-20 Barr's Meat Whistle (brown) #4
THE BIGHORNLast updated: 4/28 by Eric Paulson
Christian Allan with a big bow taped at 24" Photo: Eric Paulson The Horn has been on fire. The flows are around 2000 and from what the Bighorn Alliance says will continue to flow at this level all summer. The fishing has been as good as it gets. We have a huge trout population this year as a result of two years of high water. Head hunting has been the norm on most days. Bright sunny days have brought the crowds but also prolific midge and Baetis hatches which results in the river coming alive on the surface. Cloudy blusterous spring days have brought the hatches later in the day. The nymphing has been consistently good and seems to produce on average larger fish. The only draw back to the Horn right now is the moss.
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