The mild spring weather we are having has brought the water temperatures up enough to create excellent spring hatches of both blue winged olives and midges a few weeks ahead of schedule. Blue Winged Olive hatches are now present on the Yellowstone, Bighorn and Paradise Valley Spring Creeks. Wind has been the only deterrent to…
Little surprise, the Yellowstone continues to be as fickle as ever. Cloudy and calm are the days we all hope for, bright and windy are usually the cards we get dealt. The one change we’ve seen lately has been a lot more baetis on the water, even on sunny days. Be sure to bring some…
Finally we’ve had a break from the 55 mph winds! Last Friday and Saturday turned in the best reports of the week, (low hanging clouds and virtually no wind). People have been catching fish on everything from tiny midge dries, spring baetis (size 20’s), rubber legs and beadheads, to dead drifted streamer patterns. The river…
The Yellowstone has always been a fickle river, but the last 2 weeks have been ridiculous! It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what’s to blame… the changing weather, the barometer, high winds, increased fishing pressure, less water clarity due to low elevation snow melt, (the list of excuses goes on)… Maybe the hog…
The Yellowstone has been fishing a little slow recently. Partly due to high winds and odd weather patterns, partly due to some lower elevation snow melt and less clarity than normal. There are rumors of a dirty plug coming down from the Gardiner, but as of now town is still 2 feet of visibility and…
The Yellowstone River continues to produce good midge hatches daily. Look for fish sipping single adults and mating clusters in the rivers slower seams and flats. Fish have especially been found on the down river side of structure that blocks the wind and congregates the insects. With the bright sunny days that we have been…
We have seen some midges on the spring creeks this week, and although bugs were somewhat sparse we did see a lot of fish paying attention. We observed larger fish white mouthing nymphs and actively searching for emerging midges in deep runs and buckets. The most effective patterns have been Griffith’s Gnat, CDC Hanging Midge,…
The past couple days we have diligently been casting and comparing over 30 of the latest and greatest 4-weight rods. Luckily we reserved the civic center as a backup plan again because it snowed. We tested the rods at 25′, 35′, and 60′. (We know 60′ is a little ridiculous, but it helped us figure…
Snow water equivalent for the upper Yellowstone right now is sitting at 95%. Knock on wood, but we could finally get a “normal” year. If the weather keeps up with the status quo, we should be able to fish Salmonflies on the Yellowstone the last week of June. What about mothers’s day caddis? Some people…
Sorry for the delayed reports, we have been busy working hard on the 4 weight shootout lately. Since the Yellowstone has been free from ice for a while, we decided to float last Sunday. Hank was the only one to get fish. A couple decent browns, but he definitely let me know we should…