One nice thing about living (and guiding) around the Livingston/Bozeman area is that when the Yellowstone blows out we have a lot of other options. Both the Upper and Lower Madison have been fishing well. The Lower Madison fished well with crayfish patterns, lightning bugs, and smaller beadheads. The Upper Madison has also been nymphing well with rubber legs and beadheads and even dead drifting streamers. Smaller dries have also been working well on the Upper, tight to the edges in surprisingly skinny water. Aside from the blue ribbon rivers there are also a handful a smaller streams (names we won’t mention here) that fish very well this time of year. You might not be catching any monster browns, but the dry fly fishing can be very good and is well worth your effort while the Yellowstone clears…
