Bozeman Angler Blog
The past few days the lower madison has been fishing better than I've seen all summer. Big browns moving in and sporting new coats of orange and ready to attack the tasty sculpin prey. The bite is on with short 6ft. nymph rigs working great in cloudy rainy weather with Mega prince, Bow river buggers, sculpzillas, micro may, lightning bug, and zebra midges being my favorites. When the sun comes out we had some decent action on M's hoppers in tan, royal wolff, Bloom's...
Working in a fly shop, time off is a luxury that we rarely get to enjoy during the summer. However, Rod and Pam gave me the best birthday present I can think of, 5 days off for a trip to one of the most gorgeous rivers I've ever been to, the South Fork of the Flathead. This remote river in Northwest Montana winds its way through the Bob Marshall Wilderness and its upper sections are only accessible via horse, backpacking, or if your really lucky like a group of forest service...
Wind, wind, and more wind. But, it knocks the hoppers in to the river and the trout are taking full advantage of it. Small is the key, so dig up those #10 Morrish Hoppers or swing into the shop and grab a few BA spent hoppers. Get out while the gett'n is good.
Some how the stars aligned for my dad and myself yesterday and we actually both had a day off together. I tried to pick his brain on some secret spots to which he replied let's go for a drive and catch 7-10 pound rainbows on dry flies. OK fine i said. Brought along a float tube and a watermaster and some 2X flourocarbon and spent the day fighting enormous trout on the Bozeman Angler's private lakes. Within minutes the old man was being towed round the lake laughing as...
Partly cloudy with just a bit of air moving around the Livingston area seemed like the hopper bite should be that epic day i have been looking for, still an epic day but not on hoppers. Had decent luck with M's Hopper in tan, Chernobyl Hopper in yellow, and gold chubby chernobyls but the most fish and bigger fish all seemed to like the Y's neversink trude in red which has kinda been the trend for me lately on the Yellowstone. Fish seem to like attractor patterns in these minor hatch periods...
As much as i love the Yellowstone, Madison, and Gallatin rivers by this time of the season i'm ready to see different water. Had the pleasure of guiding Bo Brown and his buddies from Nashville the past two days on some private spring creeks and lakes for some amazing secluded territory and truly memorable fishing. What a treat to see some good ole boys just giddy as children catching 25-30 fiesty trout per day on all styles (dry flies, nymphs, and streamers). If your gonna...
For us at the Bozeman Angler summer means fishing, fishing and more fishing!! Here are some client photos from July.
The rain in Yellowstone park and a mudslide on the Gardiner river has caused the Yellowstone river the flow a chalky pale color the last day or so. Sounds like you can get into some visibility above Yankee jim canyon today but it is still finicky. Forecast calls for more rain this afternoon so we will see what happens. Yesterday we chose to hit the lower madison and had a pretty good day. The nymphing was tough with all the heavy grass growing and floating in the water but...
Have been on the Yellowstone a lot in the last week and it has had it's ups and downs with yesterday being the high point for me so far this season. The bird float valley area has been okay for hoppers first half of the day (get them 2 feet from the bank) and 9 foot leader nymph rigs more productive in the middle of the river seams, still a lot of whiteys though. Trout have been picked up on BH soft hackles in olive and pearl, Mega Prince, Deer hair buggers, and Sculpzillas...
The Bozeman Angler crew celebrated at the wedding of our guide, Ty Webb, to Sarah Jameson. What a great time. We wish the newlyweds much happiness and much fly fishing in their future!!
Finally found an entire day off and decided to go swing streamers on the gallatin. To my surprise the day started off with a decent Trico hatch around 11 am that lasted for a half hour or so. A parachute Adams size 18 was the perfect imitation. Only found the one pod of rising trout all day but had successfully fulfilled my dry fly itch with half a dozen smaller trout. After that I needed the tug of a big brown hitting a streamer and did pretty good with a Mini Loop Sculpin...
After fishing the Upper Madison with my Mom and Dad, we headed to the Boulder River with Jason Denny to hit some of the pockets in the upper sections above Natural Bridge. For the most part I stuck sub surface with size 14 green lightening bugs, green copper johns, and small iron sallies. The water was crystal clear and some more overcast weather kept the fish on the feed. There are tons of fish in the upper sections, none of any real size, but they are some of the healthiest and ...
Had the pleasure of fishing with my Mom and Dad this past week, so we decided to spend a couple days wade fishing the braids of the Upper Madison. On Monday we hit it just right. With cloud cover and upper 70 degree weather the fish were on the rise and couldn't keep away from a size 12 Tan or Gold Chubby Chernobyl trailed by blue Lil' Spanker's and various soft hackles. Most of the takes, and bigger fish for that matter, were within a few inches of the banks. Basically we put on...
When you work in a fly shop and guide on all your days off throughout the summer it is often difficult to find time to fish yourself. So when i get off work at 4:30pm and have a few hours to remind myself what it is i love about Montana where do I go? The East Gallatin is the closest trout stream to my house and one of my favorites this time of year, never too crowded, plenty of hard fighting little fish, and the occasional big lunker to keep you occupied. Busted out of work...
Headed out to the upper Madison the other day with clients Mike and Julie for some warm sunshine and excellent dry fly fishing. Didn't even have to bother with nymphs all day and had steady action from start to finish. Seemed like the fish were proportioned to the size of the fly with plenty of smaller guys hitting royal wolfs and Caddis in size 14-16 and when we switched to size 10 chubby chernobyls (in both tan and gold colors) the big guys came up to feed. Fish were...
Every now and then I get to leave the drift boat at home, stretch my legs and guide on my feet. This week I got to do this twice. Friday I fished with father and son team, Joe and Jess, on some amazing private water that The Bozeman Angler has access to. Though the trout provided non-stop action, the most memorable part of the day was the nasty rain / hail / thunder / lightning storm that blew in and forced us to take shelter under a ...
Woke up to pouring rain and dark skies on Saturday morning with only the consolation of it being a black streamer day and maybe slowing down the flow of float tubers. By ten o'clock it had turned into quite a pleasant warm summer weather day. The flows have been up and down on the lower but this is the clearest and good colored i've seen the water since before runoff. Headed out for a walk wade with clients Andrew, Marc, and Frank. We were into some fish in the first...
If i had my boat with me i would've floated the Big Hole and searched for salmon flies but it was a little too high and fast for walk wading. So my partner in crime Holly and I braved the thick willow banks of the Beaverhead to be graciously rewarded with a day full of angry brown trout, warm sunny weather, and lots of hungry mosquitoes. Some people think catching a fish on the first cast is a bad omen, not the case this day. The action started up right away and didn't quit...
As a relief from the unsteady flows and staring at indicators in muddy water we decided to hit up Depuy's spring creek yesterday. What an awe inspiring place full of selective vibrant trout. Teamed up with shop guide/local author Miles Nolte, a seriously fun and dedicated fisherman, for a day of testing skills against smart fish. The day started with a few heads coming up sporadically to midges which produced no fish for us on top but when we switched to PMD nymphs and brown soft...
What do the fish heads at The Bozeman Angler do when the local rivers are high and dirty? Well, we pray to the fish gods for 2 foot of visibility on the Madison River. We head to the Missouri River and pray again to the fish gods that the river levels don't spike while we're fishing. Or, we go fish for Rainbows the size of pigs that jump like Tarpon on "Top Secret" private lakes. And that's just what our fearless leader, Rod "It's not bait fishing" King, and I did yesterday. Little black...