April 2012
The Lower Madison is full of caddis, Brown Drake's, Blue Wing Olives & midges & water temperature 56. The water is off color but fishiable,we still boated many nice fish on caddis & bLue Wing Olive dries. When you see the swallows flying low over the river , start looking! Caddis and mayfly emergers work well before and when the hatch beggins then switch to dries when you start seeing fish coming to the surface. Take you time and look for...
While we were lucky enough to get into the 70s and 80s for a while last week, the water warmed and we had some good dry fly fishing on the Upper. With our cool off, however, water temps have dropped from low 50s to about 39 degrees, meaning it's all subsurface now. The West Fork is pushing a lot of dirt, and flows have risen considerably, but have stabilized for now. Most of the time we flee from dirty water, but in the case of the Madison, embrace it. When it's on...
With the rising water, most of the freestone rivers are unfishable, or at least not a very good option at the moment. Cooler temps over the next week could bring them back in to shape, so it might not be all over until July for them. That said, our local tailwaters are fishing excellent right now. Had a chance to get on both the Upper and Lower Madison this week.
Flows...
Just got back from two weeks in the bahamas stalking bones, messing with cudas and sharks, and wishing permit were not haunting my dreams. Pretty epic time filled with good weather, fishing, and friends. It is great when you can fully submerge yourself in an alien ecosystem and give all your attention everyday to understanding the fishery. When you have the help of the hardest working guides from Sammy Knowles Bonefishing Lodge pointing you in the right direction the...
Spring time fishing has been so awesome lately just about from the Stone to the MO. Somedays it snows 6 inches and the next it's almost 70 degrees and sunny so it's a little bit of a gamble for planning a trip out here but the killer fishing more than makes up for the fickle weather. I'm always encouraging folks if they can make it work to try and plan their fly fishing trip to Montana on the shoulder seasons. However there is the undeniable magic of fishing a thick PMD...