June 2012
The last couple days have brought us more heat, and as a result the last couple of freestones that were high are now down and fishable.
The Yellwostone is dropping rapidly, and a nice green color and fishing well. Flows are still quick, so be careful, but it's definately floating and fishing well. Salmonflies are going off up high, close to the park, and maybe even in it by now. But the entire river is experiencing big hatches of golden stones, yellow sallies,...
The stone is getting fishable with about 1.5ft of visibility and lots of stoneflies. we are very excited to say the least considering this day in July of last year was when you could start fishing the stone. The flow is about the same this year at the end of June as it was in the end of July last year. Just remember at 10,000cfs things are still fast and dangerous. It is hard to stop and sweepers are tough to see and navigate around, please proceed with caution and...
Ever have that option to go fishing and for whatever reason just can't make it? Brantley from the shop fished the Upper Maddy last night after work and sent me these pics late in the evening which left me slightly jealous and wishing i had been there. The dry fly action was hot and heavy and by heavy i mean big Salmon colored bugs. Fish ate the Salmon fly adults/nymphs well and caddis in three different sizes: 18, 16, and 12. Which means the sedges are out, either way it's...
Have had some great hatches lately from Salmon flies to PMDs and often it pays off greatly to understand the life cycles and different stages of metamorphasis that the trout are keyed into. Brantley fished the MO the last couple of days and had some fun PMD hatches to explore the dry and emerger side of things. For the most part, with a few exceptions, aquatic insects have these stages: eggs, nymphs, emergers, adults, and spinners. The times when the bugs change from one...
Thanks to all of the big bug crazed fisherman running to the upper Madison, the lower was almost void of anglers and full of cooperative trout. Nothing much has changed, bead heads and buggers. The White Miller caddis...
The lower Madison is still fishing really well as long as you get out before the inner tubers start bumbling aimlessly down stream. The summer floaters have decided the the water is warm enough to invade the river. Get out early, and if you can, try to fish on the week days for peace and quiet. This week, bead heads seemed to be the ticket. We did have a few fish on larger patterns like buggers and...
We fished the Fall River in Idaho this week. There were adult salmonflies all over the grass and on branches next to the river. We caught a few nice Rainbows on dry flies. It was a beautiful sunny warm late Spring day in the West.
Our good friend angler Fred Schmidt just sent us this picture of a fine Tarpon landed in Belize. We'll see Fred this Summer chasing trout in Montana and hope his strip set translates to hopper eats. Occasionally after a saltwater trip the freshwater angler returns with a crazy look in their eye resembling a barracuda and bowing to every rainbow that jumps on the end of their line. Some things translate between the two worlds and they definately make your a better angler no...
Hit the water this weekend with one of my good friends Florian and had excellent fishing! It rained, and hailed, and snowed and rained some more all day long, but that wasnt enough to keep us away. We fished until our fingers turned purple and couldnt hold on to the rod anymore. We couldnt keep the fish off the streamers! So far this spring has turned out to be pretty incredible fishing in Montana, so plan a trip and come fish with us!
Rain, warm days, cold nights, back to rain, and then back to warm days. Combine that with river levels being spiked 500 cfs every day for 5 days straight and then dropped 1000 cfs two days later, and you get fish with a serious case of lock jaw. Those sort of inconsistent conditions are a night mare for fishermen looking for trout on the lower Madison, especially when it's...
Did a very georgous float through box canyon on the Henry's Fork in Idaho yesterday and was very impressed with how much nice water there is in just a 3.5 miles stretch. We had hopes of catching the tail end of their Salmon fly hatch but i think we were a little to late for that as we only saw a couple adults left on the water. The smaller mayflies did just fine on top, the nymphing was stellar, and one fiesty rainbow annihilated a chartruese streamer. There are incredible...
Well the snow has stopped up at Hyalite Reservoir this weekend after dumping 6" every night over Memorial Weekend. The fish are stacked up in the far end of the lake and feeding like mad.
It is still a mix of males and females so I do not think they have started to spawn yet, but soon they will. Pam kicked butt and boated some nice...
Bozeman Angler guide Johnny Norieka just got back from a Wisconson adventure chasing river muskies with his two handed rods. Johnny is an excellent big fish finder so if you'd like to hire him as a guide for the day just call or email the shop and ask for him. As do many of the guides at the BA he also offers spey instruction and guided fishing trips with the two-handers which is a great way to fish big streamers all day long and go for the monster trout. I've never done...