go to: shopping cart

Posts by Peter

East Gallatin July 25th

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 yesterday and found a bridge with no other cars and was into some nice trout within minutes.

The Upper Madison

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 feeding steady along the banks in the side troughs and runs, big guys were along the cutbanks.

Lower Madison July 3rd

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 twenty minutes all rainbows consitently hitting the lightning bug.

The Beaverhead june 27th

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 until we did. There was a fair PMD hatch going on but only took one on the dry, however Hares

Depuy's Spring Creek and Lower Madison

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.

5-20 The Missouri River

Just can't get enough of the Missouri right now and since the yellowstone is up to 7500 cfs i accepted my dad's offer to go fish caddis on the mo with no hesitation at all. Well we didn't end up seeing many caddis but there were a few small grey baetis and lots of midges on top with some heads coming up but for us the real hot action came from nymphing. The flies of the day being black or olive micro may size 18-20 (I would cry if this bug was not in my fly box), BA's grey emerger size 16, and soft hackle pheseant tails size 16.

Missouri River May 11th, 12th, and 13th

Had the pleasure of camping out on the missouri this week with Rod King, Garry King, and Ty Webb. I love this river for many reasons but the variety of water and styles used and their successful effectiveness (dry fly, nymphs, and streamers) being at the top of my list. What better way to experience it then with some mature veterans and young trout bums alike in the group.

Happy Mother's Day Caddis Hatch Mom

After getting off the Yellowstone on Saturday the common talk amongst my fellow guide friends was that nobody was going to see much of their mothers the next day for mother's day being that the caddis dry fly fishing has been so good. Luckily my mom fly fishes, and well, so i took her out for a float on sunday. We leisurely put on the river around noon and had steady action on top with march browns size 12-14, blooms caddis tan or peacock 14-16, usually trailed by a baetis emerger all worked great til about 7pm. fish hung along the shore by rip rap walls, foam lines, and b

Upper Madison 3-25

Went out yesterday with fishing buddy Brian Koenig to hike on the upper madison for a change of pace and scenery, even though the lower is holding its consitentcy of good fishing i was curious to see what the trout were doing on the other side of the hill. There was intermittent 15mph wind gusts most of the day and fairly chilly air temps which was a cold reminder that it is definately spring in Montana, although it did get very comfortable at times as well. Just pack in layers and be prepared it ain't summer yet. Started off the day with a beautiful brown on the sex fly (

Bear Trap Canyon in the sun

Took a nice hike into Bear Trap Canyon on sunday after a saturday afternoon report from Sam Bergman that he had gone up that way and fished midge dries all day long. That was all i needed in making my decision on where to fish. I didn't find too many fish rising when i started the day so i threw nymphs at first. As with usual madison activity the trout just hammered pink sex flies and pink scuds (both size 14 and 16). I also tried olive and copper zonkers (size 4-6) dead drifted at first which worked just fine and then decided to twitch them downs