July 13 Ruby River

Yesterday I had the pleasure of fishing with trout junkie Rolf Wilson from next door at the Main Street Gym. Man, what a day! Bugs, bugs, bugs. We had PMD's, Caddis, Baetis, and the occasional spruce moth almost the entire time we were on the water. For the most part the fish we found were feeding in pods of four or five. The fish feeding in the broken water were willing to eat a well placed dry but the fish in the slick water had me constantly shuffling through my fly box until I found something they liked. Later in the day when we decided to make our way back the truck we threw streamers as we walked down stream and managed to move some larger fish. The river is running at a perfect 326 cfs and is gin clear making feeding fish easy to spot.

If you go you will need,

Para PMD's, PMD Sparkle Dun, CDC Emergers, Para Caddis, Para Adams.

Military Nymph, PMD Soft Hackle, Sparkle Pupa, Scuds.

Olive Zonkers, Big Horne Buggers, Wooly Buggers.

TY

July 7, Slowly but surly.

Slowly but surly the local rivers are clearing, coming down, and should continue to improve over the next couple of weeks. The Salmon Fly Hatch on the Madison has jumped the lake and is just now starting on the upper, so throw your Pat's Rubber legs and big Prince Nymphs along the edges of the river and keep your eyes out for fish chowing on adults.

July 1, Back to the Big Hole!

We had so much fun on the Big Hole last week we decided to go back and do it again. Yesterday we floated up high in the slower Brook Trout water and found that our little Char friend lives there in big numbers and willing to try to eat bugs bigger than their mouths would allow. The bug of the day was a size 12 yellow Stimulator with a Soft Hackle trailing about 2' behind in the film. Late in the day rain clouds moved in making for happy trout and perfect conditions for ripping streamers....So I did. The fish in the picture fell for a yellow Cone headed Madonna stripped just off of the bank.

If you go....

Bugs to look for- PMD, Yellow Sally, Golden Stone, Salmon Flies, and Caddis.

Patterns- Para-PMD, PMD soft hackle, Military Nymph, Iron Sally, Yellow stimulator, Para-Caddis.

TY

June 24 Big Hole River

Going on a tip from Andy, yesterday we floated a stretch of the Big Hole in the Divide area in search of the famous Salmon Fly hatch. Early in the day we did run in to a few of the big bugs dropping eggs but found nothing feeding on the surface, so sub-surface it was. The winning combo was a Pat's Rubber Leg on top trailed by a San Juan or a Lightning Bug. Later in the afternoon we drifted in to a good size Caddis hatch with a good number of Yellow Sallies mixed in. Unfortunately we pulled of the river just as the fish were starting to looking up, so if you go don't be afraid to shoot for a little later in the day or just get over there for the evening hatch.

TY

Lower Madison

While I was at work sling'n flies, Sarah floated the Lower Mad with Daniel and found this pig ignoring salmon flies and munching on Caddis pupa. She's been rubbing this one in my face for a couple of days now.

TY

6/16 Lower Madison

It looks like Daniel beat me to the first Salmon Fly report this year, so I'll just contribute with a couple of photos.

FRIDAY 13th!!!

Holy crap it's Friday the 13th!! Being fisherman, we tend to rely on a combination of knowledge and good luck to put a trout or two in the net. Just in case some of you lean heavy on the the "luck thing" you should probably keep an eye out for black cats, walk around ladders, and for goodness sakes keep the bananas out of the boat!

This week end's weather looks like it's gonna be a bit summer-ish. That means that the fresh snow that fell in the high country this week is going to come down and continue on with the longest run off season in 10 or so years. Not to sound like a broken record, but you should continue to look to the tail waters for safe water levels and active fish. As far as flies go, you should still be throwing San Juan worms, Lightning Bugs, or anything bright and flashy.

TY

June 11

Sarah and I spent the last few days showing off Montana and Yellowstone to some family on they're first trip to the Big Sky state. Earlier in the week, before the day trips into the park Sarah's dad, Dennis, and I hit a small lake and put the hurt on the fat Rainbows that call this place home. The pictures show each of us with nice fish but both were actually caught by Dennis. He insisted that I hold the first one because I'm smaller and I would make the fish look much larger. The fish caught earlier in the day were fooled by olive leech patterns on long leaders stripped slowly over the drop offs. Later in the day, and after an hour or so of rain, we saw that fish began to feed the a few Callibaetis that popped on the surface. With fish cruising back and forth at the drop offs hunting for emerging bugs, we suspended Callibaetis nymphs and soft hackles about 3' under an indicator. Sure it's a little like worm dunking in a farm pond, but it worked.

June 3 Tail waters

Well it looks like we're back to run off season again. The warm weather and rain over the past few days has rivers back to "MUD" again, so this weekend we looked to the hand full of tail waters available to us with in an hour or two from Bozeman. Not only did we find clear water, but we found feeding fish. If you want to find clean water you should look to the water just below the dams on the Beaver Head, Ruby, and between the lakes on the Madison. The down side to these places is that you won't be alone, so be prepared to deal with a hand full of other fish heads lookn' to get a fix.

TY

May 31 Lower Madison

Our fearless leader Rod King called the shop from Black's Ford on the Madison earlier with reports of Yellow Sally and Caddis flies coming being pursued by trout. He also said there was about a foot and a half to two feet of visibility.......So, go fish!

TY

may 28

Well, thanks to the consistently cool weather over the last 10 days or so the rivers have either dropped or leveled out, but we are far from the end of spring run off. This week is supposed to slowly warm with chances of T-showers hear n' there, so don't expect the rivers to get back to clear and safe wading any time soon.

5/23

Sorry gang! We had a little internet glich yesterday but we're up and running and should have the "new web site bugs" worked out.

It looks like we're going to have a wet holiday weekend and places to fish are limited. Though moste of the rivers have droped a little over the last two days, they are still high, dirty, and not too safe to wade. If you are looking to wet a line, you may look to the spring creeks or head up and float the Missouri.

I spoke to the guys at Blue Ribbon Flies today to get a feel for what Yellowstone Park is has to offer for the weekend which opens to fishing on Saterday. They told me that your best bet will be the Fire Hole and maybe the Madison, but they are both up and dirty......Big suprize, right. If you go, bring your streamer box and bright flies

May 19 Lower Madison

Like many of you, I took advantage of the warm weather this weekend and headed out to the Lower Madison in search of Mr. Trout. I took a chance and stuck the boat in at Black's Ford and floated to Gray Cliff. With Cherry Creek putt'n the screws to us by spitting chocolate milk, it didn't take long to start wishing that we had put in higher at Warm Springs. At about 1:00 we started to see good numbers of March Browns and Yellow Sallies but not a feeding fish to be seen. The weather man said that the next few days will be a little on the cool side, which could be enough to slow the run off for a few days and just maybe the river will stop rising long enough to get a day or two of happy trout.

TY

May 15

The next few days will be nice and warm and should get some bugs moving. If you get out, keep your eye on the foam in the back eddies of those swollen rivers for fish feeding on Caddis, Baetis, and maybe even some March Browns. Much of our water is quite dirty from run off so think about bright flies such as San Juan Worms and Lightning Bugs.

TY

So you don't wanna put on your sun glasses, eh.

I don't care how dark it gets! If you or someone near you is casting, keep your dang shades on! Pictured is friend and fellow Michigan guide Matt Zudweg after being tagged by his clients Hornberg. He didn't catch it in the eye....But close enough to make ya think.

Ty

May 8

I teamed up with Andy yesterday to float the lower Madison for a tough day of fishing. Even though we had Baetis, March Browns, and later in the afternoon lots of Caddis, I think I can count the rising fish we saw with one hand. The few fish we did manage to fool came on Sparkle Pupa, Lightning Bugs, and a fancy San Juan Worm that Andy tied.


TY

5/4, Just before the run off .

I had a couple of days away from the shop to try and fish the Mother's Day Caddis before the inevitable Yellowstone spring run off. Sunday we drifted from Pine Creek to 9th street and had bugs from start to finish, but the fish weren't as excited to see them as we were. Though we did boat a hand full of small Rainbows, the standout fish of the day was a chunky cutthroat caught by my girlfriend Sarah.

Ty