bozemanangler's blog

Headed out to check out the boulder valley yesterday with fishing buddy Ty Webb and was reminded again how amazing our backyard in Montana can be.  The fishing was nothing amazing to speak of, a few nice rainbows eating stonefly nymphs and some brookies but overall pretty slow.  The scenery and wildlife however was more than inspiring and the moose at the end of the day solidified the decision to head over this way as a really good one.  The water is a little green but clear enough and very cold.

Headed up to the middle of nowhere with my Dad to check out some private lakes and reservoirs for a change of pace the last two days.  An awesome oppertunity to put my 11' 6wt. Hardy rod to use and as per usual it performed fantastic.  When your sitting in a float tube at the waters surface a longer rod definately helps in casting and landing a fish.  Montana in the Spring is truly incredible scenery, weather, and fishing even if it only lasts a few weeks.

Seems like this is the time of year when just before the real high and muddy water comes you get some of the best fishing all year.  Maybe it's the weather or temperatures? Maybe it's just wearing the right lucky hat?  Cody Wetmore certainly agrees with this theory as the day he wore his Bozeman Angler hat in the Bear Trap Canyon recently he catches a 23" brown.  Hey we all have our reasons be it backed by scientific data or superstition but once it happens to catch you the right fish then you start beleiving.

Had a pretty killer two days of floating and fly fishing two amazing Montana rivers.  Floated the Big Hole on Monday and the Yellowstone on Tuesday both incredibly georgous and unique waterways in their own right.  The Big Hole was very cool and clear water and fished decent with nymphs and streamers.  Such awesome water merits leaving town at 5:30am and getting home at midnight for a day trip when you see one other boat besides yourself on the water the entire day!  Would rather spend a week straight there but doesn't always pan out that way.

With inconsistent weather, you get inconsistent fishing. We all had high hopes of solid fishing with the return of seasonal weather, but what we got was big caddis hatches and spotty fishing. If you're on the Yellowstone, you can find fish eating bugs in the foam that forms in those big back eddies closer to Livingston. The fishing the last few day up stream, from mid-valley to the park, has been quite a struggle. Even when the caddis are coming off in large numbers, very few fish have been targeting them.

Fished and guided the on the Lower Madison the last two days and found some pretty awesome fishing.  Yesterday afternoon i was pleasantly surprised by millions of fluttering caddis.  There was a window of dry fly activity for about 45 minutes and during that period the fish were as hungry and stupid as they come.  It didn't seem to matter what caddis pattern i threw or how i threw it if it was on the water a fish went after it.  Just so cool to see so much insect life in the air and trout gorging themselves.

It is a true testiment to the quality of the saltwater guides in the Bahamas when you can take a trout fisherman and have them seeing, stalking, and catching bonefish by themselves.  I have been lucky enough to make it to the Bahamas several times since i was about 14 years old myself and this year convinced my good friend Dan, a trout fisherman from Bozeman, to be my partner in crime.  Not only did Dan land a nice 7lb.

Had a great day yesterday fishing with Joel for rainbows and cooking up riverside brats.  Not a bad way to spend your day off.  We found that although the dirty worm and pink egg patterns caught a few fish once we switched to midge, baetis, and even streamers the catch rate increased considerably.  My hot flies of the day ended up being an egg sucking king prince, stalcup's baetis, copper zonker, and griffith's gnat.  There were a few fish coming to the surface mostly for midges but towards late afternoon we had baetis hatching as well.

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.