bozemanangler's blog

Just heard that one of the area's fly fishing legends, Sylvester Nemes, has gone on to the great spring creek in the sky.  "Soft hackle Syl" was a wonderful character as well as an accomplished fly tyer especially well known for his soft hackle flies and the art of the swing.  I feel lucky to have had the oppurtunity to get to know him from chatting in the fly shop about fishing and fly tying.  He left behind many of his experiences in his collection of novels which I definately recommend picking up a copy if you can find one as many are out of print but still available. 

When the temperature drops down to any degree below zero it's like nature is giving you a hall pass on the day and saying "hey you just take it easy and tie some flies indoors today."  This morning the thermometer was holding at a refreshing -23 so I'll just relax and tie some midges.  Looking forward to this week's fly tying demo on Saturday 12-3pm with Andrew Puls from Livingston.  Drew has been getting noticed by fly tying magazines for his exciting and innovative approach to fly tying and continually puts them to use slaying big trout on rivers all over Montana.

January is winding down and has been offering some nice winter fishing weather.  Been getting some stellar reports from upper Madison and Depuy's mostly nymphing but midges are showing up more and more every evening.  The Lower Madison sounds like it's still fishing great when you find a day when it's not blowing 40mph, or just use an 11' rod you can roll cast into the wind.

The first featured fly tying demo of the season was this saturday at the shop and went over great.  Something about a fly shop that just lights up when its filled with fishermen and their stories.  So thanks to everyone who showed up and thanks to Butch Itoh for tying up some killer patterns.  These will continue every saturday 12:00-3:00pm on through untill April so please come on by, free coffee and fish tales.  This Saturday we'll have Kelly O'connor from Bozeman tying some of his Streamers, nymphs, and mayfly patterns.

Full Tying Demo Schedule:

This Saturday Jan. 22nd from 12:00-3:00pm the Bozeman Angler will host a fly tying demonstration with local tyer Butch Itoh.  Butch will be tying woven bodies and dubbing techniques.  Flies with aesthetic appeal as well as trout appeal.  Swing by the shop for some new ideas on fly patterns, trout talk, and free coffee & cookies.

Made it up to the Missouri yesterday to fish for a bit in this spring like weather.  Swung some big ugly black and blue leech that BA Guide Ty Webb tied up for steelhead fishing but they seem to work just fine for the non-anadromous fish as well.  Think we'll have to have Ty show us this one when he does his Fly Tying Demo in March. Caught this big old rainbow on the swing and that was it for me.  I saw a few other folks on the water hooked up on nymph rigs, mostly midge pupas, eggs, and red copper johns from what i could gather.  

With the recent break in freezing weather anglers around bozeman have a great oppertunity to fish some awesome water in relative comfort.  Yesterday Lawrence Stuemke and I fished the Lower Madison with pretty good success.  We decided to commit the day to swinging streamers which can sometimes mean no fish but can also mean the biggest fish you've ever seen.  We each landed a few decent sized browns and rainbows and by the end of the day each had a big fish on but alas no grip and grin.

When the temperature gets above freezing you can have some pretty good fishing around the Bozeman area right now.  It was -6 outside this morning so i think maybe i'll ty some flies today but the forecast calls for 40 degrees by Friday.  The east and main Gallatin both fished good this weekend with King prince, Mega prince, san-juans, and midge larva but i suspect most any bead head would do the trick as long as you find a good pod of trout stacked up in a nice slow tailout.  Nymphing is great this time of year but streamers will work as well but it helps to try and bounce

Fished the East Gallatin two days ago for an equally awesome and short lived day.  The winter temps really had the fish stacked up in winter holding spots so when i found one fish three or four from the same hole soon followed.  Mostly the deep holes along cutbanks and dogleg bends held fish and I would've changed flies if every single fish hadn't eaten a King Prince.  Soon the encroching storm and 30mph winds ended the enjoyable fishing enviroment.  All just part of the gamble of winter fishing and the reason why i prefer to walk wade instead of commiting to a float.&nb

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