Almost Summer
Spring like conditions hang on by a thread as summer time rears it's beautiful head in Montana. Lot's of sunny days with partial clouds and the occasional thundrstorms. Lot's of bugs including: BWO's, PMD's, Caddis, Yellow Sallies, Midges, and even the beginnings of the Pteronarcys (Salmon Fly). Plenty of good options to fish including but now limited to...........the following local waters
UPPER MADISON: 2,600cfs
The Upper continues to fish great with stoneflies and baetis nymphs. The bugs are coming off with some fish looking up as well on Caddis, PMDs, and stonflies. Attractor patterns are a great searching fly or as an indicator when fishing double dries with a size 18 mayfly dropper. The walk wade stretch has been great up around 3$ bridge and between the lakes.
dries: BWO film critic, BWO tilt-wing, PMD film critic, PMD squeezer, chubby chernobyl, low rider yellow sally, yellow stimulator, para Adams, purple Adams, royal wulff, Purple wulff, never sink trude
nymphs: Rubberlegs, stoners, rock n roller stone, tungsten yellow sally, iron sally, gold lightning bug, bubble back BWO, red copper john, olive soft hackle, sex fly, blue + PT spankers
streamers: screamers, dream catchers, zonkers, bow river buggers, yellow yummy, JJ's Special, sculpzilla, deer hair bugger, silveys sculpin leech
LOWER MADISON: 3,590cfs
A little cloudy in terms of water clarity but you still have about 1ft-18" of visibility. The fish are just hammering the crayfish and sculpin still with a smaller mayfly nymph trailer is good to go all day long. The PMD, Baetis, and Caddis adults are coming off wonderfully in the afternoon for the dry fly crowd. Yellow sallies are out as well and rumors of Salmon fly adults are flying around. I like yellow, black, and especially white streamers in the slightly off color water.
dries: never sink trude-black, royal wulff, JC's special, film critic BWO + PMD, Para Adams, purple adams, tilt-wing baetis, Comparadun PMD, PMD squeezer, chubby chernobyl, rogue river salmon, terranasty
nymphs: sex fly, PT spanker, lightning bug, bloom's soft hackle-brown, red headed stepchild, copper john, tungsten yellow sally, silveys primetime pupa, mangy caddis, good n plenty, twisted wire ginger, iron sally
streamers: JJ's Special, white zonkers, bow river buggers, double badger screamer, silveys sculpin, sex dungeon, crispy critter, big gulp sculpin, sparkle minnow, snapping craw, turkey back crayfish
MISSOURI RIVER: 8,900cfs
Flows are up high right now on the MO but the good news is it's been stable for the last 24 hours. The nymphing is steady and solid but lengthen the distance from point fly to indicator to about 8ft. in most spot should get you down to where the fish reside. Not as much happening with dry flies since the rising tides but they will be back soon. A few good fish taken on streamers and even more on the chase so never a bad idea to commit the day to the big fly in search of that one fish.
flies: micro may, red headed stepchild, bloom's soft hackle brown, lil spanker PT, lightning bug, zebra midge, ray charles, primetime pupa, copper john, hunch back scud, sow bug, sculpzilla, mini-loop, zonkers, sparkle minnow, crayfish
THE BIG HOLE: 4,310cfs
The big hole is pretty and clear rightnow with a fantastic streamer bite. Grab a handful of big black, olive, or yellow streamers and bang the banks hard. Some real nice browns been taken latley on the double articulated monsters. Great nymphing to be had as well with stonefliy nymphs and caddis pupas.
flies: silveys sculpin, sex dungeon, screamers, dream catcher, zonker, bow river bugger, JJ's special, yellow yummy, rubberlegs, tung yellow sally, hare's ear, pheasant tail, stalcup's baetis, tung ready baetis, para adams
YELLOWSTONE: 14,700cfs
Doing what it does during runnoff the Stone is raging high, fast, and muddy. Hope the fish weather the season well, I'm sure their doing fine finding soft water or moving into the tributaries and spring creeks. Give it some time.
GALLATIN: 2,900cfs
Just a chocolate colored mess. You could probably catch a fish out of it but......i'd go somewhere else.