Hot weather cool fishing
Good times on the water lately with lots of bugs and some decent sized fish packing on the feed bag. Got a bit of cloud cover and thunderstorms the last few days which was really nice for fishing and for general comfort of anglers.
YELLOWSTONE RIVER: 5,110cfs
The yellowstone has some mud pushing through right now from tip to tail and is not very forgiving fishing wise when she turns off color. Should be clear or green again in 24hours. Has been fishing great up top with stoneflies, attractors, and mayflies mostly early and late in the day.
dries: PMD film critic, Para PMD, tilt-wing PMD, Purple haze, never sink trude, blooms caddis tan, barely kickin stone, purple chubby chernobyl, yellow stimulator, purple teaser, never sink sally, low rider sally
nymphs: double bead stone, red copper john, blue spanker, silver lil spanker, olive soft hackle, hares ear, iron sally, tungsten yellow sally, military may pmd, hotwire may amber, batman blue
Streamers:Olive and white zonkers, JJ's special, olive buggers, dream catcher, Screamers black and badger, new school muddler, bow river bugger, dream catcher
GALLATIN RIVER: 923cfs
The Gallatin has been just fantastic lately with beautiful PMD hatches and awesome subsurface fishing if you want to see just how many fish are down there. A little olive green color to the water but very fishable. The flows are perfect for wading and the bugs are there, so you should be there to.
dries: never sink trude- red, H & L variant, 409 brown, JC's special, royal PMX, chubby chernobyl-gold, X caddis, brown elk hair, para adams, sparkle dun, comparadun, PMD film critic, PMD floating nymph
nymphs: rubberlegs, muskrat golden,rock n roller stone, iron sally, lime copper john, twisted wire ginger, olive soft hackle, pearl soft hackle, blue spanker, silver spanker, san juan, double bead stone
streamers: olive zonker, buggers, new school muddler, flesh eating sculpin, sculpzilla, bow river bugger
UPPER MADISON: 1,330cfs
The upper has come up in flow just a tiny bit in the last few days and thus has the water temps slightly cooler which is great for the trout. Things are still getting warm in the afternoons on sunny days so the earlier you get there the better, or wait and head out for the evening. Basic attractor patterns and small nymphs seem to be most productive with stoneflies a close second.
dries: never sink sally, never sink trude, JC special, blooms para caddis olive, elk hair brown, purple teaser, PMD squeezer, fastwater caddis, film critic PMD, chubby chernobyl purple, red, and gold, barely kickin stone, para Adams, royal PMX
nymphs: rock n roller stone, PT spanker, blue spanker, iron sally, tungsten yellow sally, olive soft hackle, mangy caddis, harrops olive soft hackle, primetime pupa, red copper john, sex fly, crackback PMD
streamers: bow river buggers, zonkers, dream catchers, screamers, JJs special, sparkle minnow
LOWER MADISON: 1,570cfs
Well water temps are a blistering 70 degrees lately so the fish are sluggish to say the least. Don't even mess with the trout there right now the water is too warm and it is hard for them to recover.
MISSOURI RIVER: 4,260cfs
The Missouri has some great dry fly action right now with PMDs and a few tricos early in the day. The nymphing is phenominal all day long with smaller mayfly nymphs and scuds. Big flies not a bad idea when things get cooler early and late but you may be to distracted with the pods of trout sipping tiny flies on top?
flies: Sparkle dun, sulphur dun, sparkle flag trico, tico spinner, double trico spinner, trico emerger, Para Adams, film critic PMD, Para PMD, tilt wing PMD, bloom's caddis, elk hair caddis, purple caddis, 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
BIG HOLE: 1,030CFS
The Big Hole is fishing good but getting a little skinny so you might want to bring the raft. Dry droppper seems to be the most productive method with a bunch of big classic streamer eating browns. Always worth throwing big yellow streamers or black or olive or white streamers.
dries: chubby chernobyl, yellow stimulator, royal PMX, elk hair caddis-brown, para drake, never sink sally, low rider sally, film critic, never sink trude, royal wulff
nymphs: tungsten yellow sally, iron sally, red copper john, rubberlegs, rock n roller stone, double bead stone, PT spanker
streamers: JJ's special, sparkle minnow, zonkers, dream catcher, silveys sculpin, sculpzilla