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Posts by Peter

Yellowstone Sept. 7th

A beautiful partly cloudy day on the stone with very little wind and very few boats what more could you ask for, how about some awesome dry fly action as well? Started out the day dead drifting sculpins trailed by small flashy bead heads and were into fish within the first thirty seconds right out of the gate. Had awesome clients Kate and Kirsti from Canada warmed up on a few trout and whiteys on subsurface bugs so when 11am rolled around and the baetis began hatching we were ready for some killer headhunting.

Lower Madison Aug. 30th

The past few days the lower madison has been fishing better than I've seen all summer. Big browns moving in and sporting new coats of orange and ready to attack the tasty sculpin prey. The bite is on with short 6ft. nymph rigs working great in cloudy rainy weather with Mega prince, Bow river buggers, sculpzillas, micro may, lightning bug, and zebra midges being my favorites. When the sun comes out we had some decent action on M's hoppers in tan, royal wolff, Bloom's parachute flying ant, and neversink trudes in peacock.

Stillwater Fishing 8-22

Some how the stars aligned for my dad and myself yesterday and we actually both had a day off together. I tried to pick his brain on some secret spots to which he replied let's go for a drive and catch 7-10 pound rainbows on dry flies. OK fine i said. Brought along a float tube and a watermaster and some 2X flourocarbon and spent the day fighting enormous trout on the Bozeman Angler's private lakes. Within minutes the old man was being towed round the lake laughing as he fought mondo trout while i suited up as quickly as possible.

Yellowstone River August 21st

Partly cloudy with just a bit of air moving around the Livingston area seemed like the hopper bite should be that epic day i have been looking for, still an epic day but not on hoppers. Had decent luck with M's Hopper in tan, Chernobyl Hopper in yellow, and gold chubby chernobyls but the most fish and bigger fish all seemed to like the Y's neversink trude in red which has kinda been the trend for me lately on the Yellowstone. Fish seem to like attractor patterns in these minor hatch periods of late summer and red is always a good color to start with.

Change of pace

As much as i love the Yellowstone, Madison, and Gallatin rivers by this time of the season i'm ready to see different water. Had the pleasure of guiding Bo Brown and his buddies from Nashville the past two days on some private spring creeks and lakes for some amazing secluded territory and truly memorable fishing. What a treat to see some good ole boys just giddy as children catching 25-30 fiesty trout per day on all styles (dry flies, nymphs, and streamers).

Muddy Yellowstone, clear Madison 8-13

The rain in Yellowstone park and a mudslide on the Gardiner river has caused the Yellowstone river the flow a chalky pale color the last day or so. Sounds like you can get into some visibility above Yankee jim canyon today but it is still finicky. Forecast calls for more rain this afternoon so we will see what happens. Yesterday we chose to hit the lower madison and had a pretty good day. The nymphing was tough with all the heavy grass growing and floating in the water but had some fish on with lightning bugs, red soft hackles, and pearl zonkers.

Yellowstone River Hopper Activity

Have been on the Yellowstone a lot in the last week and it has had it's ups and downs with yesterday being the high point for me so far this season. The bird float valley area has been okay for hoppers first half of the day (get them 2 feet from the bank) and 9 foot leader nymph rigs more productive in the middle of the river seams, still a lot of whiteys though. Trout have been picked up on BH soft hackles in olive and pearl, Mega Prince, Deer hair buggers, and Sculpzillas mostly dead drifted.

Swinging Sculpins on the Gallatin

Finally found an entire day off and decided to go swing streamers on the gallatin. To my surprise the day started off with a decent Trico hatch around 11 am that lasted for a half hour or so. A parachute Adams size 18 was the perfect imitation. Only found the one pod of rising trout all day but had successfully fulfilled my dry fly itch with half a dozen smaller trout.

East Gallatin July 25th

When you work in a fly shop and guide on all your days off throughout the summer it is often difficult to find time to fish yourself. So when i get off work at 4:30pm and have a few hours to remind myself what it is i love about Montana where do I go? The East Gallatin is the closest trout stream to my house and one of my favorites this time of year, never too crowded, plenty of hard fighting little fish, and the occasional big lunker to keep you occupied. Busted out of work yesterday and found a bridge with no other cars and was into some nice trout within minutes.

The Upper Madison

Headed out to the upper Madison the other day with clients Mike and Julie for some warm sunshine and excellent dry fly fishing. Didn't even have to bother with nymphs all day and had steady action from start to finish. Seemed like the fish were proportioned to the size of the fly with plenty of smaller guys hitting royal wolfs and Caddis in size 14-16 and when we switched to size 10 chubby chernobyls (in both tan and gold colors) the big guys came up to feed. Fish were feeding steady along the banks in the side troughs and runs, big guys were along the cutbanks.