Blogs

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.

Working in a fly shop, time off is a luxury that we rarely get to enjoy during the summer. However, Rod and Pam gave me the best birthday present I can think of, 5 days off for a trip to one of the most gorgeous rivers I've ever been to, the South Fork of the Flathead. This remote river in Northwest Montana winds its way through the Bob Marshall Wilderness and its upper sections are only accessible via horse, backpacking, or if your really lucky like a group of forest service workers we ran into, helicopter. Seeing how that wasn't an option, we went with backpacking.

Wind, wind, and more wind. But, it knocks the hoppers in to the river and the trout are taking full advantage of it. Small is the key, so dig up those #10 Morrish Hoppers or swing into the shop and grab a few BA spent hoppers. Get out while the gett'n is good.

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.

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.

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).

For us at the Bozeman Angler summer means fishing, fishing and more fishing!!  Here are some client photos from July. 

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.

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.

The Bozeman Angler crew celebrated at the wedding of our guide, Ty Webb, to Sarah Jameson.  What a great time.  We wish the newlyweds much happiness and much fly fishing in their future!!