bozemanangler's blog

The weather has been up and down as per usual for June in Montana.  From bright warm sunshine to chilly afternoon downpour this month has given us good reason to pack some rain gear along with some suncreen.  Ken Stock was guiding client John doing some walk wading on the Upper Madison and getting it done.  The fishing has been awesome and consistent with rubberlegs and lightning bugs underneath with a few good caddis and stonefly dries.

The Bozeman Angler has been managing a number of private water lakes and reservoirs for the last 9 years.  The trout have been eating very well and growing to monster size by now.  This is one of the best times of the year to fish them as they are fresh and ravenous after the spring thaw.  We had a couple of anglers up there the other day and it looks like the trout are doing just fine if not better than we've ever seen them.  Nothing cooler than seeing a ten plus pound rainbow tailwalk across the surface of the water as you wonder if your 1x tippet will hold!

Yes the big bugs are out on the big hole river right now and the fishing has been stellar.  Plenty of big pterenarcys adults on the water and fluttering in the willows making more Salmon flies.  We really like doing a dry dropper rig with a orange bodied stonefly nymph as a trailer on a 0x leader with 2x to the dropper, really helps turn em over.  Found a few dry patterns this year that have worked quite nicely for us those being the Morrish fluttering stone and Quigley's bedhead stone.

Had a two boat trip on the Upper Madison go out yesterday with guides Ken and Travis.  They all caught some nice fish and had a blast floating down one of the most beautiful rivers in the world.  This nice young lady Brooke enjoyed putting the wood to some big brown trout as Ken so graciously rowed her down river.  Both Ken and Travis's boats of anglers did well getting some nice eats on the twisted wire soft hackle nymph.  Ken likes this fly a lot but he likes to pull the rubberlegs off them?

Come down to the Bozeman Angler this Friday June 7th from 9-12:00am to meet the Mountain Khakis crew and get free shwag!

6000 miles in 60 days: MK takes its mountain vibe on the road! Partnering with premier specialty retail partners and key outdoor events, the LU Tour will roll through the U.S. in two regional legs; first through the Rockies, Southwest, Cali, Montana, Jackson Hole; second to kickoff at Outdoor Retailer, through the Great Lakes, New England Mid-Atlantic, back to Charlotte.

Monday we hit the Missouri and caught nice really hot rainbows on baetis nymphs, emergers, and adults and had a blast.  Spent most of Tuesday running errands but got away for a few hours in the afternoon to bring the Tenkara rods up to Hyalite creek.  Tenkara is an ancient Japanese style of fishing with no reel and a longer soft action rod with the line attached to the end of the rod.  So simple and so fun & effective on small streams.  I have never had so much fun catching 5 inch fish on dry flies in my life!

Hey everybody, my name is Patrick and this is my first season working at the Bozeman Angler.  This past week, I was fortunate enough to have a two-day break in my work schedule and was able to spend some time with Rod and Pam on the Mighty Mo' near Craig, MT.

The run off this year hasn't been to heavy, and the fish are still eating lots! With the colder nights the snow is melting slowly. Some of the rivers have been fishing great when the water is a little murky. Ennis lake was churned up by the heavy winds we had the other day and the lower Madison turned brown, but the fish were still eating all day and it didn't seem to affect them too much. Also the Missouri, Madison, and Big Hole have been been fishing great! Lots of March Browns, midges, caddis and BWO's on the Missouri and fish eating crayfish and zonkers on the Madison.

We now have shirts for fisherman, made by fly fisherman in Whitefish, MT. The Strip'n Flywear company was started by a fly fisherman in Whitefish because there was no places to buy a fly fishing lifestyle t-shirt. They have some clever designs, some of which have been featured on Moldychum! We have several to choose from, from a brown trouthouse to a james brown trout. Come on in and check the new designs!

Fished the lower Madison yesterday for a few hours after work and found some great trout feeding on sculpins and nymphs.  Had a few fish eat caddis and stonefly dries but not a lot of heads coming up in the rainy weather.  One thing that i find myself doing every Spring is reorganizing my fishing gear in an effort to make my life easier.  This year I decided i was tired of wasting time rigging rods at the boat ramp and sprung for a Rod Mount storage bracket for my truck.  Now i can leave up to six different rods fully rigged and ready safely stored in the truck.