So I decided to see if there where any big bugs further up the Yellowstone and hiked into the black canyon from the Black Tail Trailhead. The hike was 4 miles down into the Canyon following Black Tail Creek and 4 miles back up. They had the bridge closed across the river right now doing some improvements. I walked up stream and had plenty of good water to fish. The fishing was good, fish eating both my big dry and occasionally the dropper like this guy bellow. Most of the fish where cutties, however a few I think were cutbows. Saw more golden stoneflies than salmon flies. Also saw caddis and a few little olive stones.

Big River, few people.

Shedhorn along the trail.

I hiked into the Yellowstone River today in the park from the Rescue Creek trail across the Gardner River. Awesome day, did not see another sole all day. The fish were willing to eat the big dry today, but I did catch two on the dropper. Caught a brown, rainbows, cutbows, and yellowstone cutthroats today. I threw a amy's ant that I tied that was black and orange. Saw a few big Salmon Flies today, but mostly saw lots of tan caddis. First time I ever fished this part of the river, it was really nice and wild. Hiking from the Gardner river over to the Yellowstone there where plenty of hoppers allready. I guess the plague has started. I predict the hopper fishing will be great from now till October. Here are a few of the sights from today:

Cuttie with his mouth full with my fly.

Elk skull along the Yellowstone

Nice day along the Yellowstone down from the Black Canyon.

What a weekend, from fishing the opener of the Park to floating the MO, you can always find a place to fish in Montana. Right now many rivers in Montana are off color and flowing high. Except there are always spring creeks and tail waters to be had. So I fished the world's most famous spring creek the Firehole River and the MO a tail water that fishes a lot like a big spring creek.

Fished the Firehole river off of Fountain Flat Drive near the Nez Perce picnic ground. Started off slow, had a few grabs on the soft hackle. Then about 12:30 started seeing the first emergence of BWOs. Put on a dry, and started catching fish. I ran back to the truck and grabbed my new fiber glass 3wt I built this winter. It was great, a very fun rod for the firehole. The nastier the weather the larger the hatch, which sent the fish in a feeding frenzy. You name it we had it for weather that day. I lost count of how many I caught that day, however I'm not really the counting type. I can just say it was enough to break in my new 3wt.

Here are a few pics from the Firehole:

Headed out of Bozeman on Monday around 7:00 am and dropped the boat in the MO around 10:00 a.m. Every time I fish the MO I am amazed how strong and big the fish are. I did see plenty of BWOs, however it did not get to many noses up. So the nymph rig was the setup for the day. Here are a few pics from the MO:

Mothers Day Caddis 2010

Got the boat out on the Yellowstone River today and slayed the whities. We did catch a few trout, I actually caught one cuttie and brown and about 25-30 white fish, mostly on dries. Here is a few pictures of the float. Cool weather, a little breezy but not bad for the Yellowstone.

Fall Fishing in Southwest Montana

The next three Photos are of fish I caught on the Madison down stream of $3 Bridge on Veteran's Day 11/11/2009. I was getting them on an egg and BH micro may. Saw very few BWOs, but a lot of midges that day. Winter has arrived. The next day we got well over a foot of snow in Bozeman.

Here is probably a Brown out of Hebgen Lake on the Madison at Bakers Hole. This was the only one I landed. I hooked like 4 more, they were all very hot fish out of Hebgen. I was only able to fish about an hour since Devun came down with the Flu with a high temp. We just had to turn around and head back to Bozeman bummer. It was the last day of fishing in the Park. Hard to leave a hole full of fish, the things we do for our kids, it would have probably been considered child abuse letting him suffer while I caught fish.

Photo: Devun Scott

Fall brown on the Gallatin one morning with Devun throwin streamers.

Photo:Devun Scott

High water no problem

After doing a few errands around town I decided to hop in the car with my dog and drive up to the upper Madison ($3 bridge). High water, off color= good fishing! Hooked many on the coffee and black rubber legs and a few on a bead head dropper. Fish where in predictable places, being in any slack water you could find. Pretty much right on the banks. It was a nice day to get out and there was not too many people as well. Drove back by Hebgen Lake and stripped a bugger off the bank and caught this nice dark bow.

With above average temps around Bozeman, I took a break from the slopes and hit up the Lower Madison for some fishing. It was mostly a midge day, nothing on dries, but did good on a juju midge I fished for the first time. Lots of slush in the morning but thawed out by afternoon. Here is the first fish on 2009.