Fishing in Northeast Corner of the Park Starting to Pick Up
Salmonflies Still Hanging Around on the Upper Madison
Updated 7/23/08 Fishing ReportsThe reports of the Salmonflies are that they are scattered around the Park on the Yellowstone, not really around McConell anymore even, and that they are still on the Upper Madison around Reynold's Pass. That's about as much info as is left, the hatch is tapering off, but the fishing is still good, and honestly we couldn't be more excited about fishing attractors, goldens and hoppers the rest of the summer. The best fishing this year likely will come not in June/July, but August/September with good water flows and great temps.
There have been some recent rain showers and that's caused a little bit of dirtying of the rivers, look for most of that to pass through by the weekend, the report on the Yellowstone is that there is a plug of mud coming out of the Park, and that it will be river wide here soon so don't even bother for the next day or so, high flows and mud doesn't typically make for good fishing. The Gallatin has some mud coming down from the West Fork and Taylor's Fork after yesterday and today's rainshowers, you can read the spike on the flow charts and pretty much figure that one out for yourself though.
Finally getting some good reports from the Northeast Corner of the Park - Slough, Soda Butte and Lamar fishing well on attractors (it's by all accounts some of the easier fishing in this section they will have all year - we say it's always easy over here...)
One of the best parts of the rest of the summer is the onset of attractor dry fly fishing, big bushy, rubberlegged, sometimes flashy, sometimes drab attractor dries. Read on in tips from Kris about what patterns work, why, when and where (this year attractor fishing is a bit late because of water temps and levels, but make no doubt, late July and August will be the best dry fly fishing in years).
Lots of small creeks around town are in perfect shape and quite fishable. The Gallatin way down low is shaping up now and I'd bet streamers on the Manhattan stretch would be good about now. Just as a public service, I'd be really careful about dropping in boats on the Gallatin after a high water year - there are all sorts of new channels, new trees across channels, and tangles all over this river, not a great place to take a drift boat, fine for a small raft and people who know how to portage...
Spring Creeks are going strong and busy, PMD's are coming off pretty decent, but having your assortment of small technical nymphs is definitely a good bet.
Some of the best dry fly fishing in decades on the Bighorn and Missouri - flows on both rivers have dropped substantially - on the Bighorn its baetis (yes you're reading that right Blue Wing Olives in July...) Ton's of fishermen on the Horn, a few less on the Missouri and the caddis and pmd fishing has been lights out up there.
Don't have a boat? What do you do and where do you go? Now is the time to start hiking up to some of the higher mountain lakes as ice is likely off of most everything. No we’re not talking about pay to play stocked pellet fed fish, we’re talking about the many lakes and reservoirs around the state that are in prime shape and fishing well. Check out our other waters report from Willy on the lakes in the area, not much changing but the fishing has been good. Willy has promised to get us a new report next week.
Give us a call at 406/587-4707 for the most up to date info!Tip of the Month (or two) : Attractor Dry Fly FishingAttractor Dry Flies, Why do they work and what patterns should I use where?
With rivers dropping, tributaries clearing up and the weather heating up, it's time for another recycled tip from last year, what exactly are attractor dry flies? A real common question I hear from people is what are attractor dry flies? Why do they work? Where do you use them and when? What patterns and what size etc, etc.... So here is the skinny on attractor dries, or at least as far as I know it...
Attractor dry fly patterns are simply patterns that look somewhat similar to a lot of things that could be on the water, but never really like anything specifically that is hatching, otherwise it wouldn't be an attractor it would be a caddis or mayfly imitation. Over the years attractor dries have taken many different forms, shapes, sizes, colors and even fished wet instead of dry like a sunken Turk's or a wet version of the Royal Trude. So to put all attractors into one category and sum them with a couple of sentences would be pretty difficult, if not down right impossible. A few of my favorites include the Royal Wulff, the Hare's Ear Trude, Rubberleg Stimulators in any color and size, and of course the PMX - probably the most recently popular attractor dry fly pattern in the world, used from Montana to Chile to who knows where.
When I think of attractor dry flies, I always kind of wonder to myself, "Why would any self respecting fish eat this piece of ...? It doesn't look like anything, or does it look like everything if you removed a few parts...?" So the question is, why do they work? The answer: because they do... That would suffice for me, but oftentimes as fishermen we want a better explanation, because we want to understand an animal with a brain the size of a pea! The ultimate answer lies in the fact that many times during the time when attractor dries begin to work there is a lot of hatch activity on the rivers and water temperatures are traditionally at optimal levels and the rivers are beginning to clear. In other words, they work because the fish are looking up at the surface, they are trained that there are mayflies, caddis and stoneflies of sorts on the water and the bug looks eerily similar from beneath the surface to nearly all of these food sources. The other reason is peacock herl (nearly all attractors have a bright color or some peacock herl in them) and peacock herl's magic is best left for another tip of the week...
So where do you use them and when? I use attractor dries on nearly all the rivers and some of the smaller creeks, but usually not on spring creeks or areas with abundant insect life where the fish can be picky - ie tailwaters... So the Upper Madison, Yellowstone, Gallatin, Boulder, Big Hole, Hyalite Creek, etc. I love to fish attractors on small streams where the fish have a small window of feeding opportunity during the warm summer months, there is nothing quite like smacking a bunch of cutthroats and rainbows on a size 12 or 14 Royal Wulff on a creek you could reach across. The when is a bit different on different rivers, but almost always falls perfectly into the summertime when water temperatures start to warm into the mid to upper 50's and 60's and bug activity increases. So without giving you an exact date, I can pretty certainly say that things are going full throttle around the 4th of July weekend, if not a bit early on warmer years. Or in this high water year, when the rivers subside!
Patterns and sizes are going to depend on where you go and a lot of it is personal preference, because remember, these aren't patterns that are representing anything the trout really see on the water, they are more to get the fish interested and hopefully elicit a strike. As I started to list off a few of my favorites above, but there simply isn't enough space and time to list all of the different iterations that are out there these days. Patterns come and go, become popular, die off, but don't fret, the originals like the Wulff and Trude have been around forever, but honestly there are some better patterns out there now in my opinion. Part of the attractor is showing fish something they haven't seen before and trust me when I say that fish in Gallatin Canyon have seen a few Royal Wulffs in their day. So I tie some of my own patterns, and always check out the latest and newest attractor patterns, simply because they are almost always pretty fun patterns with lots of wild colors and rubberlegs and wings. Size wise, although you aren't trying to match an insect, it does help to have a general size of insects that might be coming off - for example - don't fish a size 6 stimulator if there are only pmd's and caddis in 14's, 16's and 18's coming off, that just is ridiculous and probably won't work so well. Now when it comes to cutthroat, all bets are off and you can generally try out your new patterns with some great success, the old stories of cutties being "below average intelligence" are pretty much true when you present them with flashy rubberlegged bugs fluttering on the surface...
So if you ever want to have a philosophical debate on why they work, what patterns to use, or just pass along some stories, stop by and I'd be more than willing to share a few of my own.
Fly of the Week (or two or three): Chubby Chernobyl Hopper & Golden -This is a staple in all of our guides boxes as well as my own and anybody that fishes for a living. Why? The pattern works, you can drop a substantial beadhead off of it and it still floats, and honestly when fish eat it as well as they do, why argue? In 4 flavored varieties too - Golden, Red Ant, Orange Surprise and Hopper Tan.
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