2009 Archives. " A very good year ".
Well, that ends it (unless someone calls for a late season trip). 2009 has been a fishing year to remember. I've never seen the fishing better. It was the second consecutive year with above average snowfall and water flows and the fish loved it. I'd venture to guess that I netted more fish this summer than ever in my 15th season thanks to great fishing conditions and fantastic customers that put the fly where it needed to be. I'm looking forward to 2010 and another round of fun and fly fishing!
Here's a schedule of must fish events to look for in 2010:
Mother's Day Caddis Hatch on the Yellowstone and Madison- anywhere form April 21-May 7
PMD emergence on the Missouri- June 15-30
PMD hatch on the spring creeks June 20-July 20
Salmonflies on the Yellowstone and Madison- June 25- July 7
Caddis on the Missouri- June 25-July 20
Boulder River Rafting- July 4-25
Hopper fishing on the Yellowstone- July 25- Sept 5
Tricos on the East Gallatin July 25-Sept 5
Baetis hatch in Yellowstone National Park- Sept 1-Oct 5
Baetis and Pseudos on the Missouri- Oct 1- 31
**of course, all dates are approximate the only way to know is to be here fishing.
11/5/09- Rika joined me for a morning duck hunt at MZ- again today. The ducks are really moving into the Gallatin valley and we had good decoy hunting on Smith creek. This ends the Renegade Outfitters season!
11/3/09-Milesnick ranch again today. We had better decoy hunting and good jump shooting. Here's Rika on Smith Creek and Hoshina at the "lucky ditch".
11/2/09- The hunting improved today at Depuys. The fishing was the real story though. Hoshina is the best fly tier I know. Rika renamed the baetis pattern he tied for her:"fisherman killer". Her arm got tired from fighting so many fish. Rika even had two fish hit the fly on her backcast! Outrageous fishing and lots of laughs again. Here's Rika stiking and familiar pose and Rika with Hoshina showing off Hoshina's elk and deer antlers. A bountiful hunting season for Hoshina.
11/1/09-Rika Kawanishi and Manoa Hoshina are here for their annual cast and blast trip. We hit Milesnick ranch in the morning for a duck hunt. The decoy hunting was terrible, but we had some decent jump shooting. Then, we drove over to Nelson's for an afternoon of fishing. Rika, true to form stepped up and caught a nice rainbow on her second cast. We had good fishing.
10/28/09- We hit Nelson's Spring Creek today for another round of Baetis fishing. The weather turned even colder today with a high temp of 36 and snow flurries throughout the day. The hatch was particularly intense, but lasted only about 2 hours today. The resident fish in Nelson's this year are big and fat...and tough to catch. They are extremely selective to drift and life stage of the pattern. Wye was up to the task and we had another memorable day.
10/27/09-Rain and snow greated us at Depuy Spring Creek today. The perfect recipe for fall Baetis fishing. The fishing was superb with an intense hatch from 1-4pm. We concentrated on the lower creek and found good numbers of large fish rising. The cripple patterns were the best performers. We were thankful for the warming hut today!
10/26/09- Wye Yoshida and Bruce Poitier are in town from Canada for some spring creek fishing. We started at Milesnick Ranch today and found some tough conditions with sun and wind. There were just enough baetis hatching on Benhart Creek to get some fish rising, but getting a drift in that water when the wind is blowing 20mph is tough to say the least. We also fished some nymphs and streamers on the East Gallatin and had some success.
10/14/09- Ben Morril and John Cunningham are in town for some bird hunting and took an afternoon off for a drift on the Yellowstone. The fishing was great for a short time in the afternoon and the scenery was fantastic.
10/7/08- Steve Klotz and I hit prime time on the Yellowstone (1-5) in a fantastic snowstorm. The flakes were silver dollar sized and constant. The wind was out of the east and equally constant and cold. Luckily, we were dressed for it and the midge and baetis emergence were outstanding. The fish were boiling in the foam holes and soft seams especially from 2-4. Good stuff and great fishing! Here's Klotzie trying to look tough.
10/3- Shelly and Howard Wilson and son Brad hit the Yellowstone. It was their first experience fly fishing. We started with casting lessons in the parking lot and ended with a nice rainbow for Brad. Everybody caught fish and we had a ton of laughs, beautiful weather with lots of fresh snow in the mountains and a high of 50. Here are Howard and Brad pounding a riffle in paradise.
9/30/09- So what do 3 fishing guides do after being cancelled due to the season's first nasty snowstorm...Stay home and clean house? ....not my house. Will, Robert and I bundled up and headed to the MZ ranch where I assured them the water would be boiling with rises. It was,but not until 3pm. Robert and Will put on a clinic, I got tangled, missed fish and needed help.
9/28/09-Bob Burkheimer fished with me on the Missouri today. We had decent on the lower river, although weeds were a factor. The psuedo hatch was intense in the afternoon with tons of juvenile trout feeding on them as well as a few big fat rainbows. As you can see, Bob was having a difficult time relaxing.
9/27/09- Another round of night fishing on the Missouri tonight yielded more normal results for me:
Broke my rod stringing it up, fell in the water, but didn't swim and got skunked!!
Greg landed 3 20inch plus trout.
9/25/09- Rika Kawanishi and Dr. Kamintani were in town for their annual Montana trip. They spent 4 days on the Henry's Fork chasing trout with some rediculusly, tough fishing. Our goal today was to relax in the drift boat and catch a few fish on the Yellowstone. Rika, true to form nabbed the first rainbow and Dr. Kamitani got the biggest. Here are Rika and Emma back at the house.
9/24/09- After yesterday's good fishing on the East Gallatin on Skinner's ranch, Koji, Yuki and I were hoping for the same results at Milesnicks. We found plenty of rises again, but the fish seemed much spookier. You had to make your first cast the best cast, or you were walking to the next hole...Koji and Yuki are sharpshooters, but at the end of the day, my legs were tired from walking. Koji is stalking some big boys here!
9/23/09-Koji Otani and Yuki Aoki are back for their 14th year of Montana fishing. They spent a few days exploring the Dillon area and are back to fish Skinner ranch with me. The weather was unusually warm and sunny for the end of September and I was not expecting to find good fishing today. In fact, I would have bet against it.. I was happy to be wrong again. We found great rising from about 11-4 on tricos and pseudos. There were some very interesting fish. The best ones were rising in about 12 inches of water and slashing around eating emergers. The super pseudo carried the day with great results although it's tough to get a size 22 hook set well enough in a big fish to land them and we lost a bunch. Here's Yuki with one that didn't get away and Koji sneaking up on a pod of rainbows that did get away!
9/22/09- I took Osamu to Milesnick ranch today. The fishing was good with some trico spinners in the morning followed by Pseudos in the afternoon. Good fishing at MZ does not mean easy fishing. The fish were rising, but very spooky and selective. Some fish would only tolerate one cast before spooking. This is the ultimate for dry fly fishers. Gotta make the first cast the best cast. Osamu was up to the challenge and landed his share of nice rainbows.
9/21/09- Osamu and I drove through a snow flurry on the way to Cooke City last night. The weather definitely cooled off to say the least. We headed back to the Park for more fishing and cold hands. We spent the morning on the Lamar river testing several different fishing methods hoping to wake the fish up from their cold water slumber. I had lots of chases on a big streamer, but the dry dropper rig did the best with big attractor type nymphs and dries. Hoping to find more rising action, we headed to Slough creek where we found stronger wind and cold temps. No hatch and no rising...again we jumped in the truck and headed for lower elevations. We made a short stop and fished the Yellowstone river, but there was still nothing happening. The air temps were 10 degrees warmer on the Gardner river and due to hot springs, the water temps were 20 degrees warmer. We found some fish rising sporatically and had some fun pocket water fishing for rainbows and cutthroats.
9/20/09- Osamu Komiyama is back again. His goal this year was to catch a cutthroat trout. No better place to do that than Yellowstone National Park! We hit some great water today starting at the 2nd medow of Slough creek. We had the whole area to ourselves and enjoyed fantastic sight fishing to cutthroats. There were just enough baetis hatching to get the fish out and feeding. When we found a rise, it didn't take Osamu long to make contact with his CDC dun pattern. Mid afternoon we packed up and headed to Soda Butte. There was a great baetis hatch going but strong wind isolated the rising to protected banks. We found these fish to be very selective to pattern and presentation....good fun.
9/17/09-Back with the Rough Riders group, today it was Louis and Rob's turn at the Yellowstone river. We had a great float with Louis putting on a clinic his first day of fly fishing.
9/16/09- Don Duncan and Ed Ward from the Rough Riders group headed to Yellowstone Park with me today. Our destination was Soda Butte Creek. We had some interesting sight fishing for good sized cutthroats. The fish were not very active in the morning, but by noon the water warmed up and you could see fish all over the place. There were a few drakes hatching, but we had to go to nymphs to get most of our fish.
9/15/09-Peter Gunness joined me on a perfect day to float the Yellowstone. The weather was spectacular with highs reaching 80 and most importantly calm wind. Peter has been fishing the Yellowstone for over 40 years. He knew just what to do and I just rowed the boat and netted fish. Here his is with the last fish of the day.
9/14/09-Bryan Willis called Sweetwater Flyshop for a guide and ended up with me. We fished Armstrong's spring creek which like all the paradise valley spring creeks, is in a "transitional phase". The summer hatches of PMDs are over and the fall baetis hatch has yet to get going. This makes for some difficult fishing. We spent the morning fishing midge pupa immitations in the diagonal riffle with some success. The wind turned on in the afternoon and we did a small stint wading the Yellowstone hoping for some hopper action...too much wind to cast sent us back to the spring creek. Bryan whacked a few fish on a big beetle and about 4 a thunderstorm spurred a sulphur hatch. We had good rising for a couple of hours and Bryan made the most of it.
9/12/09-Mike, Gary and I again had great nymph fishing in the morning near the dam. It was even better today with nearly constant action until lunch. Below the Wolf Creek Bridge, things slowed down with a lot of grass to contend with. The September tan (#16)caddis are making a show of it though and good dry fly fishing is just a cold spell away on the MO.
9/11/09-Mike and Gary fished the Mighty Missouri with me today. There is a sizeable forest fire on the east side of Holter Lake with a massive firefighting effort making good headway. Meanwhile we rowed up and down the river from the Dam to Wolf Creek. The nymph fishing is red hot for the first mile below the dam. It's no secret, we had boats all around us. The fish are absolutely stacked in the weed beds chowing on midge pupa. The Missouri fish are as strong as I've ever seen them and it is a chore landing them on #20 hooks.
9/11/09 10PM-
I've been night fishing 3 times before. Always after leaving the bar near closing time.
Trip One: hopelessly tangled my floating line and lost 6 flies.
Trip Two: dropped my reel in 12 inches of water and lost it forever.
Trip Three: launched the boat with Mark Raissler in it (didn't want to get our feet wet), who promply dropped an oar in the water and floated aimlessly down the river until I reminded him there was anchor. He wet waded (swam) to get the oar.
I decided to leave alcohol out of the equation for the next trip.
"Here's 3 woolies and a wading staff for you. You're gonna need it" Greg
"Really?" Stuart
"Oh Yeah, you'll see." Greg
Greg took me for a night fishing adventure. Nothing like wading chest deep through slimy boulders in the dark to elevate your senses. Just getting to the spot was worth the price of admission. Greg's stories ittermittently interupted by things like"look at that big brown in the headlamp!". My favorite story was about Greg bringing one of the saltiest guys around to where we were headed:
"he took as swim and the next time showed up with a life jacket"Greg
"what %*#& did I sign up for?" Stuart to self.
It was a spectacular star filled night. We were hoping to catch a walleye on a fly as well as hunting for a huge brown. We landed a bunch of nice trout, but the catch of the day was a 27 inch 8 pound walleye that Greg wrestled in before it's teeth cut the 3X tippett. And nobody went swimming.
9/10/09-Gary Hancock has caught more fish with me on the Gallatin than any other customer. Hands down, no contest. Today it started out a bit slow with cold water in the morning. There was a tremendous trico hatch though and as the spinner fall came down the river we found a pod of nice sized fish gulping them. After stinging 6 of them, we put on the hopper dropper rig. The weather was partly cloudy in the afternoon and we had good fishing as the pseudos and some baetis hatched. Gary got 4 fish in the last hole and I we put rocks behind the tires of the Chevy for and uneventful take out.
**
Here's a picture of a nocturnal stonefly. These hatch on all the freestone rivers of the area in the late summer. They are rarely seen on the water and hide in the rocks during the day...Chubby Chernobyl!! The fly of 2009
9/9/09- Mike Barbour and Gary Hancock are back for their 10th plus year with Renegade Outfitters....slow learners or loyal customers. We hit the Yellowstone which I assured them was great fishing, only to find below average fishing and a strong east wind(never good). We did have a window from about 2-4 where the fish were chasing down the hopper, but fall weather is making that window shorter each day. As the photo of Mike shows, "a bad day of fishing is better than working".
9/8/09- The Honeymooners and I hit the Missouri today. Heavy winds again made fishing challenging. As is the general rule: the wife outfished the husband 5 to 1. We had fun, lots of fun. Some more than others. Here are the worn out couple on the last day of the "honeymoon". Drool was photoshopped out.
9/7/09-After a brief run in with the law in Idaho...THE HONEYMOONERS HAVE ARRIVED!. Kazu Ishikawa and his brave lovely bride Moriko are here for some fishing. Kazu got busted going 93mph in Idaho in the "economy" rental car...great story. We hit MZ ranch today hoping for some trico action. The trico hatch was thick, but as is often the case with tricos: a light morning wind blew most of the spinners away from the river. There were enough bugs to get the fish rising for a couple of hours, and we had some great fishing from about 10-12. Then, we got some fish on the old hopper/pheasant tail combo, but the afternoon pseudo hatch wasn't heavy enough to bring up the big fish today. Here's Moriko on the business end of a rainbow fight.
9/6/09-Tricia and Allen signed on for another day and we hit the Yellowstone around Livingston. It was warm, and the afternoon brought some serious Yellowstone wind. It must have been gusting to the mid 30mph range. Not the type of conditions you normally hope for when fly fishing. Hopper fishing with strong casters is the exception to that rule. Logically, hot, sunny, and windy days get the most hoppers in the water and fish looking for them. This is great, but if you can't cast in the wind...you end up tired and frustrated. Tricia and Allen can cast in the wind. We had some lights out hopper fishing running double hopper rigs. Good fun.
9/5/09-Back to work and the Yellowstone River. I took Tricia and Allen Ojda on the upper Yellowstone from Angler's West Outfitters. The weather was perfect and we saw a bunch of fish rising to spinners in the morning. There were Tricos, leftover PMD's and some Mahogany Dunns on the water as well as a few grey Drakes. For the first time in weeks, I abandoned the hopper for the morning and we had great luck with parachute mayfly patterns. After lunch it was back to the good old hopper although we stayed with a purple haze dropper and racked up some big numbers of fish. Tricia and Allen are experienced anglers and got more than their share of fish. The day was highlighted by a family of river otters that came right by the boat as a bald eagle watched us from a nearby tree.
9/4/09-I again had a day off and some time to fish so I headed to my favorite ranch, the Milesnicks. I love fishing the East Gallatin this time of year when the Trico hatch is going strong. The high water conditions of the last two years have made the East Gallatin remain dirty and high through most of August, but today the water conditions were prime. There were nice rainbows rising to the trico spinners when I arrived at 10. I was the only person on the river and it felt like coming home. Here's a bad picture of a line of 3 rainbows bulging the water chasing down pseudo emergers.
9/2/09-Will Lassiter and I hit the Lower Gallatin today for some research and development aka fishing. The water is a bit higher than I like it over there, but we found some decent fishing with good hopper action in the afternoon. The most excitement of the day was at the take out. The "ramp" is primative to say the least and I stopped my truck with the back wheels about 6 feet from the point of no return where the "ramp" drops straight down to the river. As I was winching the boat up, the truck started to slide on the loose gravel and stopped inches from the point of no return. I thought for sure I'd be calling triple A to pull the old Chevy from the bottom of the Gallatin...not this time!
8/29/09- Rudy aka Zach Mertens from Idylwilde Flies is in town for some pattern testing. We hit the Yellowstone today with a box full of new flies with the rule that after you caught a fish on one, you had to change it. The most effective and outrageous pattern of the day was the "Side Show Bob". I thought it was a joke when I first saw it (a bobber tied to the top of a chernobyl-like bug). Then on his first cast with one Zach nailed a nice brown in the mouth of Nelson's spring creek. He got some incredible eats on various colors and sizes.
8/28/09-Back with theflyfishinglife.com crew today. Dave Hall showed us around the Upper Madison. There were some impressive Brown trout eating Dave's favorite but top secret bug. The fishing wasn't gang busters, but if you stuck with it you'd get some good ones.
8/27/09-Robert Stewart and I fished with Nicholas, Anna, Rob and Laura today on the Yellowstone. Rob and Laura got stuck in the boat with me for their first experience fly fishing. They were quick studies and got their share of the fish. The fish were cooperating on their end by slamming hoppers again in the afternoon. The fast riffle corners are becoming more and more important as the river continues to get lower and the fish were really stacked in them today. Here's the crew.
8/26/09-Theflyfishinglife.com crew worked the water at Nelson spring creek today. I couldn't believe how many big fish Nelson's is holding these days. It was hot today with no shade and the fish rose all day! Midges, PMD's, and Sulphurs. Mason and I spent most of the day chasing big fish on the Nelson pond. Mason managed to catch his first fish all by himself. The photos tell part of the story:
8/25/09-Marcia and Tim Rider were the passengers today. We hit the hopper fishing again on the Yellowstone. Marcia started the day by hooking her first brown 15 minutes into the trip. Tim got his share too, but I couldn't help thinking that his brother and Renegade regular Bob "could have caught a few that got away"...enough smack talk: We had a great day with no boats, bald eagles, blue heron, osprey etc and a bunch of fish eating hoppers. Here's Marcia with the fish of the day.
8/24/09-International legend Dave Hall joined the group today for more fun on the Yellowstone. We had some great hopper eats and a fun day floating the big river. We didn't see another boat. Here are a couple of shots from the day.
8/23/09- Thelma, Rick, Russ, Michelle and Mason from theflyfishinglife.com are in town for more fishing and video shooting. We hit Milesnick's spring creeks today. The weather could not have been better with overcast skies turning to drizzle and finally rain. We had a nice trico spinner fall on Thompson creek in the morning and had some good rising. The tough part was that in each good hole there were about 10 fish rising and most of them were small. The trick was to look for the big head and not set the hook when the small fish ate the fly. Russ plucked a couple of nice ones out of some groups on film. Then we headed back to Benhart creek after lunch and the ladies proceded to put on a clinic. There was a good pseudo hatch as well as good numbers of PMDs and great rising. There were more big fish on Benharts and Michelle managed to get 3 fish on 3 casts with the super pseudo before calling it a day. Thelma hooked a bunch too before the rain drove us away. Here's Thelma in frustration point. No pressure, just 2 video cameras running and a guide yelling "strike".
8/17-8/22-Vacation. Emma lost her first tooth on Holland Lake
8/16/09-Missouri River legend Mark Raissler and his girlfriend Danielle joined me on the Boulder today. It was decent fishing, but the best part was not seeing another boat or angler all day. Here's Danielle with the fish of the day.
8/15/09- Bob and Chris Hudson were the customers today. With recent rainfall and continued snowmelt, I thought we'd bounce down the Boulder with just enough water for the raft. We had typical Boulder fishing (50+ fish to the net) and a relaxing day. Bob and Chris can really fish and it was a fun day to be a guide. Here they are trying to look happy.
8/14/09-The Lipsey group came back to hit the Yellowstone. Last year they hit one of the best days of fishing of the 2008 season. I told them we'd never repeat that...I was wrong for a few hours at least. I had Jason and Ros in the morning while Robert rowed Alice, Kaz and John. We had good attractor fishing in the morning with the best fish eating a spuce moth pattern. After lunch Jason and Kaz jumped in my boat and we again saw dozens of hoppers on the water at once. These guy's did some sharpshooting to rises and for about 2 hours it was spectacular hopper fishing!..The bad news was then a wicked thunderstorm moved in with a 35mph east wind. It was tough enough to keep the boat off the rocks and casting was an act of futility.
8/13/09- Back to the well on the Lower Yellowstone today. Jo Colmore and my brother Spencer were in the boat. We had good fishing again, but not enough wind to get the hopper feeding frenzie going, just good solid hopper fishing.
8/12/09-Bob, Tucker and I were joined by Deanna Melin and her dog Benji. Will Lassiter was on the oars for Deanna and Benji. We floated the upper Madison and fought a stoubt wind all day. We had to stick with it, but had some great takes on hopper and terrestrial patterns in the middle of the river. We finally got run off by a thunderstorm. Here are Deanna and Benji.
8/11/09- Bob, Tucker and I tried the Lower Yellowstone today. I told Bob the numbers would drop off, but we might find some bigger fish down there. It was hot and windy...perfect hopper weather. Normally, when there is good hopper fishing, I'll see a few naturals on the water over the course of a day. This year is the best hopper fishing I've ever seen. There are infestation levels of hoppers on the banks with nice high and cool water. Today, we saw dozens of hoppers on the water and you could actually find fish rising. When we did see a splash of a hopper rise, there was a 99% chance they would take our hopper on the first pass. Very exciting fishing!! We ended up with good numbers and size of fish.
8/10/09-Bob Burkheimer and his dog Tucker are out for a few days of fishing. We hit the upper Yellowstone today. The morning was a bit slow,but once it got started, the dry fly fishing was lights out! We had a nice PMD hatch mid day and were able to target some rainbows and cutthroats that were sipping on the banks, highlighted by a 19" rainbow that was tucked under an overhanging bush and was sipping inches from the bank...a casting challenge to say the least. Bob's a sharpshooter though and made short work of every rising fish I found. After the PMD's we had as good as it gets hopper fishing. Constant action!
8/9/09- Jerry and Peggy Cole joined me on the lower Yellowstone today. The water is a little chalky, but on a clearing trend. We ran the double hopper rig and turned some beautiful fish. Lots of nice fat rainbows and a few big boy browns. Here's Peggy hiding under that hat.
8/7/09- I fished with Don and Gay from the Lassiter Group again today. There was some muddy water coming from the upper Yellowstone from the hailstorm, but we found clean water in Paradise valley and again had great dry fly action on hopper patterns in the afternoon. Here's Don working hard on a brownie with Will, Fred and Diane looking on with envy.
8/6/09-Back to the Yellowstone with the Lassiter Group. We had some great hopper fishing. Here's Will Jr. with Fred. In the afternoon we witnessed one of the most violent hail storms I've ever seen. Golf ball sized hail pounded the river and boat. We hid under Carter's bridge and escaped the worst of it.
8/4/09- Mitch Miller from the Double T Ranch and his brother in law Hugo joined me on the Boulder today. Catch rates were borderline obscene. It took about 20 minutes to get the first fish and from then on it was constant action. Here are the boys plying the trade.
8/3/09- Lower Yellowstone today. We were looking for a few large fish and found them. Trace got the fish of the trip... a 22" Brown on a hopper. Bill Buckly joined us today to take some photos and offer advice to Tom and Tom Jr. They've got that Brown surrounded.
8/2/09-Same crew, but on the upper Yellowstone today. Great weather and hopper fishing. We had constant action on the double dry rig. I fished with Tom Sr. and Jr. Good fun. Here's Will with Emory and Trace.
Was it Barbless?
7/31/09- The Clark/Charlton crew hit the Boulder with Will and I today. Great fishing with overcast skies and rain in the morning and sun in the afternoon. Emory managed to catch the biggest fish I've ever seen in the Boulder. It was a heafty 19 inch brown that fought like an angus bull.
7/30/09- Emory Clark and Tom Charlton are back for another round of fishing. This time Tom brought his son Tom Jr. and his buddy Trace. We started out on the upper Stillwater. Will Lassiter piloted the other boat and we had a great day. The upper Stillwater has to be the most beautiful float I do. Fresh snow in the beartooth mountains framed the river and we caught fish all day to boot. Here are Emory and Tom relaxing and Will, Trace and Tom Jr. on the way down.
7/29/09- John Hajduk and I hit the Boulder today in a quest for clear water. We found the good water although we got a bit wet in a rainstorm. The fishing was again stellar with good PMD, caddis, tricos and golden stones hatching and fish attacking attractor patterns. Here's John before getting wet.
7/28/09- The thunderstorms we endured in the Park muddied the Yellowstone and we decided to float the Lower Gallatin as options were limited and it seemed like a good day to find a big one or two in the cool cloudy weather. The fishing was slow and the water a bit off color. The fishing highlight was when Doug hooked up a very large rainbow on a hopper and it tailwalked in front of the boat. No pictures today, we had to do a very thin channel that required a couple of portages while trying to outrace the next round of thunderstorms. My lasting image was the driftboat in about as much water as the average irrigation ditch.
7/27/09-Yellowstone National Park is a must for any fly fisher, you just can't beat the experience. I took Doug and Bill for their first fishing trip to the Park. On the drive to Slough Creek we saw, a black bear, coyote, antelope, deer, and bison. Slough Creek was an interesting stop. There was virtually no hatch. I saw about 5 PMDs. While waiting for something to happen with Bill. I noticed a lonely caddis fluttering down though a classic pool. It was quickly snatched by a cutthroat. We put on a CDC caddis and Bill was off to the races catching 7-8 fish in the same run. Meanwhile, Doug ran the same pattern through tons of good water without a look. A thunderstorm ran us off the creek and after lunch we headed to Soda Butte. Again we found little to no hatch, but did well with large attractors trailed with a nymph. Here are the boys on Soda Butte. Oh yeh, we saw another black bear on the drive home.
Doug hooked up at the foot bridge, and Bill with a bull buffalo behind.
7/26/09-Back with Doug and Bill today. I've been watching the Yellowstone drop and clear daily and the water looked prime for some dry fly action. We floated above Yankee Jim and had excellent fishing hopper patterns trailed with caddis. That section of the river is known for it's cutthroats and we saw a lot of them, but also found good numbers of rainbows and browns. Fun fishing! Here's Doug in front of LaDuke hot springs.
7/25/09- We had boat full of them today. Dewitt, Garret, Josi and Emma hit the Yellowstone today. The fish were biting!
7/24/09- More of the same with Dan and Patrick. We fished one spot for 5 hours in the morning. The reneball cluster pattern got a few but for the most part the fish were eating the caddis. The water was littered with PMD spinners and emergers, trico spinners and spent caddis. The riseforms were aggressive and slashing, the fish were selecting the skittering caddis that had just returned to the surface from laying eggs under the water. A pattern I call the "chunka caddis" was doing the trick. It's basically a version of a bubbleback caddis that is modified to look like the egg laying hydropsyche caddis. I'm sure there were a bunch of caddis patterns that would work, but this one we could see too. Here's Dan zeroing in.
7/23/09- The anual reunion with Dan Goble and Patrick Eisenhaur was delayed this year, luckily there were still a billion or so caddis out on the Missouri. Add to that tricos, pmds, and calibaetis and you've got bug soup coming down the river. The fishing was fantastic in the mornings until about 3 and then again from 8-9 for the caddis emergence. It was hot (100) and sunny and a bit windy but there was no lack of feeding fish. Pat and Dan put on a clinic. Here's Patrick assessing the situation.
7/22/09- The day I forgot my oar blades.....oops. Doug and Bill had to wait for me to track down another set in Big Timber before we hit the Boulder again. The river is really dropping and will likely be unfloatable in a week or so. We had gangbuster fishing early with some nice sized fish, but the fishing really died off about 3pm and it turned into a nice boat ride. Here's Bill netting Doug's fish.. Nice tail.
Here are a couple of great video clips from my friends at Theflyfishinglife.com
You'll need Quicktime Player to watch them. Rick and Russ have some outstanding stuff on their website:
7/19/09- My neighbor and friend Don Daniels went back to the well(Boulder) today. After two fantastic days in a row, I was nervous that the fishing would be tougher today...not so. The weather was perfect with warm temps and overcast skies. Don likes to spin fish, so we thew a panther martin most of the morning with good success, but the real fun started when Don switched over to the fly rod. If possible, the fishing was even better today. No counting, but catch rates were off the charts. Here's Don working one in.
7/18/09- The Hitman and Mrs. Hitman hit the Boulder with me today. The "Hitman is back" has been the mantra this week after a 4 year absence from Montana. Pity the fish that get in their way after 6 days of tuneup. Shintaro was giggling in the back of the boat most of the day "got another one". Fun fishing and good friends.
7/17/09- Doug Albright and Bill Bush are back in town for their annual trip. These guys are doing it right with 2 weeks of fishing this year. They made the dubious choice of fishing with me again for several of those days. Last year we hit the Missouri for the peak of the caddis hatch and the Boulder for the start of the Golden Stoneflies, a very tough act to follow. Doug and Bill have been fishing Depuy's and Armstrongs the last couple of days where the fishing is always technical with 7X tippett and highly selective trout. It was refreshing to hit the Boulder today and use 3X tippett and big flies. The fishing was spectacular. I don't usually count fish, but today I did just for reference. The boys didn't miss many spots on our way down and ended up netting 56 trout and 1 whitefish. I'm hoping for more whitefish next time. Here's Doug plying the trade.
7/15/09-We woke to bright sunny skies today and were expecting some very tough fishing. The Sugiyama's were up to the task, and although we didn't have that many rising fish to choose from, they made the most of the ones we found. Spent caddis were the most important fly of the day. The rising fish were isolated to caddis laden banks. The Hydropsyche caddis lay their eggs individually on rocks under the water. They concentrate in certain areas to do this and the fish key in on them...so did the Hitman and Hitwoman.
7/14/09-Shintaro and Yuko Sugiyama are back in Montana after a 4 year break. Steve Copeland and I nicknamed Shintaro the "Hitman" 14 years ago when we first fished with him. This guy is good, really good. Yuko took him to school on Depuy's with Top Guide Robert Stewart a couple of days ago: Mrs. Hitman? We hit the Mighty Missouri today. Unseasonably cool and cloudy weather greated us as did 10 billion PMDs and Caddis. There were fish rising all over the place and we had some exciting fishing. I had been telling Shintaro how the fish were big and strong this year from the high water, he had to learn firsthand by breaking off his first 6 fish.."Wow" he said. We took a break from 3-6 and hit the evening caddis. The fishing was relatively tough from 6-8pm with fish often spooking on the first cast or anchor drop, but from 9-10pm it was fantastic fishing highlighted by a 20 inch brown Yuko nabbed from under a tree in a shallow side channel at dark thirty.
7/13/09-The Boulder did muddy up for a day so the folks and I hit the Yellowstone. It was a windy day and we went looking for some big brown trout east of Livingston. We didn't get any browns, but we landed some nice rainbows and narrowly missed some more thunderstorms.
7/12/09- My parents are back in town for more abuse from their son: "Cast over there, no not there...you missed it!". We hit the Boulder today and had some stellar fishing. The river is coming down to a good level for boat fishing. Last week we caught most of the fish while stopped and wading the good holes. Today we started to catch them in the boat on the run. The fish also really turned onto the dry fly in the afternoon. It should be great over there for the next 10 days or so, but we had a violent thunderstorm blow us off the river today and likely it will be muddy tomorrow. Here's Mom releasing one...fish not pictured.
7/11/09- I fished the Yellowstone today with Kirsten and Jesus. Jesus is the father of the bride for a big wedding today. Robert Stewart put the trip together and we had 4 boats of fun on the big river. The fish were cooperative and ate a variety of nymphs...it didn't seem to matter as long as they were drifting in the feeding lanes which are tight to the banks with the river still at over 9000cfs. Here's Kirsten fighting a brownie.
7/10/09-Back to the Boulder today with Chris and James of the Double T Ranch. These local boys showed up ready to go at 7am. Chris showed up with a cooler full of bloody marys and beer, rods rigged and ready to go!! The day didn't disappoint: good fishing and lots of fun. Here's James with the first fish of the day and Chris putting on an extreme wading and fishing clinic.
7/9/09- First day on the Yellowstone River. The river is still high (9,300cfs), but now has about 2 feet of visibility. I fished with Brian, Keer, and Sean Gallik. We thew big heavy nymphs at the banks with some success. There was plenty of food for the fish. We saw salmonflies, golden stones, yellow sallies, green drakes, giant caddis, medium caddis and small caddis. The evening caddis hatch was super thick and there were bugs all over the water. It won't be long before it turns into a dry fly fishing bonanza over there. It's just a day or two away.
Here are the boys netting a cuttbow.
7/7/09- Euichi Araki is here again on his annual trip to Montana and Idaho. This guy is a fishing master and fun. We floated the Boulder river and had enough fun to last at least a few days. Here's the master with a smile.
7/6/09- Toshi Karita and Masa Katsumata are in town shooting DVD's for Flyfisher Magazine. They shot one with me today at Depuy's Spring Creek. The hatch was weaker today, but I always enjoy spending time with Toshi and Masa. Toshi is the "bug master". Here he is shooting video of a PMD hatching into a dun from an emerger...good stuff. I even got to fish a little.
7/5/09- The Matsunaga's joined me on Depuy's Spring Creek today. The PMD hatch was not as heavy as I had hoped, but there were just enough bugs to get the fish interested. There was not widespread rising, but we found that when we located a rise, you could catch it. Depuy's fish are notoriously selective during the PMD hatch. Often they key into a specific life stage and feed exclusively on it. Today the fish couldn't be so picky, they ate what was coming over them as long as the drift was drag free. Here's Fumiko wrestling a brown.
and Tadashi with one on.
7/04/09- More of the same today on the Missouri. Great dry fly fishing, but a little tougher in bright sunny conditions. We found the fish to be very spooky and the first cast became very important. Here's Tadashi with his net out and the agony of defeat look...oh so close.
7/3/09- Tadashi and Fumiko Matsunaga are back in Montana again this year. Their timing was perfect for the Missouri as flows have started to drop and caddis fishing is taking off. Here they are showing off a double landed during the morning PMD hatch and spinner fall.
6/30/09- Less wind today and much better fishing. We hit the upper river and the PMD hatch was thick from about 10-2. The PMD spinner fall was also exceptional peaking about noon. There are more and more caddis out in the afternoons and the river is prime for some outstanding dry fly fishing. The flows are expected to drop to the 7000cfs range this weekend and it will be a dry fly bonanza. Here's Mom suprised by the power of these big water trout! I think the rainbow on the end of her line just jumped for the 7th time.
6/29/09- Back on the Missouri with my parents this time. John and Lynn Dominick chose a tough day to fish the Mo. Still high flows at 10500. The wind was the main story. Strong North wind all day. We had the best action in the Canyon on caddis pupa immitations. Here's Dad fighting a rainbow nabbed on a caddis dry.
6/27/09-Carl and I floated from the dam to Craig today. Again good nymphing and lots of PMD's. We found a few pods of risers eating rusty spinners and had another enjoyable day on the river. Here's Carl with a 21 inch brown. Don't get your fingers in that guy's mouth!
6/26/09- Carl Westphal hit the Missouri with me today. More of the same. Good nymphing, some rising fish to test your skills and beautiful weather. The big news is the emergence of caddis in the evenings. I fished from 9-10 pm after dropping off Carl and setting up camp. The caddis were out in enough numbers to bring the fish up for that last hour of daylight. They should go gang busters for the next couple of weeks.
6/22/09-6/24/09- Big Water....Big Fish. The Missouri rose from 5,000cfs to 10900cfs in 3 days. That's alot of water and should be a recipe for bad fishing. Not so for the LaChance crew. We had 3 days of lights out nymph fishing and there were dry fly opportunities to be had as well. Here are a couple of pics from the crew.
Sam LaChance with another rainbow
Charlie LaChance bad thumb and all posing with a rainbow...notice the other end of the double in the net with Missouri legend Greg Falls. Monti double tasking in the back of the boat. Landing fish and designated photographer.
Monti with his own fish.
Tom LaChance with a 22 inch Brown above and a 21 incher below.
This last shot was a classic moment of the trip. Monti had a big fish that was foul hooked just before lunch. He fought it out to the backing and I told him we couldn't chase it with the boat because I couldn't get back to the honey hole we were fishing if we went downstream. He proceded to pump the fish in deep sea fishing style. He had the fish up to where we could see the end of the floating line when the rod exploded due to too much pressure. No problem for Monti. He just grabbed the line and started hand lining the fish in. Unfortuneatly, the fish got off just before we had a chance to see it. Foul hooked or Monster Brown....we'll never know.
6/20/09-Last day with Barney and Cooper. The weather was absolutely perfect: calm, cloudy and 60 degrees. PMD paradise. We saw some more caddis today and they should take over the hatch show in the next week or so along with the elusive brown drakes on the lower river. For today, it was again large rising fish in shallow water and 5X tippet. The only complaint from Barney was "it takes so long fighting these fish, it really cuts into the fishing time." At it's peak, it was 2 or 3 casts, fight a fish, 3 casts fight another one etc.
6/19/09- More of the same. Great PMD hatch and spinner fall today. The bugs were the thickest about noon, fish rising everywhere, but it still took the perfect drift and timing to catch em. We nymphed for a couple of hours in the afternoon and it was nonstop action as well. Here's Cooper with a typical rainbow.
6/18/09- Barney and Cooper Scallon hit the Mighty Missouri with me for a few days. The PMD hatch is in full swing and it always produces the best fishing of the year. Big fish eating dry flies, no weeds....awesome. Here are the boys with a PMD double about an hour into their trip. It's all downhill from there.
6/17/09- I got out for some fishing today. I hit the Lower Madison for 2 hours. Renegade top guide Robert Stewart has the Madison dialed in and the fish named out there these days. He sent me to "dead man's" corner. I tested the hot bead scud on a short indicator rig. The scud was working great until I knocked all the orange paint off it by hitting the guardrail on my backcast...lucky I didn't hook into a semi. The Madison fish were fat and active. I can't wait to get back out there!
5/29/09-We decided to check out the canyon today in hopes of finding some rising fish. The river bumped up to 10,700 yesterday. We found good nymphing before the confluence of the Dearborn and slow fishing from there. At about 4:30 we found a bank with 4 or 5 browns slashing caddis and I got the impression it would intensify as the evening hatch got going. We had a dinner date and headed for the ramp at 5:30. Better luck next time. Talking about high water, here are the guides: Matson, Bill and Steve fishing the Mid Canon access road. The fish are stacked up in the campgrounds.
5/28/09- The four boat Angler's West crew headed up to the dam today for some serious nymphing. It was "dam good". The firebead scud was the winner of the day. Jim and Joann were with me and Jim put on a clinic at California Island. We circled there for close to 2 hours. Jim hit at least one fish on each pass and we rowed down to Craig and the bar.
5/27/09- Up on the Missouri for the next few days with the Anglers West group. We had good nymphing today from Craig to Mid Canon. The bug of choice was a scud followed by a mayfly immitation or a zebra midge. The Dearborn river is kicking a fair amount of muddy water into the river, but with 10,000cfs of clear water coming out of the dam, the mud mixes in and the river is fishable all the way to Cascade. Fellow guide Bill Buckbauer and I decided to do a late evening float in the Canyon searching for caddis and brown trout. The caddis came off about 8:30 and the fish were eating them until dark thirty. With flows over 10000cfs the fish are tucked right on the banks. Three inches from the bank isn't good enough, you need it right on it. This makes pinpoint reach casts a must. My reach cast is far from pinpoint these days (not enough fishing) and I lost flies, spooked fish missed strikes before getting a couple of willing browns. Here's Bill fighting the bushes, there's a 20 inch brown slurping below him.
5/24/09-"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." In other words, we went back to the Milesnick ranch today. The fishing was again superb. We refined our nymphing techniques and patterns. Aki tied a #20 red brassie with a bead that absolutely slayed the fish. He landed 9 in the frustration point area. Here's another one launching. It jumped higher than the post.
5/23/09-Aki and I tried Depuy's Spring Creek today. It was a beautiful sunny day in Paradise Valley with snow in the mountains and green in the low lands. The fish in Depuy's were few and far between though. The rainbows have moved out after the spawn and hatches were virtually nonexistant. We had some interesting sight nymphing in the morning. The fish reacted mostly to midge pupa. In the afternoon, the wind picked up and we found a few fish rising to midges. We had some strong strikes on a caddis cast to the rises, but all and all it was a tough day of fishing.
5/22/09- Back to MZ today. We were the only anglers on the creek today. Same results: great fishing and rising fish for 3 hours in the afternoon. The day was highlighted by a 19 inch brown caught on one of Aki's PMD cripple patterns on the surface. He also landed a 20 inch brown on a Phesant Tail nymph. Here's a launching rainbow in frustration point (no frustration for Aki...he landed 6 fish in the frustration area!)
5/21/09- I picked up Aki Fukuda at the airport today. We decided to head right over to the Milesnick Ranch and start fishing. The MZ just opened last Saturday and the creeks are loaded with fish. Tom Milesnick just completed some habitat restoration work on Benhart creek and the fish have moved in already! The hatches are sparse this time of year, but the nymph fishing is outstanding. We did find fish rising to caddis and PMDs from about 3-5. Here's Aki wrestling with a nice brown.
5/11/09- Allison Collins enjoying the Mother's Day Caddis hatch on the Madison.
5/8/09- Snow again this morning. The caddis hatch is happening right now on the Yellowstone. There is a foot and a half of visibility and the fish have been on the caddis dries and pupa. The river should hold out for the next few days...longer if it stays cold.
The Madison is in prime shape clarity wise and has yet to see the caddis emergance. We're going to have stellar fishing out there next week!
5/3/08- Rika and her friend Minori Smith from Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone hit the Yellowstone with me today. The day started as almost everyday this spring has: cleaning snow out of the boat. I was expecting to see the caddis superhatch today, but it didn't happen. We had slow morning fishing, but the March Browns and Baetis started hatching about 1, followed by caddis at 3 and we had fantastic fishing on rocky walls and ripwrapped banks. These spots create a warmer microclimate and the caddis and fish swarm there particularly in the days leading the full blown caddis emergance.
Cozy.
Minori picking a 19inch rainbow off the bank.
5/2/09- I had the pleasure of fishing with "one fly" competition board member Elloit Gerson today. We floated the Yellowstone River on a nice sunny day. It was the first substancial emergence of caddis. We also saw good numbers of March Browns. There was a steady east wind to fight again today and the wind was blowing most of the bugs off the water. When we found banks with protection from the wind, the fishing was stellar with fat, aggressive fish slashing at caddis emergers.
4/30/09- Back with the "Snow Woman" Rika today. We hit the Madison on another snowy day. We drove from spot to spot. There was a great baetis hatch and we found some rising fish. Here's Rika in the snow.
4/29/09- Mr. Fukuyama joined me today. We decided to stay out of the boat on another cold snowy day. We hit Depuy's Spring creek instead. The fish were eating midge pupa and we had some decent fishing, however the East wind continued to blow. It was tough finding risers, but when we found them, Mr. Fukuyama caught them. Mr. Fukuyama's family took a farm tour with my wife Leslie and had a wonderful time!
4/28/09- I emptied the snow out of the boat today to fish with Rika Kawanishi on the Yellowstone today. The recent cold and snowy weather has made the river lower and clear. It was a miserable day out on the water. There was a stoubt East Wind in our faces all day and it never stopped snowing. The high temperature was 36 degrees. No pictures, no hatche...too cold!
4/27/08-6 more inches in the boat.
4/25/09-3 more inches in the boat
4/24/09-11 inches of snow in the boat.
4/22/09-More fun on Depuy's today with Patrick. Today we had to fight a stoubt wind in the afternoon, but Patrick is no stranger to fishing in the wind. He caught fish all day.
4/21/09- Patrick Eisenhaur rolled into town to look for the caddis hatch. We started the day by driving halfway across the state looking for clear water to fish, then we turned around and fished at Depuy spring creek. The fishing was good with fish actively chasing midge pupa on a bright sunny 75 degree day.
4/5/09- Not quite yet.
March 2009. Time to start Thinking about fishing. The snowpack is looking good and the midges are hatching!
