It's been a big week around here. First, and most importantly, it's cooled down. Instead of temps in the upper 90s it's been in the high 70s to mid 80s. Water temps that were soaring have cooled dramatically and currently our river conditions are far better then they were. Water levels are low and will [...]
45 degrees, calm, overcast. During the winter months, one can't ask for better fishing conditions. Having just returned from a morning at Bridger Bowl and now seated at the bench working on fly orders I did my best to focus on the task at hand. Yet with a solid winter spot just outside of town [...]
It's 2015. Just like that, the new year is upon us and with it comes new goals, resolutions, aspirations and so on. Though it may be redundant, around this household the goals for this year are not much different than any that I recall in the past. More and bigger fish of course! While 2014 [...]
We knew it was coming. After an unbelievable fall, one filled with mild temperatures and enormously cooperative fishing conditions in terms of wind and rain, we woke this morning to a full blown winter blast. 62 degrees yesterday. 7 when I warmed up the truck this morning with several inches of snow. Until today, I'd [...]
Everybody wants to know... When's the best time, the absolute best time, to catch a big brown. My answer generally involves something along the lines of, "the best time is whenever you can be here to try...". I firmly believe this is the case as the rare, large specimens seem to show up at random [...]
No doubt about it, summer is gone, fall is here. Not quite sure when actual first day of fall might be according to the calendar but a high of 44 yesterday with wind and snow seems to hint that it may be time to get the long johns out. Sure, it is predicted to be [...]
Nearly 3 inches of rain fell in southwest Montana over the weekend and our warm summer temps quickly plummeted to those we are more accustomed to in late September. From the looks of it, some serious snow fell at higher elevations. Crazy for this time of year. And while this made for some damp fishing [...]
Have been hitting the Yellowstone almost daily in the past few weeks and the post runoff fishing has been nothing short of exceptional. The river is dropping by the day and, as it does, it's character improves. While the streamer and nymph fishing have been the most consistent method of producing fish, the fish are [...]
When I pulled the boat cover off this morning, this salmonfly was waiting inside. A remnant of yesterday, hopefully a sign for today.
It's a day I look forward to each season...the first post runoff trip on the Yellowstone. At 10-12,000cfs it's hard to know what we might find. We have no reports, no information. Really the way it should be. So, this year, like every other in the past we just jumped in and let the mystery [...]
