Like many of my friends and neighbors who fish Montana streams and rivers year round, the weeks from early February to late March or some years even early April can seem like a millennium. Don’t get me wrong – winter in Montana brings with it a host of fun things to do that aren’t river [...]
May 2009
The Missouri fished well over the holiday weekend and into this week despite the rain, with once again the most productive fishing being subsurface on nymphs more than streamers. Every May and June I’m really glad to be living on one of the greatest tailwater fisheries in the world that doesn’t totally blow out when [...]
Not a lot to say about the Yellowstone at this point in time – yesterday afternoon flows peaked up near 20,000 cfs at Carter’s. Warm temps due this week will likely push a lot of snow down, and she just might crest higher after a few days in the high 70s as forecast. If the [...]
Rock Creek is still blown out. Don’t even think about trying to fish it right now. As you can see from the flow chart, a new record level for today has been reached. Flows pushed up over 5,000 cfs in the last few days. Salmonflies should be showing up here soon, we’ll let you know [...]
Jake and I did manage to get to Yellowstone on Saturday for the opening day of the Park’s fly fishing season, despite a bit of trouble with his Jeep and an early morning work task that kept me pinned to the computer for a short time. The day was largely filled with pleasant surprises, like [...]
Don’t interpret the title of this post to mean that the Madison is fishing great. It isn’t. Fishing well in a few places, but not great. With the recent rain and warm weather, water clarity is dropping along the entire river. However, there are still some places where you can fish relatively clear water and [...]
A few intrepid neighbors chose to eschew the opening day crowds in Yellowstone (more in a bit) and headed down to the lower Henry’s Fork to chase stoneflies – yes, stoneflies. The stonefly army has emerged on the stretch below the Ashton Dam; as you’d expect early in the game big bad stonefly nymphs are the [...]
The Gallatin is still completely blown out. Flows are almost 4,000 cfs this morning at Gallatin Gateway and will be rising throughout the day. The river near Logan is expected to flood either later today or in the next few days. Even the upper river above Taylor Fork is pretty dirty. It will be a [...]
The entire team at Chi Wulff salutes those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our great nation, and suggest that you take a minute or two out of your day today to honor them in some way. There are a lot of families out there who undoubtedly feel the crushing pain of a [...]
Blown top to bottom and rising. Don’t be fooled by this seemingly ‘calm’ face of the river in many places – there is a tremendous volume of water flowing. I’ve seen some drunken rafters drifting sections they should never be on this weekend. I know I sound like a grouch, but I’m on search and [...]
Warm temps, rain, and a rising river. She’s gonna flood again. Sigh.
The Blackfoot is completely blown out. I drove down the other day with the intent to get a few pictures, but the view made me so sad I couldn’t bring myself to snap a shot. Flows are on their way back up this week with some warmer weather and possibly rain on its way. It [...]
No question, there’s a lot of water pounding down most of the freestones in the neighborhood. After a few cooler days and nights warmer temps are on the way back up this next week, and most of southern / southwest Montana is forecast to get some rain over the next twenty four hours. Runoff will [...]
The Bighorn continues to fish well. This fact is not going unnoticed by crowds of anglers who are descending upon the river. With very few rivers fishable in the state right now, the ones that are are crowded. Flows are up to just over 4,000 cfs right now, and I heard from a buddy of [...]
Thank God for the tailwaters. With runoff here in full force, they are the only rivers fishing well. The Beaverhead is no exception, as least for part of the river. The section from below Clark Canyon Dam to High Bridge is still running clear and fishable. The river below there is muddying up more and more [...]
