Been hearing a lot of chatter of late about water flows being a tad skinny back home in central and southwest Montana.
Granted, for many of our friends, family, buds and even enemies back home it’s been a long, hot, fairly dry and unquestionably smokey summer. It just seems of late there’s been an unusual amount of chatter about how low flows are on some favorite waters.
Personally I think that as these conditions tend to concentrate fishers on certain waterways that very thing tends to stick in the collective craws of certain folks back home and arguably influence their outlook. (It sticks in my craw when I’m back there….)
And that said, no matter how much the water year is ‘challenged’ (read sucks), there’s always fishing to be done on the much-beloved tail water fisheries like the Missouri and upper Madison as well as a host of other waters graced by spawning fish – like the Madison and it’s tribs in Yellowstone to mention just one system you should fish some fall during your career.
By the way, there’s one of the best stealth fishing tips for the greater Yellowstone area you’ll ever read hidden in plain site in this post by Yellowstoner from last week – you’ll see it….
Skinny water years always make me wonder what the weather / climate forecasters (somehow I envision a community of chimpanzees living in a dormitory similar to my college housing, eating well and developing forecasts via spirited, beverage-fueled dart games) are projecting for the upcoming months.
It appears the smart money is still betting that a weak El Nino will develop or is developing and persist for at least a quarter or two.
Fall and early winter (Oct / Nov / Dec) temps and precipitation are forecast below –
Late Winter and early spring (Jan / Feb / Mar) temps and precipitation are forecast below –
Might just be time for breaking out the ‘think outside the box’ creativity in terms of trip timing and targets again….
