As April winds down the air is smelling fresher, the grass is greening up, and fishermen everywhere are warily keeping an eye on river flows waiting for runoff to really begin. May does bring muddy water, but it can bring some excellent fishing as well. Last year I would say I had two Great days on the water. The reason I only had two was primarily due to the fact that my POS car crapped out on me in the middle of the season and left me stranded in town. Regardless, both of those great days were in May.
The first one involved hitting the Mother’s Day Caddis just right on the Lower Madison in the early part of the month. I don’t think I’ve ever had a dry fly day quite like that. Started out slow, but man it turned on. We stood in the same place for probably two hours, catching fish on basically every cast. It reached a point where our fly selection wandered in to the region of the absurd, including a very large, very pink grasshoppper (which got eaten, I might add). What made it even better was the guy across the river in his brand new gear wasn’t catching anything.
The second day was on the Firehole, on one of the last days of May. It was overcast, and the weather was just right for a solid BWO hatch. I fished one run all day, barely moving at all, and enjoyed incredible dry fly action. The fish aren’t that big in this stretch, but damn it was fun.
There are always options during runoff. Take a look around and you’ll find some good water.
