Fly Fishing River Reports Archives - Page 13 of 20

Yellowstone & Creek Report – 07/10/10

Posted on July 10, 2010February 20, 2017 by Eric Adams

Summary:

We’ve been chasing Salmonflies on the Yellowstone River and the switched gears and have been on the spring creeks of Armstrong’s and DePuy’s for the past couple days. Fishing has been great overall. The Yellowstone has fished well when the warmer weather has showed up and gets the big bugs moving. Spring Creeks have been pretty steady, but you have to really work those selective fish!

Hatches:

Yellowstone: you name it – Salmonflies, Golden Stones, Yellow Sallies, Mocha Caddis, Summer Caddis, Green Drakes & PMDs.

Spring Creeks: Midges in the morning and evening, PMD Spinners in the mornings/evenings and Adults between 9am and 2pm

Weather & Water Conditions:

Great weather, with some occasional afternoon thunderstorms. Always, Always bring your rain jacket and an extra warm layer!

Best Technique:

Yellowstone – Single big try flies in tight to the bank or on the softer seams. Big bead heads in the right riffle corners are also producing some good fish.

Spring Creeks – 9 to 12 foot leaders to 6x with a morning PMD nymph rig dropped with a midge pupa or a PMD spinner, then a single dry for the meat of the hatch.

Best Bugs:

Yellowstone – Mystery Meat Salmonfly (sz 6) or Chubby Chernobyl Golden Stone (sz 6-8) drop a size 10 BH Prince in the right spots and you’ll also pick up some trout – but be careful the whitefish bite is epic on the upper river right now.

Spring Creeks – Slightly weighted Pheasant Tail (sz 18-20), Zebra midge (sz 20), PMD No Hackle (sz 16), Rusty Spinner (sz 18).

Hatch Watch – Salmonflies on the Yellowstone

Posted on June 30, 2010February 20, 2017 by Eric Adams

We have confirmed reports of Salmonflies at Loch Leven access on the Yellowstone River as of yesterday. The numbers were small, but pay attention as they can go quickly.

CAUTION: only extremely skilled oarsmen should venture on the river right now as the sheer volume of water (12,000cfs) is very powerful and even advanced rowers should be very careful. If you need real world examples 3 boats sunk on the Missouri River this past week – fortunately no one was seriously injured or killed. If you do decide to go on the Yellowstone be safe and wear you life jacket!

Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted.

Missouri River Report 06/26/10

Posted on June 27, 2010February 20, 2017 by Eric Adams

Summary:

It’s been just a stellar week here in Craig, Montana on the Missouri River working with Headhunters Fly Shop. The fishing has been good to great overall this week even with the lack of dry flies. We’ve got another 2 days up here and then it’s off to the Yellowstone River where the reports we are getting is that its about to start happening!

Hatches:

PMDs in the morning and some caddis in the afternoon – although the hatch was pretty weak yesterday.

Weather & Water Conditions:

As we mentioned the weather has been pretty much perfect. If you’ve been following the blog at all you’ve probably seen that the river has dropped to 16,000 cfs, which is still big and there have been several sunken boats over the past 7 days! If you come up be very careful of the strong eddie lines.

Best Technique:

There is really no dry fly action so its all nymphing. Your rig should be about 7 to 9 ft to the 3/0 split shot (big). You have to find the softer water which is on the insides or backs of the islands or the inside bend of the river.

Best Bugs:

You should be running the Brain Buster wire worm all day. In the morning our best trailer fly was the Hot Head Scud or the Hot Head PMD nymph in a 14 or 16 size. In the afternoon our best trailer was the same, but we also had luck on the beaded diving caddis.

Missouri River Report – 06/23/10

Posted on June 23, 2010February 20, 2017 by Eric Adams

Summary:

It was probably the prettiest day in Montana this season and we were fortunate to guide with Headhunters Fly Shop in Craig, Montana. Fishing was great though the dry fly action was lacking.

Hatches:

PMDs in the morning and some caddis in the afternoon.

Weather & Water Conditions:

As we mentioned the weather was perfect. If you’ve been following the blog at all you’ve probably seen that the river is at 18,000 cfs, which is HUGE! If you come up be very careful of the strong eddie lines.

Best Technique:

There is really no dry fly action so its all nymphing. Your rig should be 10-13 ft to the 3/0 split shot (big). Oh yeah you better have a long handled net if you want to land any of the fish you hook!

Best Bugs:

You should be running the Brain Buster wire worm all day. In the morning our best trailer fly was the Hot Head Scud or the Hot Head PMD nymph. In the afternoon our best trailer was the Humpback Scud or the Cat Puke caddis emerger.