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Yellowstone River Fishing Report- 4/24/12

Posted on April 24, 2012June 27, 2022 by Eric Adams

Fishing/Weather/Water Conditions:

We’re seeing thousands of caddis flying around throughout Livingston and below the town. With that being said clarity has become a major problem as the river has gone up about 2000-3000 cfs just this week. I took a drive down to Big Timber yesterday searching for some rising fish along the way and didn’t find too much action. The warm weather is set to continue till Friday and then cool off for the weekend. We’re hoping the cool weather will stick around and clear up the river a little bit. You can keep an eye on the flow here: USGS Stream Data-Yellowstone River If you notice the flow going down head on over because the fishing can be great!

Hatches:

Mostly seeing Caddis and March Browns with a mix of Midges and Baetis as well.

Flies and Fishing Strategies:

Nymphs – Black Copper John’s (14-16), BH Hare’s Ear (12-14), CDC BH Prince (12-16), Partridge & Pheasant Soft Hackle (12-16), Tungsten Zebra Midge (16-18), Dirty Bird (16-18), Birds Nest (16-18)
Dries – Hi Viz Griffith’s Gnat (16-18), Hi Viz Parachute Baetis (16), March Brown Cripple (12-14), Parachute March Brown (14), Royal Wulff (12-14) Elk Hair Caddis (12-16) Goddard Caddis (14-16) X-Caddis (12-16) Streamers – J.J. Special, Black/Olive Zonker, Olive/Black Sex Dungeon, Black Lead-Eye Sparkle Bugger. Anything big and bright is a good call in the off color water.

Yellowstone River Fishing Report – 04/21/12

Posted on April 21, 2012June 2, 2022 by Eric Adams

Fishing/Weather/Water Conditions:

Today I had the rare opportunity to fish with my lovely girlfriend Chelsea on the Yellowstone River. The weather was 65 degrees and sunny with a 10 – 15 mph upstream wind, which made things cooler than the temperature would suggest. However, the MOTHER’S DAY CADDIS HATCH is ON! We put on the water about 12 PM and by about 3 PM the caddis started. Now, this isn’t the full-blown caddis hatch, but just the beginning trickle. Today Chels caught several nice fish up to 16″ and we expect the hatch to build the next couple days and the larger fish to start taking notice. Tomorrow it should climb to 77 degrees with a light west wind so we predict full-blown caddis by 2 or 3 PM tomorrow afternoon. GET OUT THERE!

Hatches:

CADDIS! There are also some March Browns, Baetis (on the cloudy days) and midges. There should be caddis tomorrow so concentrate on emergers and pupae before the hatch.

Fishing Techniques:

Don’t worry about hitting the water too early in the day, 11 AM is plenty early. Concentrate on caddis pupae/larva in the early part of the day and by Noon-ish make sure you have a caddis emerger on at least one of your flies. By 2 or 3 PM you should start seeing some adults, but the trout will probably still take the emerger quite well.

Yellowstone River Fishing Report – 04/20/12

Posted on April 20, 2012June 2, 2022 by Eric Adams

Fishing/Weather/Water Conditions:

Another great Spring fishing day on the Yellowstone River. We had the great fortune of fishing with a couple from Texas yesterday. We landed about 30 trout during the day. While most of the trout were between 12 – 15 inches we did land several nice Rainbows in the 16+ inch class. The weather was cloudy with light wind. Water visibility was a good 2 to 3 feet with good greenish clarity.

Hatches:

Baetis and midges were present throughout the day. By 3 PM we had a prolific Baetis hatch which lasted about an hour. During this time we saw trout feeding on emergers and duns (dries). We also saw a few March Brown’s, but not enough to be significant.

Fishing Techniques:

We are definitely still doing best with our short leash nymph rig, where the flies are 2 to 4 feet below the small indicator. There are however starting to be more rising trout, so having a rigged dry fly rod handy would be a good idea.

Missouri River Fishing Report – 04/16/12

Posted on April 16, 2012June 2, 2022 by Eric Adams

Weather/Water/Fishing Conditions:

Saturday ended up being a much nicer day than forecast, instead of 50 and broken clouds, we had 60+ and sun all day. Fishing Saturday was pretty good, but not great. The deep nymph was the ticket in the bright sun. When the wind would lay down a but, and a cloud rolled over, fish would be up instantly on midges. But once the sun came back, down they went. We did see a fair number of Baetis that day, although the fish weren’t really keyed in on them. If the fish were up though, a midge cluster would get them, or perhaps an Adams. To really get them, you could drop one of many things off the back; zebra, green LB, etc. The short leash to rising fish is lethal. If they are rising, this will get em. 12-18″ to the first fly.

What a difference a day makes! Woke up Sunday morning to a trace of snow, 28-degree temps, light snow and light wind. Didn’t see a single beatis on Sunday, but there were plenty of fish up on midges. Again, the short leash was the way to really wreck shop. But we hunted up plenty of heads. Best dry was a 16 or 18 beatis cripple, which most fish would pick up on the first good cast. We tried the streamer for a bit as well but only moved a few fish.

Hatches:
Midges are definitely out and about, the Baetis fishing should be cranking up this week – especially on the overcast days.

Thanks to one of our great guides Jeff Johnson for this updated report.