Bozeman
Head out early! The morning is having the best results due to the cooler temperatures. On most of the rivers in the area there is a good trico hatch so be sure to have some of those in you fly box.
UMR. The dry flies that are attracting the most fish are the red and black flying ants, hoppers, brindles, mayflies, and spinners. With nymphs you need to get deep or drop the nymph behind the hopper some good options are; lightning bugs and green and brown colored pat stones.
LMR Tricos in the early morning then switch to hoppers and dropper combinations. Using bead headed pheasant tail and wooly buggers as the dropping nymph. An unusual combination that is working well is a hopper and weightless sculpin dropper.
Yellowstone- Hoppers are still a sure deal, fat alberts elk hair caddis, and yellow sallys are good dries to use. The nymphs that are good are yellow sally nymphs and big pat stones.
Gallatin River-. Small hoppers, trudes, parachute adams, tricos, spinners, dunns, and look for the drake hatch later in the day. Nymphs to use as droppers or by themselves; lightning bugs, pheasant tails, copper bobs, tricos, and trico spinners.
Hyalite: Using ¼ oz split shot at 1 foot to 2 feet depth pair with the following nymphs; brown and green colored pat stones, hare’s ear, san juan worms, helgramites, and hot head leeches. The arsenal of dry flies should include royal wullf, trudes, small hoppers, damsel flies, flying ants, and other attractor patterns.
Butte
Fishing restrictions have been lifted for about a week in the entire Jefferson River and angling has resumed in full.
Olive Caddis, Grashoppers, and Beaded Salmonfly Nymphs have been drawing the browns to strike. Chartreuse and Black Panther Martins are effectively catching the trout as well.
The Warm Springs Ponds have been fishing hot recently. Czech Nymphs and Scud patterns have been hot. An over zealous 13lb brown was hefted from the Big Hole on Monday to pause momentarily for a photographer with the lucky angler who won the hard fought battle.
The Brook Trout are spawning on the Upper Big Hole and morning anglers say the fishing is excellent. The Big Hole is open from Dickey Bridge to the Melrose Bridge. Parachute Hoppers, Purple Haze, and a few Spruce Moths are catching the trout. Spinner and Rapalas are a good choice for spin fishermen.
The Beaverhead River is fishing good below Pipe Organ Bridge.Size 8 or 10 Brown bear Blacks are the ticket on the “Beave”. Learn to fish these nymphs and a limit of fish is easily managed.
Nightcrawlers and marshmallows fished about a foot off bottom at Georgetown Lake should provide a catch of several Rainbow Hybrids if not Brook Trout.
(Report by Ryan Corwin – Bob Ward and Sons; Cover photo: flickr.com)
