Hunting
Water fowl is doing well. The ponds and backwaters on the river are freezing up or frozen. The birds are coming down from the north, so get out there and have some fun. Upland Game Bird season continues until January 1st and duck & geese can be hunted until early January. Check closing dates for your preferred areas.
Keep in mind varmint hunting season is now open and will continue into early 2015. Bob Ward’s is stocked with the ammo, firearms, and calls you need.
Bozeman Fishing
The weather is such that, if we see the daily highs around 40 degrees, the Gallatin River, Hyalite Reservoir, Madison Rivers, Pine Creek, Cottonwood Creek, and Cherry Creek will all be primed for nymphing. The cold has slowed the bite so as it warms the fish should be hungry. Keep ice fishing at the front of your mind as the mountain lakes are freezing over.
Butte Fishing
The Big Hole is still fishable for the diehard fly angler. Warmer temps have kept the ice flows to a minimum and water open from the bank. Stonefly nymphs with a San Juan worm dropper are a pretty good combo.
Georgetown is fishable through the ice at Rainbow Bay, the pump house, Denton’s point and Red Bridge. Glo hooks with maggots are producing good numbers of trout. Cocktail Shrimp or maggots are producing a few cutthroat trout through the ice. Night crawlers and orange garlic marshmallows are a good combo or vertical jigs.
Clark Canyon Reservoir and Ruby Reservoir are still open water fishing from the bank.
The Jefferson has been good wade fishing with limited access due to ice flow near Whitehall. The Waterloo and Silverstar still provide the best access for wading.
(Report by Ryan Corwin-Bob Ward’s Sports and Outdoors)
