If you’ve been waiting for the perfect excuse to skip out of work and grab your rod, Jan Axtell’s latest report from Dan Bailey’s in Livingston, Montana, is it. The Yellowstone River is absolutely crushing it right now, flowing at a sweet 6,970 CFS thanks to chilly nights and a little help from recent rainstorms. In the mornings, running a heavy stonefly nymph rig is practically a cheat code for catching trout. By the afternoon, the river turns into a buffet of PMDs, green drakes, and caddisflies. It’s some of the most phenomenal dry fly fishing you’ll see all year—so good you’ll probably be bragging about it to your grandkids decades from now.
Meanwhile, over at the Paradise Valley Spring Creeks (Armstrong’s, DePuy’s, and Nelson’s), the PMD hatch is hitting like clockwork around 10:30 a.m. and rocking all afternoon. If you’re heading out, Jan suggests starting with nymphs and emergers under an indicator before switching to a size #16 comparadun with a pheasant tail dropper once the main hatch blows up. Pro tip from the master: if your dry fly is getting lost in a blanket hatch of real bugs, give it a tiny, subtle twitch to make it pop. Between the killer river conditions and the creek action, Montana fly fishing is at its absolute peak right now.
Check out Dan Bailey’s Outdoor Company’s full report from July 1, 2026 here.
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