Fishing Report

Montana

Madison River

This year we have an above normal snowpack, the year to date precipitation for the Madison River basin is 137% and the Gallatin River Basin is 132%. This means that the flow out of the Hebgen Dam is also above normal at 1410 cfs.

The fishing has been good, especially between the lakes. Lots of rainbows up from Quake Lake to spawn. They’re near the end of spawning, so be aware of the redds in the shallow gravel areas. Avoid wading in these areas.

The best flies have been #6 and #8 brown rubber legs, red san juan worms, and orange glow-bugs. Small nymphs for your droppers like #16, #18 copper johns, red three dollar dips, and black zebra midges.

Between 1pm and 3pm there is a BWO hatch, not much for rising fish, so we have been using olive RS2 #18 as a dropper.

Hebgen and Quake Lake

Ice is off! The reports are ok. Stripping woolly buggers and leeches have picked up a few. I like using the crawdad colors- olives with some orange or a brown color seem to work nicely. A few midges are hatching, the will get better as the week goes by because temperatures will warm up and more bugs will start to hatch.

The chironomid fishing is starting to get real good all of a sudden. Try using ice cream cones and juju’s below indicators.

Gallatin River

The Gallatin is fishing well and is in good shape. It’s still clear above Taylor’s Fork, but on warmer days this tributary will get dirty. By the time the river gets to Big Sky the dirt from Taylor’s Fork is mixed in and the river is a green color and fishable. Rubber legs with assorted droppers is the way to go. Afternoons there are BWO, some caddis and march brown mayflies. Probably after the weekend the snow will really start melting and then the Gallatin will be best for rafting, not fishing.

Yellowstone National Park