Fresh Bozeman Fishing Reports

The famed Salmonfly hatch has been fantastic and our guests have reaped the rewards! We’re starting early to beat the heat and the other boats. The big bugs have been around for a while so start out with the big dry. Add a dropper if they stop looking up. Large Chubbys Rogue Stone or Rollin Stone are great patterns. A smallish Pats can work well as a dropper but have Split case and Infrequens pmd nymphs as a smaller option if the fish are stuffed on stone flies. Dont just fish the banks on the Madison, especially upriver. Theres a lot of fish right in the middle.

Pre runoff conditions are keeping the water in great shape with perfect visibility. The rainbow spawn is about wrapped up but most of thise fish are still hanging around. Nymphing a two fly indicator rig is your best bet. A dark color Pats stone and a red #8-14 San Juan worm are tough to beat. Have some egg patterns and midges as well. We’re seeing BWOs early afternoon so have some patterns on hand. The streamer bite is picking up especially if you get a cloudy day. Go with muted or dark colors rather than bright ones in #4-8.

The evening temps have been on the chilly side in SW Montana, triggering the fall pre spawn streamer season. The Madison is giving up some really nice browns on streamers. Some on the strip and pause and some using an upstream cast and a little more dead drift with a good pump and a pause. Look for the usual targets. Hard banks, shelves and faster water. Fly color can make a difference as will size. If fish are following a stripped fly but wont commit will often smash a smaller fly. White is my go to color especially on brighter days but olive, copper, black and combos are must haves. Get in touch to book your fall streamer trip today!

The Yellowstone River is all anout the grasshoppers now that most of the big summer hatches are over. Aftetnoon temps are still in the high 80’s and thats keeping those hoppers happy and hoppering! Plop your hopper tight to the bank fishing fast seams , grassy banks and large downed cottonwoods. Make your hopper hot the water with a splashy plop as its one of the triggers for hopper hungry trout. Put some twitches in yoyr drift for the same reason. We like a mid to large hopper in tan , peach, purple so we can hang a dropper of the bend of the hook. Panty Dropper, CFO Ant, Skippy hopper, Streambank hopper im sizes # 6-10. Some productive droppers have been Psycho may in brown, Two Bit Hooker, Beadhead pheasant tail. So Get your fly tight to the banl and twitch it! Hang on!

The Yellowstone is fishing great even with the high summer temperatures. We’re starting to see the first hopper grabs but its not quite there. The Stoneflies are done and the hopper fishing is just getting going but we expect that to change soon. Right now our best fishing has been drifting streamers under an indicator with a small nymph behind it. Using some downstream mends and twitches to keep the streamer swimming with some drag on it. Big browns fall victim to this tactic regularly being the carnivores they are. Rabbit sculpins in natural and olive with a #16-20 beadhead nymph running 15” behind has been the hot ticket. Soft hackles are a great nymph patterns along with pheasant tails and caddis.

Now that the ‘25 runoff has begun to wain, the Madison River is running a little lower than its historic flows for this time of year. Currently at 1280 cfs, historically more like 2-2500 cfs. Visibility is good with a very slight fuzz of color at about 2-3 feet. We’re right on the cusp of the famous Salmonfly hatch that will offer outstanding dryfly fishing! However many agree that the best fishing is just before the hatch. The fish have been feeding quite opportunistically subsurface on stonefly nymphs, caddis larva, San Juan worms and sculpins. We’re seeing the dry fly action pick up on Salmonflies, Goldens and Caddis. Target the spots with a color change which indicates a hole or bucket as we like to call it. Fish around the boulders front and back and dont be afraid to cast into really fast water. There are fish in spots that dont look like spots. You have to know what to look for so take time to observe and you’ll find yourself landing more and bigger fish! Contact us to book your dream fly fishing trip in Montana!