Well, it was a snow packed week here in Bozeman yet in spite of the weather we did manage to get out on the water 5 days. Fished the Lower Madison 2 days, the Upper Madison, Yellowstone and Depuys Spring Creek. Though fishing was good each day, the fish seemed to prefer the overcast conditions when midge hatches were strongest. Have not seen any blue winged olives yet though I suspect that the next warm spell, predicted for this coming week, should get some hatch activity started. Even in the absence of baetis we have experienced some great dry fly fishing, particularly on the Yellowstone - a #16 H&L Variant seemed to do the trick. Otherwise, nymphing with worms, shrimp cocktails, zebra midges and the Micro Madison Midge from Blue Ribbon Flies produced excellent results.

Interestingly enough, I have not seen much spawning activity from the rainbows yet regardless of location. There are some fish on redds at Depuys but not nearly as many as in years past. It seems that everyting is running just a bit late this year. In your travels, if you see fish on redds let them be - though I'm not aware of any scientific proof that catching fish will harm anything, common sense leads me to believe that it's just not a good idea.

Recent storms have put snowpack levels at or above 100% throughout our region - this bodes well for summer river levels and the fishing season that lies ahead.