Though river conditions have been back and forth over the past few weeks, it seems as if everything is starting to settle down and come in to prime shape. Fished the Upper Madison today - though wind hampered our efforts one fish did fall victim to an adult salmonfly.. the rest were caught on caddis pupa and a #6 Mega Prince. The salmonflies are just getting started and should be in full swing in the next few days. The Lower Madison has also been good with crayfish, caddis and PMDs being the main attractions... those looking for dry fly fishing might consider the Lower in the last few hours of the day as the caddis have been thick.
The Missouri continues to be red hot - this spring was one of the best I've seen up there in some time which could be the result of the big flush the river received last year.
The Yellowstone is currently flowing around 13000 cfs ...once it gets to 12,000 we should be in good shape to hit some of the floats in the Paradise Valley. Hope to be back on there by July 4.

Back in town after a week on the Missouri below the Holter Dam. Fishing has been nothing short of spectacular up there and througout the week flows dropped substantially - the river is pristine condition and pressure was light. Though most of our success came from nymphing with a variety of caddis pupa imitations such as the Iris Caddis, Soft Hackle Hare's Ear and Tan Sparkle Emerger, we did find occasional fish feeding on the surface. One of the highlights of the trip was a 24" brown caught on a #18 caddis pupa on 5X. Seems like there are probably a bunch of those fish in that river though that's the biggest one I've managed to run across yet.

Flows have dropped on the rivers around Bozeman as well - the Madison is looking good and one has to wonder how long it will be before we're back on the Yellowstone and Gallatin. Another great option is Depuy's Spring Creek - spent a day out there last week and experienced solid numbers of fish and a steady PMD hatch which proved to be an excellent combination.

Though we were expecting a runoff like that of '08 it appears as if things are going to clear up a bit faster this year - we'll just have to wait and see in the weeks ahead.

Just this morning my 2.5 year old son Jack caught 3 suckers in a local pond - nightcrawlers were the hot ticket.