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.