Wednesday July 29

Just 68 degrees today - hard to beleive this is July after the hot summers we experienced a few years back. Needless to say, cool weather and excellent river flows have created ideal fishing conditions. With weather changing from day to day, we've been all over the map with techinques. Yesterday was hoppers for nice rainbows on the Madison, today was buggers and some big browns on the Yellowstone. Prior to cooler weather and rain, the hopper/attractor fishing was starting to pick up on the Yellowstone and as soon as it dries out and heats back up I suspect it will be back - August is going to be an excellent month. Caddis and a variety of mayflies have also created some surface activity. Best bugs have been the Chubby Chernobyl, PMX, Goddard Caddis, PMD Para Wulff, Improved Rubberlegs, Soft Hackle Hare's Ear and a variety of Epeorus emergers. Have also heard some good dry fly reports from the Lower Madison. Chased the carp last week and found them hungry - best fly was the little known skunk bugger - a new invention that met the approval of a few 10 pounders .

It's shaping up to be another great summer on the river. As we speak, just about everything is getting into prime condition and fishing has been excellent virtually everywhere. The Yellowstone has been fishable for several days and while the clarity is off, fishing has been good throughout Paradise Valley. Salmonflies are present on the stretches above Emigrant and a variety of other stoneflies, caddis and mayflies have been hatching in big numbers as well. Yesterday was a classic post runoff day on the Yellowstone - Black Crystal Buggers were the ticket in the morning while Chubby Chernobyls and the good old PMX were the hot ticket in the afternoon. As the river drops, conditions around Livingston and downstream will get much better. The upper Madison has continued to produce great attractor dry/dropper fishing. Stimulators, PMXs, Trudes and the Chubby Chernobyl have all been good - best droppers have been soft hackle Copper Johns and large soft hackle Hare's Ears. The Lower Madison is also in good shape and as of the last week or so, the larger browns have gone on the feed. McCunes Sculpin and Clouser Crayfish trailed by lightning bugs and small soft hackles have been the ticket. Just today, we fished Burns Lake north of Big Timber - the afternoon produced some terrific hopper fishing - let's hope that's a sign of things to come througohut the rest of the summer. If the hopper fishing doesn't come to fruition, we'll always have the carp - we hit the Missouri earlier in the week for the first time and while the water was high the carp we're still there and hadn't lost their appetite - the Bow River Bugger was the bug of choice.