August 18, 2009

Cool weather and somewhat consistent rainfall have created some of the most ideal river conditions we've seen in recent history. As a result, we're often finding ourselves in places we typically avoid during the month of August. Ther lower Madison, the Jefferson, the Boulder are are still fishing well and as long as the weather pattern remains the same they'll likely stay that way right into September. The hopper fishing on the Yellowstone has been second to none - though better on the warmer days, we've had many ramp to ramp outings using just a single fly on 3X. Color choice seems to be the challenge of the day - pink, purple, red, yellow and good old tan have all done the trick. The Chaos hopper from Blue Ribbon Flies has been my top bug though the Chubby Chernobyl and the Chernobyl Hopper have certainly earned their keep. Have also heard good reports from the Upper Madison, Gallatin, Big Hole and Stillwater - the only problem right now is deciding where to go!