Prime Fall Fishing

After a pleasant but unusually summerlike September, fall weather has arrived. 75 degrees yesterday up on the Missouri, 38 degrees and snowing today on the Yellowstone. Fishing has been good and will likely get great as the cooler, overcast days settle in. Baetis and midges are prolific on the Yellowstone right now - today the baetis emerged right at 2pm and gave us some good dry fly fishing for the remainder of the afternoon. Prior to that, Black zebra midges, soft hackle PTs, lightning bugs and shop vacs were all good fished just 3 feet under an indicator. The lower Madison is low right now but fishing has been good - small flies and light leaders have been the ticket. Should be some good baetis fishing out there with the overcast skies. Have spent a lot of time on the Missouri lately - though the floating weeds have been a nuisance, the action has been good - though surface activity has been spotty. Crayfish patterns, black zebra midges, flashback hare's ears and the purple lightning bug all seemed to do the trick. Might try throwing some streamers in the weeks ahead as well - it's getting to be that time.