SW Montana

Now that John Scott has taught me how to upload pictures, here are a few scenes from Yellowstone and SW Montana. Even though the river reports sound as if they are unfishable, I would like to assure those who will be traveling there in the next couple of weeks that you can find plenty of uncrowded fishable water for dry flies.
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Nez Perce Brown

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...6-20-08030.jpg
My wife with another.

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Public spring creek brown

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...6-26-08035.jpg
A brown from the Big Hole River

We were there for ten days and plenty of places to fish in Yellowstone and around Twin Bridges.
I will say that as of two days ago the Yellowstone, Madison below the park, and Gallatin were too muddy to fish. The Firehole, Gibbon, Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Ruby were just fine.

Tigfly -

Sounds like you had a REALLY good time. Like the pics. You guys got on a really interesting variety of water using different approaches to get it done. Probably something better than ten days at work in Cleveland ??!!

John


Hope you don't mind if I clarify something for others reading this thread ?? The Beaverhead and the Ruby are tailwaters not subject to the late run off and high flows in most of this part of the Intermountain West right now. And it looks like you drift boated the Big Hole - which raises the question was it fishable to wade fishers when you were there ?? The Gibbon, Nez Perce and Firehole are fairly small rivers to start with and not as much subject to the conditions on most of the big rivers.

John, the Big Hole was wadeable and we fished it down near Twin Bridges where it splits into islands and smaller channels. The fishing was definitely harder than a drift boat but we were successful through persistence, just like fishing anywhere else I guess. I mentioned the Firehole and Nez Perce which are usually not very good at this time of the year because of the thermal springs warming them too much, so for us, it was a great opportunity to fish streams we've never tried before. I was kind of reluctant to mention them because of their size, however, with the exception of the Firehole, we didn't see any other fishermen near us. I don't believe they are secret streams because they are in the guide books and we were never more than a mile or so from the road.

I know that I was very worried about the reports of runoff and high water, but was pleasantly surprised at the different experience that it created. I believe it actually decreased some of the fishing pressure, especially when we heard from people that a certain river was too murky and not worth fishing, fished it anyway and had a nice couple of hours on it. I agree that by typical late June Montana standards that it was a little murky, and by Montana standards we didn't catch many, but we had more fun than the people who did'nt fish it. My wife and I fished on our own for six out of the ten days including one day that we did not fish at all. So, yes, it sure beat staying in Cleveland!!

The Bighole was much to high to wade fish as of two weeks ago. I was at the upper part and there was quite a bit of water flowing. We tried to fish it from the bank but it was much to deep for us. The people floating it were doing alright but still alot of water. As far as the beaverhead, it was wonderful, with about 730 cfs at barrets and about 150 less at the dam. Lots of fish and good sized fish to say the least.

We waded the lower Big Hole in the area where it braids near Twin Bridges, so we did not try walking into the upper area where you apparently were, Fishboy. We floated the section around Wise River and got out a few times to wade, but they were probably unreachable by walking in, although I don't know that for sure. The main stream was, like you said, not wadeable enough to cross, but then all the fish we caught were within a couple of feet of the bank for the most part.