Montana Report

[LadyFisher]

In from Neil Travis, now home in Livingston:

"You can advise anyone that is interested that everything in Montana is blown out. The Yellowstone is above bank full here, the Big Hole is flooding at Melrose, the Gallatin is flooding at Logan. I would anticipate that it will be late June or early July before many of the big rivers are fishable. Yep, its finally spring in Montana, just in time for Memorial Day."

[JohnScott]

Neil and Ladyfisher -

Sounds kind of like Idaho.

John

Except the South Fork, which has cleared pretty well again.

[Doublehauler]

I agree, just about everything in Northwest Montana is off limits. It is all brown and high water. Lots of snow in the mountains here. And, of all things, they are forecasting winter storm warnings east of the divide. As much as 24" of snow in the Browning area is expected tonight ( 5/22 & 5/23 ) The weather folks are usually 50% wrong around here, and that will still bring 12" of new snow at the end of May.

Flooding is a real threat everywhere up here. It is staying cool, and that will help. We have a heavy snowpack in the mountains, 150% of normal in some areas. If the right conditions occur, we could have a really bad situation here.

Fishing? Fortunately, we have lots of lakes, they are not USUALLY adversly affected by spring runoff, but we need some decent weather for us old folks to get out and get a little fishing in.

Doublehauler, \
Bigfork, Montana

[drolfson]

Good to hear there is plenty of water this year!!!

[Lew]

Looking at a Guide's fishing report over on another board, he's making it sound like a minor inconvenience on most water, and a "wait a week and see" situation for some others. Does this fall under the heading of "unscrupulous"?

[shadesofsisyphus]

Definitely no fishing in southwestern mt. Everything around bozeman is blown, with the exception of lakes as mentioned previously. If you are going to be in the area, I have heard that the open areas on Hebgen are holding decent fish. I will be trying the Hyalite area (creek and the reservoir) this weekend, and will report on that if anyone is interested.

[jeffnles1]

Looking at a Guide's fishing report over on another board, he's making it sound like a minor inconvenience on most water, and a "wait a week and see" situation for some others. Does this fall under the heading of "unscrupulous"?

Don't know as I'm not there. From what I've read here, wishful thinking may be the best described phrase.
Jeff

[Joel D. Popham]

Everything in North Idaho and Eastern Washington is totally blown out as well. It will be quite awhile before there's fishable water here...Best Regards...

[Benjo]

Options are pretty limited right now. The upside to this is that we're looking at the most promising season of fishing that we've had in years. There's going to be a lot of water all year long and that makes the fish very happy.