What flies for July 4th Montana trip

[Royce]

Everything is set for our July 4th float trip somewhwere near West Yellowstone. (Possibly the Madison, Henry's Fork or somewhere else at the guides discretion depending upon fishing conditions.)

Wonder what types of flies I should get busy tying in the next couple of weeks. I would welcome any suggestions as to patterns, sizes, etc. Should I be prepared with adult dries, emergers and nymphs, streamers, etc?

I have to admit I am not an experienced tyer but have done some. I'm used to fishing dries in the #14-#22 size range and nymphs even smaller than that. I did tie up a few Yellow Stoneflies the other day and that #8 dry fly sort of scared me.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[tigfly]

Royce, we are flying out there tomorrow. Here is some of what I am bringing.
Elk hair caddis tan and olive 16 and 18
PMDs 16 and 18
Salmonflys 2,4, and 6
Delta winged caddis tan and olive 16 and 18
Renegades 14, 16, and 18
Purple Haze 14
Royal Wulffs 14 and 16
stimulators 12,14, and 16

Nymphs
Hares Ear
Stoneflies
Pheasant tails

This may be the first time in four years we will try nymphs due to the runoff.
We are fishing Yellowstone and SW Montana. Hope you have as good of luck as we did with those flies.

[JohnScott]

Royce -

Tigfly got you off to a good start.

You might want to add some yellow sally ( more like size 14-16 ) and golden stone dries ( your size 8 is about right ), and some copper john and brassie nymphs ( 16 and 18 ) to Tigfly's list. Also, some caddis emergers, like the sparkle caddis emerger, and PMD emergers, think quigley cripples, and Mike Lawson's half back emerger, and PMD spinners. You might want some midge patterns, depending on what kind of water you will be on - some size 16 and 18 griffith's gnats will do fine. A simple thread midge or zebra midge ( 20-16 ) is always a valuable addition to the arsenal.

I would probably deemphasize the salmonfly dries since that hatch should be long gone ?? At least check for the specific areas you'll be in. Box Canyon on the upper end of Henry's Fork is the last of the hatch on that river, and it is going to be over soon.

If you are going to be on small water, and you don't mind tying them, humpies are always a safe bet. And parachute adams are another safe bet.

If you like fishing streamers, double bunnies are a good place to start, along with some of Kelly Galloup's patterns ( which I don't even try to tie ) or a simple pine squirrel zonker streamer ( if you're interested send me a PM ), and an assortment of olive, brown, black, yellow and white bugger style streamers.

Hope you enjoy your hours at the vice, and many more hours of successful fishing on the waters you are headed for.

John

[MTSkibum]

You might get to fish some salmonflies. They should be fairly high up on the madison around then, they just started on the lower.

I think the salmonflies move slightly faster upstream on the henry's, but they could be a possibility there too.

[LadyFisher]

Our latest report on the Yellowstone was that it would probably crest in Livingston on the 4th...not good for fishing for sure.

[Royce]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'll get a few of some of these tied up. Since we aren't sure what water we will be fishing yet I will probably have to wait until we know for sure and pick up a few odds and ends of flies when we get there but this will get me started. Thanks again.

[Longs for Cutts]

Our latest report on the Yellowstone was that it would probably crest in Livingston on the 4th...not good for fishing for sure.

The Yellowstone almost certainly crested yesterday, along with everything else except the Gibbon, which peaked about a week ago. The Yellowstone is about 1000cfs lower today, despite higher temps yesterday (yesterday's melt is what we get today). If things continue this way, odds are good it'll be fishable on the 4th, though I doubt the big bugs will be happening yet.

[azcat1]

In my experience in this area of MT I like tigfly's selection. Especially the Purple Haze (basically an Adams in purple instead of grey). This is my favorite fly but you can tie them in other shades of grey and olive (I think they're called gulper specials out West). Also use as a dropper Quigley cripples in purple, yellow, or PT.
Also, I think that the runoff this year will be great but as someone else mentioned, the past 4 years have been less water and hot and the Park Service started to close some areas due to water temps. Again, I don't think you'll have an issue this year. If you're getting to West via Bozeman you will be going along the Gallatin at some point (outside the Park) and there are some good spots there!
AZ

[tigfly]

My wife and I just got back from Montana and we had a great time. Our first three days were in Yellowstone and we fished the Gibbon, Firehole, and Nez Perce. These three were definitely clear enough and still cool enough to fish. We did well with general attractor patterns, yellow humpies, royal wulffs, etc. There was a lot of pressure on the Firehole, probably due to it being one of the few streams fishable at that time. The Gibbon and the Nez Perce were deserted and VERY nice. The Madison looked fishable but high. There was still a lot of snow up in the mountains yet to come down when we were there
6-19 to 6-21. Yellowstone was muddy and high, as was the Gallatin and lower Madison.

Hope you have good conditions where you want to fish, but don't be afraid to check out some other lesser known streams. They didn't hold big fish but there was enough to make it fun. If you want to know how SW Montana fished pm me.

Glenn

Glenn

[Lake Erie High Ball]

Ya have to bring a wolly bugger.