Readers Cast

SPRING IN MONTANA

Neil Travis - May 23, 2011

Two weeks ago I showed some images taken on the Yellowstone River just south of Livingston, Montana. Since I posted that piece the run-off has started, but slowly. The Mother's Day caddis hatch start the week after Mother's Day but the river became discolored shortly after the hatch really got going so there was only a very short period of time before the hatch was unfishable. The Ladyfisher and I checked several places along the river and we never detected any active feeding on the caddis. Perhaps some anglers found some feeding fish before the river became unfishable.

We had several inches of rain over much of southern Montana in the last couple weeks and we have another round of heavy rain slated to start later this week. [May 19-20] The predictions are for 2 or more feet of new snow in many of the mountain ranges above 8,000 feet.

Spring in MT, Neil
Yellowstone River – May 16, 2011 – much more water than in the previous images – note the heavy snow still remaining in the mountains.

Spring in MT, Neil
Yellowstone River – May 18, 2011

To date we have only had minimal melting of the snowpack, and we are continuing to add to the existing snow levels. Predictions are for flooding on most of the major rivers and you can anticipate higher than normal levels to exist on most of the area streams until sometime late in July or early August. 

If you are planning a trip anywhere in Montana, Wyoming or Idaho in the next few weeks I would check with a locally trusted source to check on the conditions.

You can check the current stream flow volumes on Montana streams at the following website:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mt/nwis/current?type=flow

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