SPRING IN MONTANA - Readers Cast (Neil Travis) - May 23, 2011

SPRING IN MONTANA

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.

Unfortunately, the cold weather over the past week or so has delayed the runoff, and the river level at Livingston has declined from a high of nearly 15,000cfs at mid-week to just over 9,000cfs this morning. It almost looks fishable right now.

However, it’s snowing outside right now at our place near Emigrant, and the mountains were white down to about 5,500’ elevation as the result of more snow at the higher elevations last night.

The 24 snow guages that comprise the Upper Yellowstone Watershed (everything upstream from Livingston) are now reported at 187% of average for this date, and when all that snow begins to melt again in ernest, watch out!

John,

I’m not worried about when the snow starts melting ‘in earnest’ but I 'am concerned about when it starts melting in Yellowstone National Park. Given the flow levels on many Montana rivers without the snow melt it may be a long summer with anglers running around trying to find water that they can fish. As I write this tonight the Big Horn is over 10,000 cfs and the run-off has not even started in Wyoming.