Paradise Valley MT--change of plans

[djamieson]

My brother and I are flying into Bozeman on Monday. The situation there sounds pretty dire--the low, warm waters have created some fish kills already, and the state has cut off a lot of fishing after 2 pm. Although we'd have no problem hunkering down at a bar at 2 p.m. every day after fishing the morning, we're thinking of heading into Idaho or Wyoming to some spots where hooking a fish might not necessarily mean killing a fish. I talked to the shop in Jackson and the guy said things are okay over there--no emergency regs, and the Snake just got some heavy rains, to the point where it's running high. Anybody else know where things might be more promising within a day or two's drive from Bozeman? Just trying to look at all our options...

All best,

Dave

[Ken Tidy]

Our flight leaves at 6:00am for Billings tomorrow, we will be in Montana for 10days.

We have some business in Livingston the first part of the week the heading over to the Big Horn, it still running pretty cool. May slip down into Wyoming to look around.

You Might try fishing in the AM then go look around the park. Lots of other thing to do for a half day.

[Capt. Slayer]

Dave,

I just checked out the river closures and saw that the upper Madison has no closure whatsoever above (or south of) Ennis. The part that has the afternoon closure is the part without trout in the summertime anyway, below Ennis Lake. If I were you, I’d make a beeline for the upper Madison, starting at the bridge by the West Fork cabins. If you cross that bridge to the west side of the Madison and then follow the gravel road upstream along the river until it dead ends at a fence, you’ll have a lovely stretch of river upstream from there that sees far less pressure than $3 Bridge or Raynold’s Pass. Just walk for 20 minutes before you start fishing to get out of the shallow water. This stretch has a lot of browns in it, too. You can fish a long, long way upstream, going all the way up to $3 if you want.

Also, don’t miss dusk and after-dark fishing in the channels at Slide Inn just below Quake Lake. You can catch huge browns after dark on large weighted woolly buggers. I always added a small serendipity dropper off the streamer and most frequently caught the really big ones on the dropper. Just throw the streamer in the seams and slack water in the dark and hold on.

When you’re at the Raynold’s Pass bridge just below Slide Inn, you can just hop down Montana 87 over the divide and go fish the Henry’s Fork. The Box Canyon is fishing well, and it’s below Island Park Reservoir, so it has consistent flows without heat problems. Just remember to buy an Idaho license. I didn’t see any mention of Idaho closures.

If you’re down in Ennis, you could take a chance on hitting the Ruby up toward Virginia City. That’s also a tailwater, although it’s a smaller river. It has some nice water. I didn’t see any mention of it having closures, either.

The Missouri below Holter dam is also open without closures and has 64-degree water in it right now. I spewed forth on my Missouri River experiences in the recent thread “Missouri River Questions" http://www.tidalfish.com/forums/fly-fishing-anglers/211138-missouri-river-questions.html.

If you want a little adventure, you could head over to Silver Creek south of Sun Valley. It’s a bit of a drive (I think about 4 hours from the Henry’s Fork), but it’s a really beautiful stream. It has good hatches, excellent hopper fishing, and good streamer fishing, too. We always camped in a state campground near a fish hatchery very close to the Nature Conservancy tract that has the most famous fishing. You can grab dinner in Ketchum and see the Hemingway sights when you need a break. The Big Wood River flows through Ketchum, too. My experience is that it’s a little disappointing as it is a small stream (kind of like Big Hunting Creek) that had a lot of little brookies in it. The drive through the desert to get to Ketchum is worth the trip itself as you go through lava beds and past an early nuclear reactor.

Here are the fly shops I’ve frequented:

http://www.blueribbonflies.com/
http://www.yellowstoneangler.com/
http://www.theriversedge.com/
http://www.henrysforkanglers.com/
http://www.silver-creek.com/

Blue Ribbon has a great weekly email you can sign up for to get the latest reports out of West Yellowstone.

And finally (I couldn’t resist), here’s me with a huge brown from Slide Inn caught at dusk on a serendipity dropper tied to a large, #2 weighted black woolly bugger:

http://homepage.mac.com/john.mcdermott/.Pictures/Web%20Pics/026_25.jpg

I’d really like to get out to Montana again. I used to go every summer but stopped going after it became a little too familiar (hitting the same places year after year after year), the great drought started out there, got married, and had kids. All of this discussion of my favorite rivers is getting me excited again. We’ll see what next summer brings.

--Slayer

[Bose Knows]

The Big Horn is about an hour or so south of Billings it is said to be fishing well. Caugt numerous fish on small black ants and frankly it is an remarkable fishery. Harding has accomadations.

Island Park (Henrys Fork) Box Canyon always fishes well this time of year. The Ranch section at Harriman State Park also fishes well (bring your "A" game). Lower river is probaly not fishable(near St. Anthonys or Ashton) but allows for a great view of the Tetons.

I'd hit the Big Horn. Good Luck!

[Rocks and Rye]

I just got back from Yellowstone, WY & MT trip today. Rivers were really low in the park but had great success in Bechler (have to backcountry camp) and the Lamar (backcountry as well). You can fish the Henry's fork - fishing well right now - or head down to Jackson to fish the Gros Ventre, Crystal Creek, Gray's Creek South of town. Forget about the Big Hole, Rock Creek and most of the other MT rivers. Snowpack was horrible with the one exception being the Gallatin which is fishing well right now.

Good luck.