About 30 minutes from Bozeman, the Yellowstone River is the last major undammed river in the Lower 48 and flows 671 miles. Starting in Yellowstone National Park, it flows through Paradise Valley and Livingston, eventually catching up to the Missouri River before making its way to the Atlantic Ocean. The Yellowstone River is know for its excellent fly fishing and river access.
Fishing on the Yellowstone has been great recently! We have been hearing good reports with nymphs and streamers mostly, but definitely some dry fly activity on more cloudy and overcast days. For nymphs some of our favorites recently have been san juan/squirmy worms, duracell's, prince nymphs, hare's ears, copper john's, blowtorch's, pheasant tails, lite brite perdigon, rubber legs, and green machine's. Streamer fishing can be awesome depending on the day as well. It seems like this time of year the middle of the river is where the fish tend to hang out and the bank is where the numbers are at. Streamers of all sizes and colors have been working so it is good to continue switching flies if something was working earlier in the day for you and is no longer working anymore. A lot of people follow the adage of bright fly bright day dark fly dark day, but since everything is backwards this year with the weather, we have been finding better success with the opposite. Dull flies like the Ishiwata's super snitch, sculpzillas, micro headbanger, and baby gonga's have been crushing on bright days and for darker days fishing flies like the kreelex, sparkle minnow, short shank redemption, munchy minnow, drunk and disorderly, and swim coach are great bets.
Parachute Adams (16-20), Purple Haze (16-18), Buzz Ball (14-18), Corn fed Caddis (14-16), X-Caddis (14-16), Parachute bwo (16-20), Extended Body bwo (14-18), Chubby Chernobyl (12-16))
Woolly Bugger (4-12), Ditch Witch Black/red/purple/ Yellow/white(2), Mini Peanut Envy Black/Yellow/Tan (6) Mini Dungeon Black/purple /Olive/Yellow (6), Montana Intruder (4), Sparkle Minnow JJ's/Silver/Sculpin (4-8), Double Gonga Black (4), Sculpzilla Black/White/Olive (4-8), Seasoned Geezer Gold/Natural/Olive (6)
Pat’s Rubber Legs (6-12), Zirdle Bug (6-12), Perdigon Blue/Purple/Pearl (14-18), Jig thread Frenchie Brown/yellow (14-18), Hot head CDC Pheasant Tail (10-18), Jigster BWO (14-18), Formerly Known Prince Nymph (10-18), BH Hare's Ear (12-18), Sizzlin' Hot Squirrel (14-16), Matt’s Shagadelic Mop Tan/Brown/Chartreuse/Cheeto (10)
