April 27 Yellowstone River

We had another Great day on the Yellowstone River on Monday. As a cold front settles in the area, the rivers are starting to come back into shape after muddying from warm weather. It's hat and gloves weather, but the fishing is great. Mark caught this brown of nearly 20 inches. His dad Rene caught a large brown as well. Rene was fishing with GTO guide Nate Anderson who found some nice fish as well.

Great Brown Trout Rene!

Paul got into the act catching a bunch of fish. Below are pictures of a few. We had a great day on the rive. I wish the Yellowstone would fish this well every day of the year. It was easy.

April, 24 Snow day

I was scheduled to fish today, but we decided to postpone since last night it snowed a good 14 inches. The cold has leveled the rives and the forecast is for continued cold nights. The Yellowstone may come back in by Sunday. The Madison is fishing well. I was on the lower yesterday just before the storm hit and be tween me and Nate we caught nine nice fish in about an hour. Blue winged olives were coming off well.

April 19, Bitteroot River

It was back to my old stomping grounds for fish with a group of six hoodlums. These are guys I've guided for years with John Herzer of Blackfoot River Outfitters in Missoula. It is fun to be back on the Bitterroot and fishing large dry flies during the Skwala hatch.


The only problem with the Skwala hatch is that the river can be very crowded. In fact, I think there are more boats on the Bitterroot in March and April than there are in July.

This trip we were able to avoid the crowds all three days. My boat had it's ups and downs. We would go through stretches of tough fishing. but as you see above, the good fishing produced some dandies.

Although this was not a monster fish, it was a great dry fly eat. We saw the fish rise and before Reiger could put it down, Mark slipped his dry just off the end of a sunken log. The fish engulfed it. Not the biggest, but a tight spot and a great drift produced a memorable fish.
Here is a great fish Rick caught on a San Juan worm. It was a beauty. On the last day, Rick dominated the water hooking up everywhere. Of course, he was in another boat, so we hated him that day.
Mark with a big 'ol smile.

Here is a peculiar spot to find a goose nest: inside a hollow log.

Matt Simms thinks it is never too early to teach his daughter Molly the finer points of oarsmanship.

April 16, Yellowstone River

Taking Connie and Bob on the Yellowstone was a real treat. The day was cloudy and cold but the company was warm. The day started slow with Connie hooking and loosing three fish in a row. One was a big rainbow who shook us loose after a long battle.

Advice: I tell my anglers that the ration of strikes to landed fish should be about like a baseball players batting average. If you are consistently landing one out of every three strikes, you are doing alright. If you consistently loose five or six fish to every one you land you are doing something wrong.

With Connie, there were no major problems.

He asked "what am I doing wrong?" I told him it looked, to me, like he was hitting a little late, but really he should not over analyze it. If you over react and start trying to fix something that is not broken, you screw it up worse. A hook set should be instinctual after a few days of fishing.

The next fish that hit Connie's line, was struck well, played well and we caught it. I think he was just a bit rusty after winter. He did not have any problems after that.
Like in baseball, every hitter has a day he goes 0 for 4 and days he goes 4 for 4.

After lunch we were able to hook and land about a half dozen fish in a side channel on dries. The fish were midging, and although there thousands of naturals, with the right drift they were eating our flies well.

We used the GT midge, ties by my buddy Rich Christians. They also ate a parachute midge.

The afternoon fished well. Bob caught a great fish in about six inches of water. We saw the fish rise, but instead of switching to our midge rods, he hucked a rubber legged stone in tight. The fish grabbed it as soon as it landed. Nice big rainbow.

I should have snapped a few photos.

It turned out to be a great fishing day, especially since it never reached 40 degrees.

April 12, Hawaii

We left Livingston in a snow storm and arrived back in a snow storm... This is why it is a necessity to leave Montana for somewhere warm once a winter. If you are in Livingston this summer to fish with me, look around. You will see shaggy looking people wandering the streets mumbling to themselves. These people are just like you and me with one exception: It's been a few years since they left Montana.

We chose the Big Island of Hawaii...and before you ask, no, I did not go fishing. Too much to see(and no money for a bill fish cruise).

Waterfall

We saw and snorkeled with a bunch of sea turtle. Here's one chilling in a lagoon.

There was a great late season swell while we were there and the locals were everywhere surfing. Here are some shots from an early morning session I stumbled into.

Checking out the scene.

It is always a good idea to stretch before surfing.

Sweet cutback dude. They made it look easy.

Raluca relaxing under a shady tree.

Is it just me or is this method of paddling inefficient?