It is November 12th at 7A.M. and I’m sitting at my fly tying desk, looking out across the river at the highest peaks in Madison Range. The jagged mountaintops are backlit by the rising sun coming up fast behind them. Lovely shades of lavender, pink, orange, and gold light up a thin layer of clouds that shroud some of the highest peaks like Hilgard, Dutchman’s, and Echo. These rugged mountains rise over 5000 feet above the Madison River, and climb to over 11,000 in elevation.

This morning the temperature is 26 degrees and forecasted to go near 50 before the afternoon’s end. I usually write the “Year in Review” from our cabin as I take a day off from elk hunting. In past years the weather has been cold and snowy. This year is different. It had been cold and snowy all through October and into early November. Then, on the 4th, the winds switched from north to south and it has turned warm and dry.

On the 6th my nephew Tom and I left the cabin at 5A.M. and climbed up a rocky ridge to look for elk. It was 28 degrees and calm, and the snow still hadn’t melted much even though the past 2 days saw 40 degree temps. By 6:30 we were at 7600 feet and elk tracks were everywhere in snow over boot deep. A slight downhill breeze brought their scent wafting down to us and we knew we were close. At 7, I spotted 2 bulls standing at the edge of a clearing where the steep ridge meets with the edge of the black timber, a place the bulls like to bed for the day. The rising sun’s rays had not yet crept over the top of the ridge. Once they do the shy bulls will head to the thick timber for security and their day beds. Too many lodge pole pines stood between us for a clean shot at the bulls. We could only watch as they walked further up the ridge. I knew we only had a few minutes before the big guys would head over the ridge and into the thick black timber. We followed and a short distance away I heard them before I saw them. They were rubbing their antlers against pine trees and tearing limbs off in a show for several cow elk that just appeared uphill of the bulls. I wanted my nephew to take the shot but he whispered he couldn’t get a clear view. I could from my position and took a nice 6 point, my 26th mature bull in 26 years of hunting. And, on November 9th I put Tom on a very good 6 point bull that he took.

Now, with the weather more like September than November, and the freezer full, I’ll get more days of fishing in. So far, I have 140 days of fishing in 2004. It has been a good year. Let’s look at the fishing.

On January 1st at 12:50P.M. I took my first trout of the year. My log says I arrived at Raynold’s Pass Bridge and had to slide down from the highway to the river in over 3 feet of snow. I spooked a cow moose from her bed under the bridge and felt bad for doing so. But, she was healthy and fat and walked downstream to a new spot one hundred yards downstream feeding on willows along the way.

Trout were rising in the pools and pockets below the bridge and I took the first fish, an 18” rainbow, on a #22 Improved Zelon Midge Emerger on my second cast. She came up and sipped in the fly then rolled over and came in without a fight. The next trout was a 16” rainbow that jumped twice and fought like heck. The final fish of that first day was another rainbow, a fat 17” fish that took me downstream and into my backing. I released the lovely male at 1:30P.M. Then the wind came up strong from the north and the blowing snow created a white out so I could not see the other side of the river. I headed back to my truck, smiling along the way, happy I’d taken the first trout of the new-year, just me, and the cow moose. I lost my smile though, when it took me an hour to travel the 10 miles to our home. At times visibility was zero and my log says I “never drove in such terrible conditions”. My winter fishing journal goes on to tell of spending 20 days in January and February on the river with good midge fishing. Midge fishing is so important on all our western waters and at all times of the year. Our Improved Zelon Midge is the best emerging, adult pattern we have found.

In early April we saw the first early Baetis mayfly emergences of the year and the Madison below the Bear Trap and the Yellowstone Rivers fished well. We had a fine winter with lots of snow but March and April saw most of our snow pack evaporate in very warm and dry conditions. Then came May.

On May 10th it started to snow and turned cold. These conditions continued all spring, and summer, and fall. Last water reports show 140% of “normal” moisture through October. In May the Baetis continued and so did the March Brown Mayflies, Rhitrogena. At the shop Bucky (Rob) tied his ICU Baetis, (I See You), that not only worked well but we could actually see our flies on the dark days when Baetis emerged strongest. This little pattern worked for trout feeding on Baetis on the Yellowstone, Madison, Henry’s Fork and all area spring creeks in the spring and fall.

In May, our guides commented when floating the rivers and holding their boats for clients or wading clients into likely spots they’d find big fat olive mayfly nymphs clinging to their waders or crawling in their boats shortly after they got back into the boat after wading around. Cam even told of catching a few rainbows that had the nymphs crawl out of the mouths of some of the trout his anglers were catching on the river. To the vises and our Macro-Madison Bead Head Nymph was born. A flashy olive nymph was created by the tiers here; a favorite with guides and local anglers for imitating the big olive Rhitrogena mayfly nymphs that are very important to trout and anglers on rivers like the Madison, Henry’s Fork, Boulder, Gallatin, and Stillwater.

The Rithros, or March Browns, continued to emerge through May and into June and my diary has over a dozen Macro-Madison Bead Head Nymphs and March Brown Sparkle Duns pasted into the pages. These patterns worked very well on the early season trout. I had several banner days in May and I wrote in my log that this is the “beginning of a fine fly-fishing year!”

On May 29th the Yellowstone Park fishing season opened. That first day was a bust for the dry-fly fisher as we had over 8” of fresh snow on the ground along the Firehole River that fell the night before. The stream had come up over 6” in 24 hours because of rain and snow. By the following day the river had began to drop and we took a few fish on top during a short afternoon Baetis hatch. By the 2nd of June I pen: “Firehole awesome, fish huge!” And so it went throughout June and into July; cool-wet weather, lots of pale morning duns, and the Firehole fish much larger than we seen in years. On guided trips our clients took several brown trout over 20” in 2004.

Caddis fishing was fine on the river in June and into early July too. Lots of Hydropsyche and Oecitis caddis and trout rising to them from The Broads up to the junction with Iron Spring Creek. We had both spring and fall emergences of Oecetis, for the first time in recent memory. And, larger trout demanded a crippled caddis pattern, and we had none to offer them. We’d never needed one to imitate this caddis impairment in the past. So, off to our tying tables and our new Oecetis Crippled Caddis was created. This fly worked well in spring and fall, on the Firehole and Henry’s Fork and was easily voted in as one of our “new flies” for 2005.

The Madison in the park was the only dark spot in spring ’04. There were very few pmd hatches, no gray drakes, and only a handful of holdover trout from Hebgen Lake that spawned last fall or early this spring remained in the river. The early warm weather in March and April sent the run up fish back to Hebgen Lake a month earlier than normal in spring ’04.

The Madison below Earthquake Lake fished very well when it opened in mid-May. By the 21st of June we were seeing the first evening caddis emergences, a full 2 weeks early. And on this date the salmon flies began emerging above Ennis and would work their way upstream to Hebgen dam for the next 3 weeks. We had some very good fishing in late June and July with the Ross’ Salmon Fly.

From June 26th to July 2nd we worked with the DIY Channel, Great Museums, and Echo Pictures on a fly-fishing piece that will air in late November of 2004. Most of the filming was done on the Firehole River. There was plenty of high definition filming under water so we are excited to see the program.

The big fishing question all spring was “would the Epeorus mayflies be as big a factor on the Madison as they had been for the past few seasons?” The answer came July 5th when we fished pale morning duns, salmon flies, golden stones, 4 species of caddis and the first Epeorus hatch of the season below $3.00 Bridge. The day was one to remember as rising trout came to our flies all day long. Without a doubt, Epeorus mayflies have become the most important mayfly of the summer on the Madison. Our Epeorus Emerger, Improved and standard Sparkle Duns, and Epeorus Spinner patterns have been sensational for anglers the past 2 seasons and we are very pleased. On many days, afternoon emergences and evening spinner falls were more important to anglers than evening caddis. Strong Epeorus activity continued through mid-August.

On July 9th pale morning dun emergences were in full swing on the Madison from 1 to 4P.M. We had some wonderful sessions putting together DVD footage with Phil Takatsuno on pmds. His next DVD “Fly Fishing the Madison” will be released in spring 2005.We have worked long and hard on this one and know you will find this new DVD full of important information on hatches, fishing techniques, fly patterns and more when fishing the Madison.
Slough and Soda Butte Creeks cleared of snowmelt and runoff and fished very well July 10th. Soda had incredible emergences of mayflies like: Epeorus, Green Drakes, Pale Morning Duns, Heptagenia, and Gray Drakes. And, on July 14th we spotted 9 different bears, (4 griz and 5 blacks), on our drive from West Yellowstone to Soda Butte.

The Lamar River was seldom fishable in summer due to all the thunderstorms, but when it was fishable it was outstanding. Both Lamar and Slough along with Soda saw strong emergences of the mayflies discussed above along with the fall green drakes.

The Yellowstone River above the falls opened July 15th. Everyone here held their breaths, hoping to see more cutthroats in the river than in the past few years. And, we did on opening day and for a few weeks after. But, being lake fish, the migratory cutts came and went, back and forth from Yellowstone Lake to Sulphur Cauldron. The first part of the season was strong with more big fish and lots of smaller cutts rising in mid-river. By August though the fish had moved back to the lake. These great fish need good water years back-to-back to allow their late spring-early summer spawners a chance at better recruitment to the main river and lake.
Yellowstone Lake fished great in July. Lots of pale morning duns and Callibaetis mayflies emerged on the lake and the dry fly fishing was wonderful for the first two weeks of July as the big cutthroats cruised the shoreline taking the insects. Being typical cutts though, they “migrated” out further from the shoreline in mid-July taking them out of reach of wading anglers. Still, the lake fished as well as it has in many years, a very good sign that the lake trout removal program is working as reported by the park.

During the summer and fall, hopper fishing was only fair. But, flying ant swarms on the Madison, Henry’s Fork , and lakes like Hebgen, Cliff, Wade, Trout and others brought up big rises of trout. Our Zelon Flying Ants worked so well at times we had several tiers busy tying them for all of July, August and September. And beetles, big black beetles were thick and along every river all summer. Matter-of-fact, I took good trout, browns and rainbows, from June through October on #12 and 14 Black Foam Beetles on the Madison, Firehole, Henry’s Fork, Lamar, Yellowstone, and Missouri Rivers along with Slough and Soda Butte Creeks.
In summer our guides came up with a great new fly, the Micro Wulff Cripple. This little fly took more nice trout on pocket water stretches of the Gallatin, Madison, and Gardner Rivers than all other attractors combined. It is a beautiful fly and the guides feel trout take it for baetis and sometimes even small ants.

The fall season got off to an early start in Yellowstone country. On August 23rd my log reports rain in the valleys and snow above 9600 feet. The fall green drakes began emerging on the Lamar and Slough and fall Baetis came off the Madison on August 25th.
For the next 8 weeks fall Baetis emerged daily on the Madison from 2-4P.M. And, after the Baetis quit for the day midges and caddis would bring up good rises of trout in the evenings. ICU, Baetis Sparkle Duns, and Improved Zelon Midges were responsible for days of great dry fly fishing. With all our cool wet weather, grasshoppers were not much of a factor in the late season but the mayfly and midge fishing was superb.

The Lamar River, Slough and Soda Butte Creeks fished from August 23rd to the middle of October when the huge fall olive drakes, the Drake Mackeral, emerged. Our guide Nick Nicklas came up with another gem, his Hi-Viz Drake Mac Spinner that proved to be the most productive large drake pattern we used in ’04, and the easiest to see on dark days.
The fall run of browns and rainbows from Hebgen Lake was fair from late August until the 18th of October. Then, the run got heavy, and so did the fish. We saw some very large rainbows and browns from late October until the fishing season closed in Yellowstone Park on the Madison River, November 7th. Float fishing the Madison has been super all October and well into November for fall fish. Natural Woolhead Sculpins, yellow Shakey Bealey Soft Hackles, and Soft Hackled Streamers in yellow and white were the best patterns for the large fall trout.

The Firehole River fished the best it has in many years in the fall. Baetis mayflies and Oecetis caddis came off along with midges and the trout rose to all three insects. In September and October the Oecetis came off in numbers we’ve not witnessed during the fall season before. The large browns and rainbows, some over 18”, rose to these insects. And, like I wrote earlier in this report, the big trout loved our new Oecetis Crippled Caddis pattern. We saw emergences and egg laying activity everyday it was warm with no rain, and we had a few of these days this fall. When it was rainy or snowy the Baetis mayflies came off in numbers that at times were hard to believe. Then our little ICU Baetis worked magically for the big trout in the flat water on the Firehole as well as the Henry’s Fork and Madison. And, of course midges played their part in late fall fishing too. Once again the Improved Zelon Midge worked well. Just this past Saturday, November 13th, I took over a dozen rainbows to 19” on this #22 midge. I have taken trout every month of the year in 2004 on this midge, on rivers and streams like the Madison, Henry’s Fork, Beaverhead, Gallatin, and Firehole Rivers, the spring creeks near Bozeman and Livingston along with Slough and Soda Butte Creeks.

We had a wonderful fly-fishing year in Yellowstone country. You have all made the year special for us. Thank You for supporting the conservation projects in this area, ones that protect and preserve our blue ribbon fisheries, wild trout habitat, and wild places. Thank You too for bringing us all the good things from your part of the world: cheeses and pastries, wines and nuts, candy, tomatoes, jams, fruits, and special after dinner liquors. And, most of all, Thank You for your friendship and support, your words of encouragement, ideas and criticisms, patience and concern, and shared love of this special place. Please never hesitate to call, e-mail, or write us with any questions, ideas, criticisms, or if you need to visit with us about a fly tying question, need lodging or guides, ideas on when to come and/or what waters to fish, or if you just want to talk with someone in Yellowstone…give us a call!
Have a safe winter filled with lots of flies tied and plans for the upcoming fishing season. We look forward to seeing you soon!

All Our Best,

Jackie, Sara, Steve, Cam, Bucky, Craig and all our great guides