The Firehole has fished very well this past week. The PMD emergences the past couple of days have started around 9:30-10:00am and have lasted until about 1:00pm on sunny days. Have #18-16 Stealth Link PMDs, #16 PMD Sparkle Duns and #16 White Miller Caddis. You will also want to make sure you have #16 Hot Spot Mints, #16 Micro Beeleys and #16-14 P.T. Soft Hackles.
Madison below Quake Lake: As we mentioned earlier the river is really coming in to nice shape right now. The dry fly fishing has fairly decent over the past couple days and with some great weather in the forecast it should get better and better. Prospecting with a medium sized attractor dry has been a lot of fun. Think like a #14 Hi-Vis Micro Chubby or #14 Royal PMX. Spanish Bullets in olive or natural quill have also been producing in both #16 and #18. The river is a bit low right now but again these levels will be on the rise soon. Make sure you have #16 Missing Link Caddis, #16 Center Stage Caddis and also a few #6-8 Sunken Stones just in case!
Hebgen Lake: We're heading into the middle of prime chironomid fishing right now. A #14 Chironomid Bomber or #12 Ice Cream Cone should be in everyone's box right now. We are also still finding success with #12 Pine Squirrel Leech either stripped or hanging under a indicator. Watch for Callibaetis while your out on Hebgen, we've seen quite a few over the past few days and the fish are just now starting to look for them.
As the temperatures warm up be sure to keep an eye on the Gallatin River. We are seeing Caddis but the river is still a bit murky. As this clears we expect to see PMDs, Yellow Sallies and in not too long Golden Stones and Salmonflies. Nymphing has remained to be the best bet this past week with #10-12 Rubber Legs, #10-12 San Juans, #16 FKA Prince, #16 Split Case PMDs and #16 OCD Caddis.
There has been decent hatches of both PMD's and Caddis on the Firehole lately and with the cool, wet weather coming in this weekend we should see some great dry fly activity. Soft hackles remain to be your best bet with #16 White Miller soft hackles, #16 Hot Spot Mints, #16-14 Partridge and Pheasant and #16 Micro Beeleys. On the dry fly side of things make sure to have #16 Stealth Link PMD's, #18-20 Missing Link Baetis, #16 White Miller X-caddis and #16 Firehole Sparkle Dun PMD's.
The Gibbon has been good both above and below the falls. A dry/dropper rig has been effective with #16 Royal Wulff Cripple, #16-14 Elk Hair Caddis and #16-14 Parachute Adams followed by #16-18 Red Neck, #16-18 Micro Mayfly or #18-16 Prince Nymph. The upper meadows of the Gibbon have been better on cloudy days stripping #8-10 black or olive buggers, #8 Kreelex or #8 Montana Mini Intruders.
The Yellowstone below the falls is also in play now with Caddis and some PMDs. Have #16 Stealth Link PMD's, #16-14 X-Caddis and also some larger dry fly patterns like #14 brown or Peach Micro Chubby. For droppers have #16 Red Necks, #10-12 Rubber Legs, #16 Spanish Bullets and #16-14 Prince Nymphs. Streamer fishing is also an option here with #8 Montana Mini Intruders, #8 Kreelex or #8 black Sculpzillas.
While the Northeast Corner of the park is open to fishing these waters are still running high and off color. Most likely we've got another couple weeks before these rivers start to fish.
The Madison below Quake has fished well and the dry fly fishing in both the wade and float sections has turned on over the past couple of days. There has been a mixture of bugs on the Madison, including March Browns, Caddis, Baetis and Midges. Larger attractor patterns like #12 Royal Wulff Cripples, #12-14 PMX, #12 Ausable Cripple and #16 Guide Winna Spinner have been our guides choices for the past few days. Underneath the surface #8-10 black Rubber Legs, #16-18 Red Necks, #18 Darth Baetis, #16 Green Machines and #Jig Duracells have done the trick.
The Madison between Hebgen and Quake, for the most part remains closed due to bear activity as we mentioned last week, but we think this should open back up in the near future.
