Ah, Yes, Summer In Montana...

[MOFishwater]

Hey Al~ If you ever get a chance, you should swing by my uncle's place outside of Bozeman in Norris.

www.norrishotsprings.com

Great place to recouperate after a long day of fishing:) Great live music most of the time! My uncle is a mandolin maestro. They bought the place a few years back and have revamped just about everything there. Cheers.

[Al Agnew]

MOfish...that sounds great. Hope to check the place out!

I worked outside around the cabin all day today...got a driveway put in but the dirt and rocks were pretty messy, so I got a start on landscaping. I was going to knock off about 5 PM and check out the local lake, but about that time a storm rolled in. Didn't rain but a few drops, but lots of wind. By the time it was over it was 7:30, but the lake is only 4 miles away, so I loaded up the canoe and went.

There were caddis flitting above the water surface, with the occasional trout chasing them, but most of the lake had enough of a chop you couldn't really see the rises. I decided to try slow-stripping a small, light olive woolybugger, something which slightly imitates a damsel fly nymph. Almost immediately hooked a nice rainbow, but it released itself a little prematurely. Then I caught a big yellow perch. Then the sun was setting and the lake got pretty quiet, and the rises started getting more numerous. I hooked another trout that nearly jerked the rod out of my hands when it hit the bugger. Lost it too. Caught a couple more yellow perch. Hooked a third trout, really big if the swirl at the surface was any indication, lost it as well. And then it was too dark to see. Actually, by the time the rises started getting reasonably regular, it was dark enough I really couldn't see what they were taking, or I'd have tried a dry fly.

The lake was beautiful in the sunset, and I took some pictures, but for some reason my computer isn't reading the memory card, so I can't post them at this point.

[Al Agnew]

Here are photos from the other evening on the lake...

Looking north

Looking south toward Yellowstone Park

Looking west over the Gallatins

Oops, don't know why that one got in twice!

[Al Agnew]

Had to meet somebody in West Yellowstone day before yesterday, and like a dope I didn't bring my flyfishing stuff along. The Madison looked good. So yesterday I went back to fish.

It's been said that only about 20% of the anglers who try the Madison inside the park are actually able to catch a fish. I'd fished it a couple of times and caught a few fish, but I do consider it tough.

Yesterday it was 6 inches or so higher than normal (up into the grass a bit), brownish colored, and visibility about 2.5 feet. I just decided to use big streamers all day and see if I could catch a big brown.

First cast with one of my "Bunnyboos", I hooked a nice brown, maybe 15 inches...and broke the tippet. I had two left of that color. Tied on the second one, and caught 3 browns 10-13 inches in about a half-hour before I lost it to a tree somewhere in back of me on my backcast. Tied on the last one. Caught a couple more small browns, then noticed that I was gathering a crowd of people. Couldn't be me...looked at where they were looking and there was a cinnamon colored black bear on the opposite bank. My artist persona took over and I ran back to the car to get the good camera gear. Spent a good half hour or more photographing the bear, surrounded by dozens of people. Once the bear finally disappeared and they all left, I went back to fishing but couldn't catch any more at that spot.

So I drove downriver to the next unoccupied parking spot where the river looked good. Caught a few more smallish browns, one maybe 14 inches. I was fishing in a spot where there was only a few feet between the river and the road, and on the other side of the road there was a steep mountainside. I happened to look downstream and there were a dozen huge bison bulls heading my way. Some of them were on the road stopping traffic, the others were taking the narrow strip of land between river and road and heading right for me. Problem was, my car was between me and them. So I hurried down to the car, arriving at it just as the first bull got within 20 feet of it. Threw the rod in the car, jumped in after it, and watched as the bulls all plodded past me.

After the excitement was over, I went back to fishing. But I almost immediately snagged my last Bunnyboo on a road sign (!) and snapped it off. I think a car ran over it and picked it up on their tire. So I dug into the box and got out a crayfish imitation I'd tied for smallmouth fishing...what the heck, I bet the fish hadn't seen THAT fly before! Sure enough, I caught 5 or 6 more browns of the standard size before having to pack it in and make the two hour drive to Bozeman to meet my wife.

Sure was nice to get in some river fishing. The Yellowstone is a foot over flood stage and every other stream around here is just as bad. My former guide friend out here has a business on the island in the middle of Livingston. There is (was) only one small bridge leading to the island, which also has about 30 houses on it. The bridge started sagging at one pillar last week, and they had to evacuate everyone off the island and close it down. He was working and had to be escorted across the bridge on foot, leaving his wife's car at the office. They are putting up a military style temporary bridge, which won't be finished installing until the end of this week.

[Dan Pemby]

Thanks for keeping us up to date Al. The photos are wonderful. I have never been to Boseman, only Billings but your narratives make me wish i was there.

[scifi]

Absolutely beautiful pics!!!

thanks for posting and keep em coming

[fly2fish]

Hey Al, I will be up in Gardiner Mont. July 8 & 9th. Is the Yellowstone fishable between there and the park? I don't know if I

will be doing most of my fishing there or in the park. I know in the evenings I will be back in Gardiner. I can't wait to get back up that

way, it has been long time since I was in Yellowstone.

HC

[Al Agnew]

HC, I thought I'd posted an answer to you a couple days ago, but somehow I must not have...

The Yellowstone is just starting to drop from its high water mark for the year, and is still above flood stage in Livingston. I think it may be at least two weeks yet until it gets fishable. Nearly all the other streams in the area are in the same situation. The only rivers I know of that are really fishable right now are the Firehole, Gibbon, and Madison in the park, and the lower Madison is marginally fishable, but could be in decent shape by then. According to my other guide friend who has been guiding on the Bighorn, it's been pretty uncrowded and is fishing well.

However, I did catch a bunch of fish yesterday. My brother-in-law and his wife were staying with us, scouting out the bowhunting possibilities in the area, since she drew a tag for this fall. We decided yesterday to hike up to Thompson Lake. It's a small lake up in the mountains, and getting to it involved a 6 mile hike (one way) and a 1300 feet elevation gain. We knew nothing of the fishing possibilities on it, and I didn't even pack a fly rod, but Jeff decided to carry a little telescoping spinning rod and reel. Really cheesy little outfit. The hike up was nice until the last mile, where we had to cross a very raging little torrent of a creek (by walking across it on a log) and then clambering over and under a lot of downed timber.

The lake was gorgeous when we got there. We relaxed and ate lunch. There were two guys on the other side fishing, and we watched them catch a few fish, so far away we couldn't tell much about the fish. They had a pile of camping gear lying on a beautiful grassy spot, and we were envying them for such a great campsite, when a group of backpackers came by us...and kept coming by us. Ended up being about 12 people, and they proceeded to go over to the grassy spot and start pitching tents all around where the two anglers had staked out their camp. I bet those guys were really bummed.

After lunch, Jeff got out his fishing pole. He dug around in his pack and came up with some little white crappie jigs, and tied one on. Where we were, it was shallow for a long way out, and it was obvious there were no fish there, but he made a few casts, enough to establish that he couldn't cast far enough to reach any good water from there. So we walked over to a spot where we could reach a bit deeper water. I stood high on the mountainside over that spot where I could see if there were any fish, while he casted. After about five casts, I saw a flash as one struck at his jig, but he didn't feel it. It struck several more times as he retrieved, and finally he felt it, but missed the strike. He cast again, and this time I saw a bit bigger flash and he hooked the fish. It was a colorful 10 inch Yellowstone cutthroat. He caught another, a bit bigger, and then told me to come down and try it. For the next hour, we proceeded to catch fish after fish, trading the little rod after each fish caught. They ranged from 9 inches to 15 inches, and each was a jewel--and obviously pretty dumb.

Finally we decided we'd better quit and start back...Sheila, who didn't have a fishing license, had been sitting up on the trail napping and feeling sorry for herself that she couldn't fish, and we had a long trek back to the truck. I nearly fell off the log over the creek on the way back, but otherwise it was uneventful. Beautiful country, nice exercise, fun fishing.

[fly2fish]

Thanks Al for the report, I will spend more time in the park then. I don't want to hike up to any lakes right now, just had knee

replacement last year, however I did that when we lived in Seattle a few years ago, hiked up to Boulder lake about a 4 mile hike and

2500 ft. altitude gain. Caught brook trout almost every cast using a fly and casting bubble on an ultralight. My buddy and I thought we

were going to be the only ones camping there but right before dark a man and his young son came up while we were grilling trout and

wanted to know if we had any fishing equipment, I said just an ultralight with a fly and cork but you are welcome to it. We had already

caught about 40 trout on that single fly and I think it was getting a little dull because I had started missing a few. He went down on a

floating log where we had been and I could tell he was getting hits but missing about 2 out of 3. He ended up with about 10 to hand and

released all. We only kept 4 for supper. The water was very clear and we were fishing in 10-12 ft of water and you could see the fish

come from the bottom like a missle to hit the fly. the bigger ones wanted to follow it few feet before taking it but the little ones would

come straight up and nail it. A few times you could see a bigger one following and a smaller one would rocket up and take it right out in

front of it. Can't beat some of those high mountain lakes.

HC

[jscheetz]

Hey Al,

Hope your summer is going well - I'm sure it is up there!

Do you ever fish any of the $ spring creeks, like Depuy's or Armstrong etc? Since those are over in your neck of the woods figured you might have some insight. Had a friend said Depuy's was really cool - but at a hundred bucks a rod now it is kind of expensive. Was up there for 8 days in the fall and fished every day and still didn't get to all the free places I wanted to - and caught fish every day - so it's hard to pry that cash out of my pocket to pay for more of the same. But if if was really amazing or something.......

anyway - should be up there in two months!! whoooohooooo!!

JS