MT fishing

Fishing has gotten off to a very slow start in my neck of the woods
in MT. We ve had plenty of water which is a good thing. Lots of snow
pack and the Mo is 6000 CFS below Holter dam with lots more to come!

Winds have been in the 20-30 mph category alot of the time too. The
March midge hatch was abundant yet I didnt see a fish feeding on top
the whole month. Go figure, maybe the high flows???

The funny & puzzling thing is the river has experienced July
conditions as far as fisherman traffic! Last saturday it looked like
the Spanish Armada was departing from the Holter dam boat ramp. The
local eatery , totally unprepared for this assault had sold out of food
by the end of the weekend. The rainbows are out of the river spawning.
There s no hatch, tho the olives are due soon. I hope they caught
some white fish on san juans as that was about all there was to
catch other than an occaisional brown. Seems like an expensive date for
some whitefish at $400 a trip!

I did get out this week to fish for rainbows running out of Holter
lake . They cluster near Hauser dam on the upper Mo. Caught a few
nice fish nymphing but they were more interested in sniffing butts than
seriously feeding. I think most of those fish are stockers and I dont
think they are able to spawn in the river.

Going out with Warren Sunday for a float on the Lower Madison below
3 Forks. By clave time it s too warm to fish there and there s
limited wading access. Weather is supposed to be a bit crummy but
perhaps without RW along it will be just fine!

MT

The Baetis are thick on the Madison
right now, below Meadow lake anyway,
in the Beartrap and below that. Not sure
about as far down as Three Forks.

Yes, I've noticed what you said too,
over the years: the Missouri can be tough
in the early season, especially when all
the rainbows are up the creek (and we've
got the paddles).

Right below dams is an April spot that
always seems to work.

In article , Sandy Pittendrigh
wrote:

The Baetis are thick on the Madison
right now, below Meadow lake anyway,
in the Beartrap and below that. Not sure
about as far down as Three Forks.

Yes, I've noticed what you said too,
over the years: the Missouri can be tough
in the early season, especially when all
the rainbows are up the creek (and we've
got the paddles).

Right below dams is an April spot that
always seems to work.



Hi Sandy
You were correct about the Baetis. We floated to Cobblestone but
water while not chocolate was seriously off color and while there were
plenty of bugs we didnt see anything rising. Switched to standard nymph
patterns when they didn t work , went to some big ugly ones, when they
didn t work tried some buggers . When those didnt work we ate lunch,
told Democrats for Bush jokes, and watched the Baetis fly around and
then got off the big river.

Fished a little spring creek Warren knew about and caught some there
, mostly small but a couple 10 "+ but no bigger than 11" I must in all
accuracy say. The funny thing was the wind was in our faces at first
and fish were real spooky. Casting up to this narrow stream I was lucky
to get the fly in the water. Tho when the wind died it was great. Tho
some of the 3" fish were at a bit of a disadvantadge against a Loomis 4
wt GLX 9' rod. I think Warren wasn t taking any chances and was using a
6 wt 9' with 0x tippet. On one strike I saw him make, the little guy
came flying back 40' over the dike. Luckily I was there to recuse
the poor fellow. It was that kind of day but still good to be out.

MT