Montana Weekend

[DarkShadow]

The Short Version:

Lower Gallatin - 4/30:

While the Canyon Section was blown out and the mud approaching the lower sections quickly, I found a day to fish it before the conditions would have made me start having to use San Juan worms along the shore with a lot of split shot. Throwing a double nymph rig preferably tungsten to get down quickly, under an indicator, resulted in fish for my efforts. There was a small caddis hatch that came off around 2 pm, but nothing consistent enough to get noses looking up. 24 hours later, this section had been blown out but with cooler weather in the next few, it may come back back around.

Smaller Tributary - 5/1:

With a bit of hiking, found some tributaries that had clearer water than some of the other tributaries that were already pumping mud. It seems these fish haven't seen too many anglers this season, so any nymph presented correctly got some good fish to go. I covered lots of ground, and found many willing participants. Nothing worth noting of an actual hatch, except some small midges.

Spring Creek - 5/2:

I fished light and long leaders and tried to do most of my casting and mending without having to get into the actual creek. If I had to get into the creek, I was stealthy and wasn't afraid to 'rest' water once I was inside wading. Tiny flies (18s-22s) were the ticket and although there were a few midges and Baetis coming off, there were hardly any noses looking up. Long, drag free drifts, light tippets and small flies. The fish are were where they were supposed to be, and if I wasn't getting them to go, I may have already spooked them. Broke off a few larger specimens and hooked a big fish on my last cast of the day and could not bring him to net.

[tacklejunkie]

Beautiful!
One area of the nation I have yet to visit. I’m sure my time will come. Tacklejunkie is not allowed to rest his soul. Must keep it moving. Some sort of BS law or gravitational physics or something. Definitely black holes involved.
nicely done.