News from Blue Ribbon Flies

Fishing Report
Weekly Conditions and Tips

As the seasons change, we will continue to do our best to provide a journal entry from some of our latest tying and fishing. We invite you to call and ask us what we've been up to if you get to wondering. We always have plenty of stories to tell.

Dennis and Nancy Golding were here a week or so ago, and brightened our days with their enthusiasm and stories. Thanks guys! See you next year.

October 7, 2010
Blue Ribbon Flies Weekly Report

Craig Mathews

Finally a touch of fall weather.. ..and it looks like more in the ten day forecast. The run up fish are beginning to respond, becoming more aggressive to the fly, both browns and rainbows. The daily emergences of Baetis mayflies are becoming stronger with unsettled weather conditions moving in. What we are saying is it now appears Yellowstone fall fishing season has finally come! After weeks of bright sun and warm daytime temps we are just now seeing the change in the weather patterns which brings on the best late season fly fishing.

This weekend Jackie and I are heading into Old Faithful Inn to celebrate Yellowstone Park Foundations "Fall at the Inn" and the opening of the new Old Faithful Visitors' Center along with the late season foundation meetings. Jackie and I remain active with the foundation serving on its Emeritus Board. While there I know we will get a chance to fish the Firehole.

Today I am meeting with Richard Lessner of The Madison River Foundation and Tim Bozorth of The Bureau of Land Management at Standard Creek, a trib of the Madison River downstream of Lyon Bridge. We have the idea of an enhancement project on the creek to improve spawning areas and more. I will keep you posted. The great news here is the collaborative approach being used here in the Madison Valley on projects such as this one and others. BLM and MRF are two of the primary players that are making the difference in our protection and enhancement of this valley and its wild trout and wildlife, along with open spaces and fish and animal migration routes and much more. We will keep you posted in this report with updates on our projects. Let's get to this week's report.

The Madison River has been great this past week. While Fall Baetis emergences have been spotty they are bringing up good trout to their activity from Raynold's Pass Bridge to the West Fork and beyond. The puzzling thing to most has been areas of the strongest activity. Normally we see Baetis in high numbers coming off above Raynolds Bridge and this year the insects seem to be strongest downstream of the $3.00 Bridge. With the changing weather conditions to cooler-overcast look for the tiny olives to show all along the river from Quake Lake to Ennis in the coming weeks. The same holds for our fall midges which have been a force downstream of Lyon Bridge all the way to Varney during the late afternoons. Morning Midges can still be found below $3.00 and near Big Bend. Warm late mornings still see strong Rhyacophila caddis near the West Fork. Fishing small nymphs like the Lucent Red Bead, $3.00 Dips and Baetis nymphs has been best bet during non-hatch times. When Baetis are brining the fish up you should have a cripple, sparkle dun and soft hackle or foam emerger. There is still very strong beetle and ant fishing all along the river - hoppers are out now for the most part. And, dead drifting an olive or tan sculpin pattern is deadly if that is your game! I really had not streamer fished much this year until yesterday when I went down to the river in the late afternoon expecting Baetis and rising trout but instead tied on one of our new sculpins and had a great time landing a couple big browns and hooking a few other that came unbuckled after a jump or two. The fall browns love to air it out when hooked and so what if they come off, you weren't going to take them home.

The Gallatin in the Park is still fishing well during Baetis times, though beetles and crickets are successful in the afternoon on bright sunny days. The river near Big Sky and below to Portal Creek is strong now with attractor dries and during Baetis times with a sparkle dun or cripple. A Mercer Baetis Nymph, $3.00 Beaded Dip in red or brown and a lime $3.00 standard Serendipity will bring plenty of good trout to net.

The Yellowstone River outside the Park has been hot and cold but becoming more consistent with the weather changing to fall conditions. I love to float this river in October. You will see lots of fish rising to Baetis daily. Most are whitefish so you must not spray your cast to rising fish, but instead pick out a rising trout and present your fly to him on a pin-point accurate dead-drift cast and it will take a sparkle dun or cripple Baetis. Now too is the time to present large streamers in the runs and riffles for big brown trout. An overcast, rainy (snowy is even better), day is a must here and in the 10-day forecast they are predicting some snow moving in mid-month. Get here for it!

The Madison in the Park has been consistently inconsistent. One day the fish are taking streamers and fall soft hackles and the next you can't buy a good trout. This is mostly a function of the bright-warm weather we have been having. The fish are there and will come to Full Dressed Reds, September Songs and Shakey's when strong sunlight is not beating down on the water. Now too is the time to swing Soft Hackle Streamers in white, yellow, and olive-black along with Sculp-Zillas and other streamers we are featuring by local tyers at the shop - they can bring some huge brown and rainbow trout to you.

The Firehole River has been very good during caddis, midge and mayfly times. The Firehole Canyon has been good too for pre-spawning, run up fish. Baetis are emerging all along the river from The Broads to Biscuit Basin. These tiny olives can give anglers the fits if you don't have a #22 dun imitation - even 8" fish become very selective to size and pattern now so be prepared with Bucky's ICU Baetis, Soft Hackle Emerger by Nick or Baetis Foam Floating Nymph tied by John. The White Miller Caddis are still out in force and while most patterns simply do not work, there are 2 must-have flies. One is the White Miller Iris and the other a cripple. The body of the emerging white miller is tiny, a #18. The wings of the caddis are huge - about a #14. This is the reason our emergers are tied a small #18 and crippled adults a larger #14-16 size. The fish want imitations dragged and waked in the film and both these patterns work well employing this technique.

Try the Gibbon River below the falls. A chocolate rubber legged stone nymph, large #4-6 Prince Nymph and white woolhead sculpin patterns will work well on this stretch of the river. It is still too early to hike into the Lewis Channel. The fish simply have not moved in in big numbers yet but should this week or next. Stay tuned here.

The Henry's Fork has had some good action of late. The Mahogany Duns are pretty much history but Fall Baetis are coming off as are caddis and midges. Now is the time to head to Henry's Lake as well, as some very large trout are coming to leeches and Chironomid imitations. This lake is just hitting its late season stride and will get better over the following few weeks.

Hegben Lake is still seeing some good action as is Earthquake. Sight nymphing and midge action has been fun and there are still some Callibaetis mayflies in places. Try hoppers on the sage brush hillsides of Quake from the boat launch up-lake to Beaver Creek. There are no prettier lakes than Cliff and Wade and both are fishing well with midges, hoppers, ants and beetles on the surface. When the wind is up try stripping small leeches like the Rickard patterns and rust squirrel streamers.

Smaller streams to try this late in the season would include the Gardner River and its tributaries like Lava and Indian Creeks as well as Glenn and Straight Creeks. I like the West Fork of the Madison River for a nice afternoon of small stream action now. But then, its hard to leave the big fall fish alone this time of year! I hope to see you on one of Yellowstone country's rivers or at the shop soon!