What's New
 What's Happening in Yellowstone Country

It's that time of year again Salt water time! Since Cam Is leaving this week for Mexico and Belize we have had the Salt on our minds and thought we would tell you about a couple of our good friends Bill & Gretchen Baldus. While FlyFish10k is located in the 10,000 Islands and Everglades of southwest Florida, it has deep roots in the streams and mountains of Montana. Bill and Gretchen Baldus opened FlyFish10k just about a year ago after moving from Bozeman eight years ago to pursue their dreams of saltwater fly fishing. Bill and Craig go back over thirty years from fly fishing in Michigan to working together on the West Yellowstone Police Department.

Located near Everglades City, Florida at Port of the Islands, FlyFish10k is a fly fishing only guide service as well as an on-line fly shop catering to the saltwater fly fisherman and tier. The Everglades is one of the most unique places in the world with a diverse eco system and opportunity for the fly fisherman to catch a variety of species. Sight fishing for tarpon, redfish and snook is Bill's specialty but there are trout, triple tail, mangrove snapper, black drum, shark, mackerel, bluefish, jacks and lady fish frequently targeted by the fly fisherman in this area. This area is surprisingly remote compared to other areas of Florida's coast due to the vast areas encompassed by the 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Refuge and Everglades National Park. Besides the fishing, there are manatees, deer, black bear, panther, alligators, otter and many unique bird species in this area.

Bill is a licensed master captain and operates two flats skiffs in the expanse of islands and bays that make up the 10,000 Islands and Everglades National Park. The 17' Maverick comfortably accommodates two anglers and is used for many of the tarpon and near shore trips. The other boat is a 16' Scandy White, used for poling the back bays and extreme shallow water sight fishing for one or two anglers. I was talking with Bill the other day and asked about his typical client and their typical level of expertise. He said "there is no typical client, just as each person is different; each trip is geared toward their expectations and abilities, from customers who have never fly fished in salt to customers who are saltwater addicts."

Many of the fly patterns used on Bill's fishing trips are designed and tied by him. The Jail Bait, Neon Knight and Alien are a few of his unique and effective fly patterns. If you are looking for a unique destination that is easy to get to and an opportunity to fly fish in a truly magical area, check out www.FlyFish10k.com and give Bill a call for a current fishing report.

The first signs of spring are showing in Yellowstone country. Some owls and geese have returned, mating pairs of both bald and golden eagles soar over the Madison Valley benches and tumble together on late afternoon convection winds. Craig's records show blue birds will return next week and robins are within 2 weeks of showing up in the upper valley. This morning a cow and calf moose fed on willows near the West Fork of the Madison and over 50 big horn sheep were making a go of it near the Earthquake Lake Visitors Center. All of us here in Yellowstone are really looking forward to the coming spring, it has been a long-windy winter.

As usual in the rest of this newsletter, you'll find fishing news from Yellowstone Country in the weekly Fishing Report. You can see what's hot off the vise in the Fly of the Week, get a sneak peek at some of the best materials on our tying bench in the Fly Tying Material of the Week, and stay up to date with the guide staff and their trips in the Guide Trip of the Week.

You'll be seeing a new email newsletter most every week throughout the winter to keep you tuned in to all things fly fishing and fly tying in the greater Yellowstone area and beyond. Throughout the seasons, we'll keep sending you news of hatches and fishing holes around West Yellowstone. So without further delay, go ahead and jump right into the newsletter. And as always, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email if you have any questions, or if you just want a little fish talk.

Check Out Fly Fish 10K 

 Fishing Report
 Weekly Conditions and Tips

We've had some good fishing the past 2 days. The Madison has fished well between the lakes and the Gallatin has come alive during daily midge times. With the forecasted warm-up the next several days the Madison below Bear Trap will fish very well. We like to sight fish the large browns and rainbows on this stretch during the month of March as they move to take emerging midges. This can be some of the most challenging and rewarding fishing I know of and now's the time to do it! Too, the Henry's Fork is ready to roll during midge activity. This great river always fishes well in March so head down to Ashton, Idaho and have some fun with the big browns and rainbows there. More on the fishing in just a minute, first we should bring back to your attention Montana House Bill 309.

Please, please take time to comment on Montana House Bill 309. Follow the links below, take time, make the effort and respond to this challenge we as fishermen face in keeping our access to Montana's great rivers and steams open to anglers.

Here are a couple of direct quotes from Montana TU's executive director Bruce Farling:

"The measure is a sneaky attempt to undermine Montana's stream access law that guarantees the public the right to get to streams and rivers", said Bruce Farling, executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited.

"This is going to kick Montanans off of streams they've been fishing since Montana was a territory," he said Monday. "Hundreds of miles of streams would be affected."

Ok let's take a look at our limited fishing: Fishing the Madison between the lakes gets stronger each day. More and more pre-spawning rainbows are showing up now and they come to midge imitations like the Rick's Blood Midge, Slough Creek Midge Larva, Red and standard $3 Dips and PT Chironomids and Chocolate WD 40's. Chances of finding surface feeding are poor on this stretch but we should see some fish coming up in the next couple weeks the closer you get to the mouth with Quake Lake. The river below the Bear Trap should come alive this week with warmer weather. As reported above, we all like to head down and walk and stalk searching out and sight fishing to holding-cruising fish which are looking for midge pupae in the drift. The same flies as above will work now here but have dry imitations like our Zelon, Skittering Zelon and Griffith's Gnat Emergers for fishing to the odd riser. Take your time and get to the river around 11am and stay until 3pm remember being in this canyon you do not see much sun!

The Gallatin is fishing well near Big Sky, Snowflake Springs and Greek Creek. These spots are a ways apart so concentrate on one area and go for it. Most activity will be with GM Nymphs and those listed of the Madison but also have a big brown stone nymph along too. Most productive times are noon to 4pm.

The Henry's Fork is fishing below Ashton, Idaho. March offers up some incredible action on this great river when afternoon temps warm up above 35 or 40. It is all midges and the fish can be impossible to fool at times but when you do they'll be big! The same midge patterns listed for Madison but add a Miracle Pupa and you are convered!

Montana House Bill 309, this could effect you. Read More! 

 Fly of the Week
 Hot off the Vise

Egg Laying Caddis

Another fly Craig has been working on is one we have used for years, the Egg-Laying Caddis. You can see me tie one later in this report by following the link to the video Cam shot. For the over-wing I use a couple wraps of mottled ruffed grouse wrapped over deer hair. You will note how beautiful this fly is and it is a killer pattern that's easy to tie. When female caddis of the important Brachycentrus sp. return to the water to lay their eggs big trout know, and take advantage of the meal this insects offer up. These larger trout line up behind boulders, logs and vegetation which the caddis use to literally walk under water and deposit their egg mass. Once they release the eggs they will drift back to the surface film and fly off the water only to return again in a while to lay another load of eggs. The large trout pick the drifting caddis from the film and this fly is the best representation of egg-laying caddis there is. It is easy to tie and becomes one of the prettiest flies in your box! A ruffed grouse skin is something to look at, and use, and becomes an important feather source in your fly tying material arsenal.

Watch Craig tie a Egg Laying Caddis 

 Fly Tying Material of the Week
 Unique Materials for Effective Patterns

California Quail

Many of you have asked us to let you know when we got these little beauties back in. Well they are here plus we thought we would talk a little about them in a short video. You can watch this video by clicking either the link below or the photo.

It seems that most of the flies we are tying lately use CDC of one form or another. Bucky has been working on our CDC Baetis and PMD Spinners and I have spent much of my time cranking out CDC Baetis and PMD Sparkle Duns. One item we recommend for ease in using as well as cost is our Cul De Chicken which we incorporate in our important CDC Spinner series. These large patches of fluffs are Watershed treated and float as well as the real thing, plus they are much less expensive!

We just scored a good supply of CDC Puffs this week. I like these for tying our Mole Midge as well as the smaller CDC patterns we use like the Hanging Midge and tiny blue-winged-olive mayflies. The puffs have been hard to come by this year so if you are in need of some make sure you take advantage.

What does Craig have to say about California Quail? 

 Get em while there hot!
 Volume 2 of Fly Tying Yellowstone Hatches

We are so excited to have this video that we thought we would put it in one more newsletter one more time for those of you who haven't got the news.

By popular demand Fly Tying Yellowstone hatches Vol II is a follow up to Fly tying Vol I. This DVD is filmed in high quality wide screen format. There are 33 flies featured in this DVD, new ones and classics that must be included. These flies are not used in the Yellowstone area and throughout the country, they are tried and true around the world. All flies in this video are tied by Craig Mathews and guest tier Bucky McCormick.

Keep up with us on the BRF Blog... 

 On The GO!
 Where the Heck is Craig?

Ok this isn't exactly Craig but you get the idea. Where the heck is Craig? We get this question all of the time and while most of the time Craig is right here in the shop we thought we would have him write out where he will be the next few weeks. Let er rip Craig!

This Friday, March 4th, I head to Salt Lake City for a keynote address to The Henry's Fork Foundation's fundraising event. This all takes place at the downtown Raddison on Temple. We will have a wonderful time, raise some serious conservation capital for the foundation and have some incredible auction items. One of the auction prizes is a week stay for 4 on National Geographic's research vessel "Ocean" where the winners will take part in a research program, and the filming of it. I am excited to deliver the keynote speech and look forward to seeing some of you there.

The following week I head to Bozeman to do a presentation for the Madison-Gallatin Chapter of Trout Unlimited on March 9th at the Holiday Inn on N 7th St. Before the meeting my good friends from Trust for Public Land and I will meet to discuss ongoing conservation easements in the Madison Valley so stay tuned here for information on the progress of these easements and more!

On March 11 I am off to Kansas City for a 2 day program there for Heart of America Fly Fishers. This will be a fun event as there will be fly tying and conservation presentations as well as a program I do on "Underfished and Overlooked Waters of Yellowstone Country". After this event I head home for a couple weeks then off to do a few more presentations, more to follow.

Fish WIth The Best! 

 It's time to get ready to fish!
 Some essential products to get you ready for the 2011 season.

The Echo Micro Practice Rod

Here at the shop we have been tying like mad and working on material dying and preparation for the upcoming season. Bucky and John have been having fun showing some area youngsters, and oldsters the ease in which learning casting can be accomplished with the Eco-Micro Practice Rod. So continuing on with the series of essentials for getting ready for the 2011 fishing season we thought that casting was way to important for just one newsletter. You can watch John demonstrate this with our video link. This little rod has helped dozens of our friends learn to cast, or become a better caster merely by spending a few minutes each day with it. You might remember our featuring the Eco-Micro last year in many of these reports. John uses the rod in his casting lessons and calls it, "the best tool for learning how to cast" and for only $39.99! If you have someone you'd like to get into fly fishing this is a great way to start. Or, it you need to brush up on your own casting technique this is the tool! If you come into the shop in winter you can watch us casting away during down times with the Eco-Micro it is an incredibly effective tool which will make a better caster out of you!

Echo Miro Practice Rod! Watch John demonstrate this awesome tool. 

 Learning From The Water.
 Rene Harrop

Rene Harrop records lessons learned from years fishing the worlds toughest trout water. His home water, the Henrys Fork, is one of the most challenging spring creeks in the world, and over his lifetime fishing the Henrys Fork, he has developed legendary techniques and flies to meet the challenge.

Looking at another book Minori came across a real treasure while cleaning the shop yesterday. A lone copy of "In Praise of Wild Trout", limited first edition, 1998. This lovely book, edited by Nick Lyons, is hardbound and comes in an attractive slipcase. The book is illustrated by Allen James Robinson. Nick Lyons writes the foreword along with a chapter in the book. Some of the other authors are W.D. Wetherell, Datus Proper, John Gierach, John Engels, Chris Camuto and Dr. Robert Behnke. All authors have signed this delightful and informative read. We have only one copy and it is in great condition.