News from Blue Ribbon Flies

What's New
What's Happening in Yellowstone Country

We are waiting on some new snow here in Yellowstone Country. Yellowstone National Park opens to winter travel today but lack of snow on the roads has snowmobile travel prohibited and snowcoaches have had to be modified to allow their travel into the gate. While there is still good snow in the high country the river valleys could use a shot now. Yesterday we had 4" here in the Madison while West Yellowstone received only an inch of new snow. But, the good news is temperatures will soar today, we may even hit 30 degrees near Wolf Creek and I plan on fishing after helping conduct a spawning nest inventory on upper Odell Creek this morning. We've been very busy at the shop lately getting out Christmas gifts to those on customer lists, finishing up our 2012 catalogue which is now at the printers and should be out around the first of the new year, dying lots of materials, tying thousands of flies and looking forward to winter days getting longer soon.

Last winter was gray, windy and cold while this winter so far has been bright and calm and not so cold. Even so, it has been cold enough to discourage much afternoon midge fishing as we have not had many days the temps break 24 degrees in river valleys. And heck, according to the calendar the winter solstice is still 6 days away! We are all optimistic this winter will be a better one to get out on the rivers as well as do some cross county skiing and joy our long winters here in Yellowstone.

There is still time to take advantage of our Christmas gift list along with some of our specials you will see in this newsletter. We will be having a "Fly Sale" from time-to-time so you'll want to stay tuned in here all winter to take advantage of these awesome fly deals. And we will begin to film clips of tying new fly patterns, fly tying materials, us winter fishing and much more right here so make sure you pay attention and closely read this weekly report, you will be tested!

A Madison River Management program is just getting off the ground and you can get the latest news of its progress here. Yellowstone National Park's aggressive lake trout program on Yellowstone Lake as well as its native and wild trout management programs will be focused on here in future issues and much-much more on news about the state of the fisheries here in Yellowstone country so don't move off this focused dial!

As usual in the rest of this issue, 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 fall and 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.