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Greetings!
Welcome to another Blue Ribbon Flies weekly newsletter. Thanks for tuning in. Settle in and we'll tell you what's happening around West Yellowstone and our other favorite spots, show you the fly and the material of the week, and tempt you to plan your next trip with us.
We've got a lot to show you and tell you about this week, so settle down in a comfy chair and dig in. Take a break from work or play, grab a cup of coffee, and pretend you're leaning on the counter here at Blue Ribbon Flies.
We hope to see you soon, right here in West Yellowstone, but until then we wish you happy and healthy fishing and fly tying. All our best to each of you. We wish you were here, but until you are we'll keep you in the loop. Thanks for stopping by.
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What's New
What's Happening in Yellowstone Country
Thanks to the crew at Montana Troutfitters in Bozeman and all the folks that showed up for our fly tying presentation last Saturday. What a fun day we had tying several of our fly patterns for fishing Yellowstone country as well as discussing the new tying material just out and much more.
The first pairs of mating geese are showing up here in the Madison Valley and it is only 3 weeks to spring and robins returning here for the summer!
A reminder, your Montana fishing license expires at the end of our fishing day tomorrow, 28 February. Cam wanted me to bring up one of his favorite products, the Simms License Holder that is weatherproof, and holds and protects fishing licenses, driver's license and more. You will see some guides wearing these around their necks so even their guide license are handy if needed.
Cam's favorite summer fishing trips are featured in this newsletter also so read on and enjoy, and be thinking of a few overlooked waters in Yellowstone his guide crew could take you to this season!
Nick, Bucky, John and I have been tying hundreds of dozens, (yes dozens), of flies for the shop since the first of the year. A favorite new tying material has fast become EP Trigger Point Fibers. We are using these beautiful strands of translucent fibers to wing our famous mayfly cripple patterns as well as midges and caddis like our Iris. Trigger fibers also make great shucks on caddis, mayflies and midges and tie a mean parachute post as well. The colors are incredible as you can see from the photo. The mixtures and blends of fiber colors create a mottled effect like no other tying material we know of. I've been using the dun and dark dun for winging our Zelon Midge pattern as well as imitating the trailing shucks. I have great success blending it and twisting a Serendipity body too.
Phil, Al and I have been spending most of the last days of the late fishing season on the Madison before it closes this Thursday. Al fishes his Tenkara rod exclusively while Phil and I video and switch back and forth from our Winston B3x's to Tenkara rods. One thing we have all come to agree on is a Ketchum Release Tool is required for fishing small flies in cold temperatures, or any temps for that matter! This handy gizmo not only saves time, it makes things easier on the trout when releasing it and also saves on flies as well. It makes the difference between having to retie a new fly on by quickly and easily removing it from the jaw of a trout and presenting the fly to the next rising fish without having to tie on a fresh fly. I wish I'd thought of this idea, as well as the famous FinSport Fly Keeper!
My good friend Yvon Chouinard will be fishing with me next week along with working on our book project. Last fall he gave me a copy of Dave Hughes "Wet Fly" (THIS MIGHT BE TITLED WET FLIES SO LET'S CHECK!!!!) the "best book", according to Yvon, about fishing soft hackles, nymphs and wet flies. I've read it, tied some flies and found it to be not only the best book of the subject(s) but a great read as well.
Our guides will be unhappy with Cam, Bucky and I this week but we have decided to offer, on our weekly fly sale, their favorite Pink Lady (Epeorus sp) pattern as our featured "sale fly". Not only easy to see but durable and floats like a cork the #16 Vis-A-Dun is a great addition to a fly box for fishing Yellowstone in July and August on most area rivers. It is especially good on the Gallatin and Madison as well as the Yellowstone and canyon stretches of the Henry's Fork, Lamar, Soda Butte, Gardner and others.
Our newsletter last week, the BRF Special Fly Tying Edition, was well received by fly tiers from the US and around the world; places as far off as the Netherlands, Japan, Canada and Sweden that we want to remind tiers to check it out again and take advantage of the specials and ideas we offered up! Thanks to you all for making this one special for fly tiers and all of us at BRF!
Cam and Dan are firing up for their saltwater fly-fishing trips. It makes those of us staying behind in the snow and cold very envious! We will try and get their weekly reports from Belize and Mexico in the following few editions of this report so stay tuned here. Both will be checking in daily with reports and photos while we toil in the cold.
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 summer and fall 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.
Read more from Blue Ribbon Flies...
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Fishing Report
Weekly Conditions and Tips
The Wedge Madison Valley
Fishing Report by Craig Mathews
The Madison River has fished incredibly well all winter. Many feel its winter midge fishing has been the best in years. Most of us felt last year would be hard to beat, but this one has been outstanding and most local anglers will admit now that the season is coming to a close on the upper river it has been the best in years! Locals love fishing the winter months but hate to talk about it too loudly not wanting winter visitors "hogging their water". This year they've had the river pretty much to themselves. Heck, I am trying to finish this and Phil just now called and tells me to "meet him on the river in 45 minutes". It is sunny, and calm and forecasted to reach 30 degrees so I leave you now for a bit but stay tuned I'll be back typing this later today!
I doubt if Phil will have time to get some of the video edited before this comes out but make sure you check out next week's newsletter. We will be inserting some footage of the huge rise of fish we experienced today, along with us taking a few nice trout. Today was easily the best midge-fishing day I've had, and Phil admits he feels this way too, that we've had in 10 years. From 11a.m. to 3 p.m. we had rising trout to fish to. We walked away from rising fish. Nearly every pocket, pool and run had risers coming up to clusters of mating midges. We took browns and rainbows to 18" and got some incredible footage of fish working the midges. Stay tuned here in future reports!
The river from Earthquake Lake downstream to McAtee Bridge closes to fishing Thursday, 28 February, to protect spawning rainbows. The stretch between Hebgen and Quake Lakes remains open all-year as does the water from McAtee to Ennis.
The Gallatin from the Park line downstream to Greek Creek can see great midge fishing now as well as the Yellowstone near Livingston, Mt. Midge dries and pupae and stonefly nymphs can be expected to take some very fine trout during mid-day hours.
If spring creeks are your game you may want to head to the Livingston area creeks for good dry midge fishing.
Give us a call and we will set you up and get you fishing some of the finest dry-fly action of the new year!
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Guide Trip of The Week
Fish With The Best!
This week we thought we would give you a little look at a few places to fish if you are coming to Yellowstone country in late July and early August. These are a few spots that our guides like fish at this time of year and we thought we'd pass them along to our faithful newsletter subcribers. Some of these I'm sure most of you are familiar with, but a few may be new and interesting. Take a look.
Bacon Rind : This tributary to the Gallatin is a terrific stream that offer fun dry-fly fishing with attractors to small fish. Bacon Rind can hold larger run-up fish from the Gallatin in the last hundred or so yards before it enters the bigger river. In the upper waters, Bacon Rind holds gorgeous brook trout that average ten inches, and cutthroat trout averaging ten to twelve inches. Attractors like stimulators, and small hoppers are the ticket here. Be sure to make plenty of noise and always travel with a partner as these two streams are in quality Bear country.
Hebgen Lake: Gulp.. ..Gulp.. ..Gulp.. ..Gulp.. ..the sweet sound of summer in West Yellowstone is the sound of Gulpers! What is a gulper? A gulper is a 14-22 inch rainbow or brown that is nosily slurping down one of the millions of Tricos or callibaetis mayflies that pepper the surface of Hebgen Lake every morning in August. Although there are tons of bugs, and tons of focused trout, the fishing is challenging! The sight of large trout greedily inhaling one bug after another, on the placid surface of the Madison arm, will send shivers down your body and have you trembling in anticipation of the trout's next rise--hopefully to your fly! Callibaetis cripples, Callibaetis spinners, trico spinners and a watercraft are all you need to take advantage of the most unique lake fishing around!
Blacktail Deer Creek: The Fishing is excellent for richly colored brook trout in the 8-10 inch range. These fish are easily taken with attractor patterns, beetles and ant patterns
Grebe Lake: This 156-acre lake supports a good population of rainbow trout and Grayling that average 14 and 11 inches, respectively. It's best reached by a 3-mile hike from the Grebe Lake Trailhead, found 3 ½ miles west of Canyon Junction. Although you can fish from shore, we advise using a float tube, because the fish always seem to be just out of casting range. If you want to catch grayling this is the place to be. This time of the year the fish move in among the lily pads and weed beds to feed on emerging Callibaetis and damselflies. Depending upon the year you may take these fish on grasshopper and ant patterns. Stripping leach patterns is also very effective.
Gardner: The Gardner River is a beautiful spot to fish in the height of the summer! The canyon water near Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone Park offers great fishing with hoppers, as well as moderate PMD and Caddis activity. Afternoons are usually best. Look for deep runs, and grassy undercut banks to drift your hopper along. The average fish is an eager 10-14 inch cutthroat, though you can run into bigger browns hiding beneath undercut banks.
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Hope you enjoy the latest issue. We'll keep 'em
coming, keeping you up to date on the best
fishing water, tips, and gear we can get our
hands on.
Thanks for spending time with us. We'll see you soon!
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