High Water Update & Fishing Forecast

Livingston Weather | USGS Streamflows  | MT Snowpack Averages

  CFS @ Lamar River | CFS @ Corwin Springs | CFS @ Carter's

 A photo taken on July 4th of the snowpack in Yellowstone Park,   

     while flying over Hellroaring creek near the Lamar Valley...

Recently a lot of people have been asking us, "So when do you think the Yellowstone will be fish'en?"  Good question...  Here are a few guesses from people we saw in the shop:

Rick Wollum - July 15th

James Anderson - July 18th

Sam Cornthwaite - July 14th

George Anderson - July 12th

Daryl Smith - July 15th

Doug McKnight - July 13th

Hank Bechard - July 23rd

Although the CFS has dropped significantly in the last few days, the river is still the color of NESTLÉ's ® chocolate milk.  As soon as the Yellowstone drops to around 10,000 CFS and starts to look "green" it will be worth taking a look at.  As seen in the photo above, a lot of the huge snowfields in the Park and in Paradise Valley have significantly decreased, but the snow pack average in the UPPER YELLOWSTONE RIVER BASIN is still a whopping 314%. 

The rivers in the NE section of the Park are still flowing high with discolored water to match.  The Lamar, which was running around 2,000 CFS on 7/4 was flowing with more water than the Yellowstone this winter.  Pebble Creek, Soda Butte, and Cache Creek are all too high right now to fish.  Slough Creek is right on the fence however, and should be fishing well this week.  George went up to Silver Tip last week and was the only person to catch a fish - it was just too high and muddy.  He stomach pumped a few fish and they were eating worms.  The photo below shows that slough creek's waters have gone back into the stream and are no longer flooding the first meadow like last week.  The second meadow (shown below) will easier to fish from the bank and worth the hike.  As far as hatches go, look for PMD's but also bring some hoppers, ants, flying ants, crickets, and buggers.  Those big cutties won't know what hit 'em!

For those on the Salmonfly trail, the Upper Madison has been fishing well south of Ennis.  People have been putting the smack down on some big fish tight to the willows with big salmonfly dries and rubber leg droppers.  As more and more boat traffic starts to develop, don't be afraid to rock the middle of the river with two big black salmonfly nymphs.  If you don't like the sound of that, you can also target smaller 8-12 inch on the edge of the bank with caddis dries...

As for Salmonflies on the Yellowstone, there have already been a few big bugs spotted in town.  As this is a hatch that likes to move up river, we'll be seeing will be more and more - especially in the section from Emigrant to Gardiner.  The salmonflies are one of the most sensitive bugs to water pollution, and it seems like the hatch is always thickest just above and below Yankee Jim canyon.  Salmonflies also love to chill out in the willows and that section of the river is peppered with them.  There's always a few guys who don't mind taking the risk of fishing high and muddy water - I think those guys are going to catch some nice fish and stick some pigs while they still haven't seen many boats or flies. 

If you're not on the search for salmonflies, some smaller streams in the area are starting to clear and fish well with streamers.  There's about 1-2 feet of visibility for most small streams right now, some with as much as 2-4 feet.  We won't be mentioning any names of those streams here, but for those who know go get 'em!

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