Staff Articles

Livingston Springtime Fly Fishing Fun

By George Anderson

By mid-February most ardent fly fishermen are thinking that winter is nearly over and this is when some of the most fun fishing of the year gets cranked up.   With the longer days and more sunshine, daily temperatures here in Livingston have already been up into the mid 50’s and even the lower 60’s!   Lots of anglers have taken advantage of the warmer weather to get out on the Yellowstone, the Madison and our spring creeks here in the Livingston area.    Enthusiasm runs high, and an angler’s expectations are perhaps not so high as they might be later in the summer, so just getting out and catching a few nice fish makes for a very pleasant day.   

Early Season Action on the Spring Creeks

Here in Livingston we are lucky to have the Spring Creeks, like Armstrong’s, DePuy’s and Nelson’s.  These streams flow up from their aquifers at a steady temp. of 50-55 degrees all winter and the fish in the spring creeks are feeding actively all winter on a variety of small mayfly nymphs, midges, scuds and sowbugs. Of course many of you have fished these famous streams in the summer months when good hatches of PMD’s and Sulfurs provide superb dry fly fishing but have you ever thought of trying them in late February, and March, when the spring Baetis hatches some on strong and provide some of the most exciting dry fly fishing of the year. 

On the Spring Creeks there are midge hatches throughout the winter months and you’ll find fish rising most days when it isn’t too windy.   But once the larger mayflies, the Blue Wing Olives, arrive, these much larger flies really get the trout excited and soon rainbows and brown are cruising around, charging emerging duns and slurping them down like it was their last meal!    Best of all this time of the year there are fewer anglers on the spring creeks so it isn’t as crowded as it might be in the summer.   As an added bonus, the spring creek rod fees before April 15th are only $40 a day in contrast to $100 a day during the summer months.   From April 15th to the middle of June, the fee goes up a little, to $75, and these rates are the same on all of the creeks. 

Weather can be a factor of course but surprisingly during these spring months, the very best hatches and dry fly fishing can come on the nasty days when it is heavily overcast or even spitting rain or snow.   The Baetis hatches normally start in early March, but with the warm weather this winter we started seeing Baetis in the middle of February.   The heavier hatches will come later of course, and the days you want to be out on the creek are when those Blue Wing Olives carpet the water.     On nicer days the Baetis hatches will be of shorter duration and will normally run from 11 AM to 1 or 2 PM.    With more cloud cover though, the bugs may start hatching at 10 AM and run pretty much throughout the afternoon.      Cloud cover really makes these Baetis hatches pop.   Just last week my son Jamie and I were out on Armstrong’s and as soon as a cloud passed over for a few minutes, insects would be hatching and trout rising everywhere.  As soon as the cloud passed though, the surface feeding quit and we had to rely on small Pheasant Tail nymphs and midge pupa and larva to catch fish.

You’ll want to be armed with a variety of fly patterns at this time of the year.   Everything from egg patterns to tiny midge larva, small red worms, scuds and sowbugs.   

In February and early March most of the rainbows that live in the spring creeks will spawn while the Yellowstone River rainbows that run into the spring creeks to spawn continue to run in through early April.       The spawning activity is limited to certain areas where there are good gravel beds and faster water flow.   The lower portion of O’Hair’s is a good example, as is Betty’s Riffle on DePuy’s.      There is always some controversy about fishing to these spawning rainbows, but as long as anglers are careful to not wade out into the areas where the fish are actually building redds and spawning, I don’t feel that it hurts to catch these fish as long as one is very careful in handling the fish and releasing them. 

Using barbless hooks is a good idea, especially with the egg patterns that are so deadly at this time.    We use small yarn glo bugs and also some new Otter soft milk eggs.   The best color seems to be the amber, which comes close to the color of the rainbow eggs.    Not only will the rainbows take these egg patterns, but also you’ll find some nice fat browns hanging in with the rainbows too, eating the spawned eggs.     A lot of this fishing is visual, as you can see the fish lying out there on the redds, where they are spawning, and these spawning fish will chase down your egg pattern.   Deeper water over drop offs and heavier runs below these spawning areas will always hold nice fish.   Just be careful with your wading and stay off the gravel areas where your wading would crush already spawned eggs lying deeper in the gravel.    Usually you can fish these areas from the bank or the edge of the stream with a longer cast and no harm is done.

My favorite patterns for the Baetis and Midge hatches

This is my favorite kind of fishing- when you can spot a rising fish and try to sucker him into rising to take your Baetis or midge imitation.    On the spring creeks you’ll have to use small flies and fine tippet.    For dry midge patterns I like many of Rene’ Harrop’s midge patterns, including his CDC Biot Midge Emerger, and his standard darker CDC midge emerger.   These are sometimes tough to see but are deadly.    You can fish them with a small yarn indicator too, if you can’t see them.   CDC Adult midge patterns are good too.   Sizes for these midges should be 20-22’s. 

If there is nothing going on the surface, try some of the small 18-20 olive midge larva.  These and the lace larva are often deadly.   Midge pupa patterns are always good.   Small black epoxy head midges and WD 40’s are often killers when nothing else will work.   For Dry Baetis patterns, the sparkle duns stand out as easy to see for the angler and appealing to the trout with their trailing shucks.   Harrop’s Biot Sparkle Dun, Baetis CDC Thorax Dun, and the simple CDC Baetis Dun are all excellent dry patterns.  Use these in sizes 18 down to 22.   Sometimes, during the height of the hatch, I try to go larger than the flies on the water and the trout will often pick out your larger fly from the hundreds of other Baetis that are blanketing the water.      You’ll need to be fishing at least 6X for the Baetis and down to 7X for dry midges.       Sometimes my most effective fly is a Shane Stalcup CDC Baetis Emerger pattern that swings right in the surface film.    You can grease this with a little floatant or just let it sink slowly.   Probably the best nymph pattern we have for the Baetis hatches is the Sawyer PT nymph in size 18-20.  Its thin silhouette is perfect.    Along with this, our Thin Baetis nymph in size 18 and 20 is another great pattern to try.

Other patterns to try

I’ve already discussed the egg patterns, but later in the spring, after the fish have spawned and the Baetis hatches are not as strong, then the fish start looking harder for both scuds and sowbugs, which are found in the moss beds in the riffles.    You’ll actually see fish rooting around plucking these scuds and sowbugs off the weed growth.    The Scuds are more olive green in color, while the sow bugs are a light translucent gray.    Our best patterns for the sow bugs are the gray sparkle scuds in sizes 16-18, while the olive sparkle scuds are better for the scuds in 14-16.  Soft hackle sow bugs will work well too at times.   Ditto for the Ray Charles that was so popular on the Bighorn. Don’t overlook fishing small wooly buggers, especially if you stay out late on the creeks and fish close to dark.  This is an especially good way to catch some of those big browns that don’t show themselves during the daytime.  Shift up to a 2X leader and hang on!  

The early season on the Yellowstone

Once the weather breaks in early to mid-February, there can be some outstanding fishing to be had on the Yellowstone River proper.  Water temperatures are climbing up to 40 degrees and above and the fish get much more active.   Throughout the spring there are some very heavy midge hatches that occur on the Yellowstone and if you can get out there on a day when there isn’t too much wind, the dry fly fishing can be outstanding.   Unlike the spring creeks, you can use larger midge imitations, and in fact midge cluster patterns like a big Griffith Gnat can be amazingly effective.    Larger single gray midge emerger patterns like 18’s and 20’s are excellent.   Floating the Yellowstone gives the best access, and we can help you book an outfitter or guide to show you the best spots and get you into some nice fishing.    You can wade fish quite effectively also, but it is often some distance from one good spot to the next.  

Early Season Nymphing

Riffle corners are ideal places to fish nymphs and you’ll want to concentrate on the slower water, a little farther back in the pool than you might be used to in the summer.    Stonefly and cased caddis patterns are always good in sizes from 8 down to 14.  A variety of bead head nymphs in sizes 12-16 seem to always work, especially the Copper John.      I’ll often use a dropper system and fish two nymphs, starting with a Rubber Leg Brown Stone in size 8 or 10 for the first fly, and follow that up with a size 14 or 16 Copper John.    I’ll often fish this rig with a floating indicator or just use one of our 12-foot Hot Butt leaders if I’m fishing close.  

Fishing the Midge Hatches

In February and March, you’ll find these intense midge hatches producing some good dry fly fishing, especially close to the foam eddies and backwashes.   There will often be a big school of rainbows in these eddies sipping in midges along the edges of the foam and under the foam.    Sometimes the most deadly technique is to drift a small dark nymph or midge Pupa just under the foam.   This will usually get an immediate strike.    You’ll be able to fish to individual fish along the edge of these eddies using midge emergers in 18-20, gray cluster midges in 14-18 and Griffith Gnats in 16-22.   You’ll need to use at least 5X and more likely 6X to get the kind of drift you’ll need to catch these fish. 

Late March and April Baetis Hatches on the Yellowstone

The Baetis show up a bit later on the Yellowstone than they do on the Spring Creeks but when these dark gray size 18 mayflies show up on the river, many more good sized trout start looking up and rising to these first mayfly hatches of the season.    Typically, the best days are going to be darker, more overcast days, and if you can hit a day like this with little wind, the dry fly fishing can be outstanding.   In addition to the Baetis there is always a chance of seeing some larger March Brown Mayflies.   We see these in March and April but never in big numbers like the Baetis.   These big bugs do get the fish interested though, so be prepared.  

The Mothers Day Caddis” hatches  

This is the “big one” if you can hit it.    Caddis swarming everywhere, blanketing the water and bringing up all the big fish in the river that you normally don’t see rising.     Cover any of these rises with a size 14 Elk Hair Caddis or Henryville Caddis and you get an immediate take.   Two to three pound fish are rising everywhere.   Once you get to see and fish this hatch, it keeps you coming back for more.   The problem is hitting the timing just right.    These caddis hatches key into water temperature and always occur just before the runoff starts and the river gets muddy and unfishable.    Often we have very good fishing in off color water, since the hatch is so intense.    Most years the timing is the last week in April or the first week in May. 

The way the weather has been this winter; we expect that the big caddis hatch may come a little earlier, maybe closer to the 3rd week in April.   It’s a tough call as a lot depends on the weather and air temperature.    If it stays too cold, the bugs won’t hatch, and if it gets too hot, the river may go right into runoff in just a few days.     What we hope for is a period of a week or 10 days when the conditions are warm enough to get the caddis hatches rolling but not hot enough to bring on the heavy runoff.    Sometimes we’ll get some hot days and the river will come up and it looks like it’s over, but then it cools off and we get another week of great fishing.   The best way to hit this hatch is to stay in constant contact with us here at the shop and we can give you a current report on the caddis hatch and our outlook on what will happen in the next few days.  It’s a crazy hatch but if you hit it right just once, you’ll have some of the greatest dry fly fishing you’ve ever seen.  You’ll be hooked. 

Early Season on our local Lakes

It’s easy to forget about lake fishing at this time of the year, but just after the ice goes out the fish seem go on a feeding binge and the fishing can be just outstanding, especially with nymphs and streamers.    We have two good lakes we are fishing in this early season.  Burns Lake, near Big Timber is perhaps the most consistent.  It is ice-free right now, in mid-Feb and should remain so through the spring.   It’s an easy to catch a pile of 16-18 inch rainbows on bead heads; streamers, scuds and damsel fly patterns.  This spring fishing on Burns can be red-hot.   Burns Lake allows 4 anglers a day and the rod fee is $90 a day.  Fishing is best with pontoon boats, float tubes or with a drift boat.       Another lake that has been impressive is Buckingham Reservoir, near White Sulphur Springs.   This is a beautiful hour and a half drive north from Livingston.    You can catch both brook trout and rainbows there, and some of the rainbows are huge!   We had several clients hook and land fish in the 25-28 inch range this past spring and summer.    This lake will ice out a bit later, probably by early April.    Check with us on this.   Rod fees are $90 a day for a group of 2-3 anglers.    You can fish with a boat or with float tubes or pontoon boats.   

For more information about visiting the Paradise Valley area in the spring time, feel free to call, or email us.