Montana fishing season opener was Saturday May 16th and the fishing was good on the upper Madison at the Reynolds bridge area. A brown rubberleg and a red or black serendipity dropper was just what the fish were looking for on the way up the river, on the way back down I threw a mixture of big olive, white, or brown articulated streamers, that got the fish interested but not enough to actually eat the fly, the fly that did the trick on the way back down was a big size 2 black flashy bugger fishing less than a foot off the bank casting and twitching by all the undercut banks or big rocks trying to move one or two big fish and ended up with 3 nice browns within 20 yards of the bridge.

The ice is now moving off hebgen lake but you better hurry cause it wont be there for long, from the longhorn saloon down to the damn is iced over but its disappearing in a hurry, the flies to use on hebgen along the banks and out in a boat would be a mixture of leech patterns, wolly buggers, streamers, griffiths gnats and a nice assortment of chironamids in all different colors and sizes and possibly even a big crayfish pattern that we sell here at the shop.

The park is opening up this saturday the 23rd for fishing and as long as the water holds up, it should be another great weekend of fishing, the firehole always fishes good on the opener with small nymphs, soft hackles, and depending on weather possibly some small dries. Please feel free to stop by the shop with any questions or to pick up the equipment you might need for the day on the river.

Chris Daniel