Montana Flywater
David Dedmon
PO Box 1123
Hamilton, MT 59840 David@CatchMontana.com
Phone: 406-360-0259
Hamilton weather
David's Flywater Corner
A Repeat Performance2008-05-16
The Flywater Weather Forecast For Western Montana
There is a strong ridge of high pressure air over the Pacific Northwest heading toward the Northern Rockies today. This system will dominate our weather Friday through Monday bringing bright sunny skies and well above if not record breaking temperatures. Highs upper 80's to low 90's with Lows into the upper 40's. If history repeats itself, May 17th could be the peak day for flooding on the Bitterroot River.
It should be noted that the water at Painted Rocks Reservoir has about reached it's full capcity and should begin spilling over within the next 2-3 days.
River Report
Bitterroot, Clarkfork, Blackfoot and Rock Creek
It's Toast! Hope you got fix the past couple of days,because it's all she wrote from here on now! The lower river is up over 1,000 cfs in the past 24 hours while the upper river near Darby has risen about 600. These increases are nothing compared to what's coming folks! Look for the Missouri river to be your only option for the next several weeks! "Mojo"
From The Missouri River
The Trout Shop: Daily 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM or Later
The Trout Shop Cafe: Daily 7:00 AM - 11:00 AM
We'll move out of winter and directly into summer this weekend. High temperatures will reach into the upper 80's to low 90's. Didn't it snow just a few days ago?
Small streams open to fishing on Saturday. Both the Dearborn River and Little Prickly Pear Creek are in fine shape for now. We'll have to wait and see what happens when the warm weather hits the snow. Both streams could go. The Missouri is definitely fishing and will most likely dodge any serious impact from tributary runoff. A little color to the water may actually help your odds.
Water temperatures increased with the flows. At 48°, expect the river to come alive with rise forms. Bugs should go crazy with the warmth. Stock up on your baetis dries. You'll need them. You'll also need some March Browns and perhaps some caddis. Most of the surface activity appears towards evening when the sun gets off the water. We saw a few pods up in the midday sun on Thursday, however. Hmmmm.........the river is brewing.
Don't forget the Bar-B-Q cookoff in Craig this coming Saturday May 17th! I was there last year with my great friend and fishing partner "Art Decker" and it was fanastic! What a great way to end a day of flyfishng on the "Mo" Yummy!
Stay tune for more river reports.
Dave Dedmon
Montana Flywater Company
Hamilton, Montana 59840
Areas of showers and cooler temperatures will be around for Western Montana today and Monday with day time highs in the mid to upper 50's and lows in the mid to upper 30's. Expect periods of wind today and Monday as a frontal system moves through the state over the next 24 hours. We should see a gradual warming trend starting Tuesday with highs in the middle to upper 60's and lows only into the 40's at night by the end of the week! By Friday and the beginning of our weekend we could see temperatures reaching the 80 degee mark! Flyfishers beware this is where we may see a large bump in our river flows which could stay with us for awhile!
Most of our home rivers are on the drop again today! However it's not falling fast enough to come back into shape before the water bumps again! You may get some action in on the back channels over the next couple of days if the weather stays moderate! The upper river near Darby is at 2200cfs making it very hard to find good holding water. The lower river near Stevi and Florence is at 4310 cfs with a little better clarity. Will keep our fingers crossed for the next day or two, for dropping and clearing conditions. We'll just have to wait and see about that!
Heads up people we will see a big push of water very much like we had in years 1996 and 1997! Welcome to the real world of a Freestone! This is more like the normal side of things. Did I hear someone say "Mo"!
Hatch Activity: March Browns, Caddis and be on the lookout for those Salmonflies coming soon.
Tip of the week! MISSOURI!!!!
Missouri
Despite the crazy weather, fishing reports are very good especially on baetis nymphs. If you're out there late enough and the weather cooperates, you'll see some heads rise to the surface. It won't be long before we're into the full blown dry fly season. It's two to three weeks late. Don't forget midges or the flashy junk you've been throwing for awhile. It still works and you might need it. Black leaches work too.
While many of our freestones are toast, the Missouri is clear and buggy. Many rainbows are back in the river and many are still spawning. When will spring arrive here?
Missouri Hatch Activity: Midges, BWO's and Caddis very soon!
Don't Forget To Stop In The Trout Shop in Craig, Montana! Visit With The Shop Dudes, Brian,Jerry and Mike! Get Fire Up On A Cup Of Starbucks! Get Some Flies And Setup Your Shuttle Too! They Will Set You Straight, On WHO, WHAT, WHERE, And HOW!
Stay Tuned For More River Updates!
Dave Dedmon's
Montana Flywater Company
Hamilton, Montana
406)360-0259
Majority of the state will be mild with a slight chance of isolated late day showers and thunderstorms developing today through Friday becoming much warmer by the weekend with high's in the upper 60's and low's in the 30's
From The River
All area rivers still on the rise today in a big way! With the the insect activity out in full force, it will be hard to keep from launching your boat to get some fly casting action in!
With the rising flows and diminishing water clarity it won't even be worth the effort to try get a fix for your addiction!
The best thing to do now, is to catch up on your Salmonfly inventory or working on your yard work and painting! We need to wait it out for a few more days and hope the river calms down enough to get a day or two on the boat before the really big push of water comes!
We may get one more chance at it, before all hell breaks loose! If you can't take this advise, fish the back channels for your best chances of hooking up!
Your best bet if I were you, I would be planning on taking a drive up to Craig, Montana to fish the "Mighty Mo"! It's coming on big time! Stop by "The Trout Shop" first to get your shuttle and flies and talk with Brian, Mike, and Jerry! They will head you out in the right direction!
I can't wait to get my "Mojo" fix!
Lastest Stream Flows
Bitteroot Upper 1840cfs Lower 3060cfs
Big Blackfoot 2620cfs
Clarkfork Upper 3900cfs Lower 9500cfs
Missouri 3580cfs
Madison 871cfs
Yellowstone 3470cfs
Areas west of the Continental Divide will experince settle weather Thursday and Friday with temperatures well below average! The weekend will bring partly to mostly cloudy conditions with a 30-40% chance of showers put slightly warmer temperatures highs in the 60's and low's in the 30's This could be a stellar time to fish!
Bitterroot
The upper river near Darby has crested by now and while the lower river near Florence should follow suit sometime mid day Levels are still high, but dropping water conditions often fish very well on the "Root"! Finding "soft" water on the upper end will be the big chore, but once found, it should fish. Fishing the back channels should get it done! Clarity is not to bad over all! The fishing should get much better by the weekend! Stream flows will continue to drop over the course the the next few days. Your fly box should have lots of Caddis patterns with March Browns,and still a few Skwalas left out there!
Clark Fork
The upper "Fork" is your best way to go today! . The lower part of the "Fork" near St Regis and Superior is still on the rise! All parts of this river should be fishing well by the weekend! Until then you should pick up some fish with the March Browns, and Caddis on the upper section of the "Fork" This is a great time to be throwing those big and ugly kind of stuff to net a few big browns!
Missouri
Water temp below Holter: 44° - just about perfect.
Water temp at Toston (above Canyon Ferry): 54°
Midges dominate, or do they? In the shade, you'll see fish up occasionally eating in the slow seams. At times, you'll see fish up at the tail end of riffles. With the right weather, things should change to steady dry fly action rather than the occasional risers. The next round of winter weather will likely lead to a BWO feast (Wednesday). Combine an abundance of midges with baetis glued to the surface and you'll have what the Missouri is made of - flat water dry fly fishing. It could be stellar.
It could be hit and miss. With the sun, you'll have to dig very deep. Scuds, the worm, lightning this and that, zebra midges, brassies, red midge larvae, and buggers need to fill a few slots in your box. The extended weather forecast calls for more cool weather. Clouds are in the picture most of the time.
Madison
PP&L is holding back all they can at this point so with what amounts to basically minimum required flows on the upper river at this point she’s a bit skinny out there. The inflow into Hebgen has jumped so they’re now at net gain and will probably stay there for the duration. There’s PLENTY of water up there to fill the reservoir and then some. PP&L is playing it very conservatively so far which is much better than the debacle they created last year. We’re all very excited around here to see how this plays out. If, when they get Hebgen filled, there is still a bunch of snow still in the mountains, we could see some very big flows down here.
For the time being the river is still in good shape. We got just a hint of color yesterday from some runoff of very wet and heavy snow and rain we received but nothing that’d put the fish off. The lower river was also a bit off-color from the hellacious wind that preceded the storm, that too should clear here in the next couple days.
With the continuing cool temps and precipitation our hatches are running quite a bit behind schedule at the moment. We’ve seen some very thick baetis on the lower river and tons of midges and a few baetis on this upper but I don’t think they’ve been consistent enough to really get the fish looking up. Fishing hasn’t been bad it’s just been mostly subsurface. According to the calendar we’re about due for some Mother’s Day Caddis as well but the cold water temps will likely hold that off for another week or two as well.
There’s really still no overly warm temperatures in the long term forecast yet. It’ll need to get into the 70s and 80s consistently during the days to get the runoff really moving. At this point, best-case scenario is we have fishable conditions by the end of June. The possibility still does exist of some seriously high and dirty water through the first half of the Salmonfly hatch here but that remains to be seen.
For the time being it looks like the Madison will be the only game in town for a while here. The latest round of moisture we got here bumped some of the other rivers up and off color. The Big Hole has more than tripled to over 3000 cfs, the Yellowstone is on the rise and the Gallatin is moving as well.
It’s shaping up to be a pretty volatile spring here in Montana so the best advice is to give us a call here in the next couple of weeks if you’re planning a trip. The good new is that with all this water fishing should be fantastic this summer and what we may lose on the front end of the season we should gain back on the backside. August and September should be stellar around here. Hoppers anyone?
Weather Forecast For Bitteroot And Missoula Valleys
Another disturbance and a cold front will affect our weather today through Friday! This will maintain a threat of scattered rain and snow showers! The amounts should be on the mild side. The weekend is looking milder and drier!
Montana Stream Flows:
Discharge, cubic feet per second
Bitterroot River near Darby 781
Bitterroot River near Florence 1490
Big Hole River near Divide 1460
Big Hole River near Melrose 1640
Clark Fork at Turah Bridge 1070
Clark Fork at St.Regis 5560
Madison River at Cameron 784
Yellowstone River Livingston 1620
Missouri River Wolf Creek 3530
Fishing Reports
We're looking good for today into the weekend. Hatches are still very strong out there, even through the cold snap the last couple of days. Get it while you can! Rivers are dropping with and still a bit off color!
The best fishing has been later in the afternoon with the colder water temps keeping the fish down until the hatch is really in full swing.
The hatches continue to be very strong on the on most of our rivers. Drakes continue to be strong with some march browns, baetis, and some skwalas mixed in.
Streamers and nymphs will be your best play early on!
2008-05-16
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