Spring Fishing on the Yellowstone

by

Walter Wiese, Head Guide

The Yellowstone River between Gardiner and Livingston is primarily known for its summer and fall fishing, but after the grip of winter begins to break in late February warmer days can bring excellent streamer fishing and a few good hatches.  Better yet, few tourist anglers are willing to try the Yellowstone at this time of year due to the threat of cold weather or pulses of mud from the low-elevation snowmelt ruining their trip, so the river is seldom crowded, even on bluebird days when temperatures can reach the 50s, ideal fishing weather.

While dry fly fishing is what all anglers hope for, the streamer fishing is more consistent.  There are two reasons the streamer fishing early in the year can be so good, the number of fish in the river and how hungry they are.  All three trout species common in the Yellowstone are present in large numbers in March, with rainbows not entering tributaries to spawn until late March, browns still recovering from their late fall spawn, and cutthroats not to leave for the spawning tributaries until the high water of May.  With the difficulties of winter just passing, all three species feed aggressively to recover.

Water temperatures remain low in late winter and early spring, and they can actually drop during warm spells due to an influx of snowmelt, so most trout will be holding in deep, slow pools and runs.  Some runs will hold more fish than others, and many will hold predominately whitefish, so the best way to fish the river in the spring is to float it and cover a lot of water.  Richard Parks says, "Anglers looking to fish streamers should concentrate on fishing the lower portions of pools, since the heads will mostly hold smaller surface-oriented fish."  Presentations should be slow, with a deep swing technique using a 7-weight rod rigged with a sinktop line probably the best option except near warm water sources such as the mouth of Depuy's and Nelson's spring creeks and near La Duke Spring and other hot springs.  A faster, jerky strip-retrieve may work anywhere, but is more likely to draw takes near these warm water sources.  The mouths of tributaries are particularly good options in March, since rainbows frequently gather in the eddies where creeks join the main river before ascending the creeks to spawn.

Dark and drab Woolly Buggers, sculpin patterns, medium-sized Zonkers, and other naturalistic streamers are more likely to draw strikes in the spring than the flashier patterns that attract browns in the fall.  This is especially true when the weather turns nasty, since darker patterns provide a stronger silhouette in dirty water and even simply when it's cloudy.  The precise pattern matters less than putting it in the right spot.  Indeed, Parks fishes a black and olive Woolly Bugger exclusively, changing only the size of the fly rather than the pattern.

Spring Hatches

Though summer brings more famous hatches, those in the spring can be quite good.  After mid-March the Blue-winged Olive hatches become progressively more persistent, and as spring progresses they are joined by the best spring hatch of all, the Mother's Day caddis, as well as the less-important March Brown mayfly.

Blue-winged Olive hatches offer the most consistent dry fly fishing throughout the spring.  Anglers will seldom encounter extremely dense hatches of this insect, but a few emerge almost every day.  In general they are most common on warm, cloudy afternoons.  On cooler days and earlier in the year, sunny days may be more likely to bring out a hatch.  Early season bugs tend to be smaller than those that come later, a size 20-22 versus a size 18.  All wear the same colors, steel-gray wings with gray-olive bodies. 

While on most other streams Blue-winged Olives require technical presentations, matching them on the rugged Yellowstone is easier.  The best nymphs are small Pheasant Tails, beadhead for fishing deep and Flashbacks without any additional weight when the insects are emerging.  A small Parachute Adams usually works to match the duns, while spookier fish may want a Sparkle Dun or Hairwing BWO.  Emergers and spinners are seldom important on the Yellowstone.  Blue-winged Olives are seldom found in extremely fast water, but runs with moderate speed and depth and the tails of riffles hold large numbers of them.  Look for this hatch anywhere between Gardiner and Columbus

The Mother's Day caddis hatch is the shortest of the spring hatches in duration, usually lasting for no more than a couple weeks somewhere between mid-April and the first week of May, but the total number of insects in this hatch is probably higher than the total number of Blue-winged Olives that hatch all spring.  It can be a tough hatch to hit, both because of its short duration and because the onset of the high country runoff which will keep the river muddy until late June typically washes out at least a portion of the hatch.  Look for these bugs from Gardiner to beyond Livingston, with the best hatches between Emigrant and Livingston and between Corwin Springs and Yankee Jim Canyon.

The Mother's Day caddis is about a size 16, with a dark olive body and tan wing.  Usually a small Elk Hair or X-Caddis works well as a searching pattern.  A Partridge Caddis works better for picky fish or those taking drowned naturals in foam lines.  This hatch can sometimes be so dense that the river appears carpeted in caddis flies, making it difficult for both angler and trout to pick out an artificial fly among all the naturals.  When this happens, we like to fish an attractor pattern like a Coachman Trude.  While this white-winged fly is certainly more visible to the angler than a more imitative caddis pattern, we believe the trout also respond to it better than standard caddis patterns during extremely dense hatches, perhaps because they see the Trude as a crippled insect or perhaps simply because its differences make it stand out among the wealth of naturals.

PFS tyer Matt Minch suggests anglers remember to try wet flies during the Mother's Day caddis hatch.  They imitate egg-laying and emerging caddis, and are another way of making your flies stand out among the naturals.  Minch uses soft hackles fished on the swing, often fishing them behind a beadhead nymph to help them sink.

One hatch that's seldom important but must be remembered is the March Brown.  This is a large, tan-brown mayfly most commonly seen in April.  If you see any insects matching this description, try a Hare's Ear Parachute or other brownish dry, or a large Hare's Ear nymph.

Conclusion

Parks' Fly Shop begins running trips sometime in early March, when the low-country snow melts enough to make floating a viable option.  Earlier, the fish tend to cluster in slow, deep water near warm water sources and focus on midges, a situation which we've found few visitors are interested in.  By the middle of the month we begin doing quite well on streamers, both "banging banks" from the boat and getting out to fish deeper runs, especially near the tributaries rainbows will soon ascend.  The dry fly fishing gets progressively better from this point until late in April, when the spring melt hits.  If you are able to come to Montana on a moment's notice, we'd love to introduce you to the fabled Mother's Day caddis, perhaps the best hatch this side of the July Salmonflies.

For more information, contact us.