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Seasons

        Season has a profound effect on the fisheries in the Yellowstone area.  Coming to fish the Firehole in July when it is warmer than most outdoor swimming pools or trying to fly cast on the Yellowstone in the midst of runoff in May, while trees float down it and you can't see your boots through the mud even when you're six inches from the bank would put a serious damper on your trip.  Most of the information below is given in more detail on the individual Our Waters pages, but below is a quick rundown to help you decide when to come, or to give you a basic idea of what the fishing is like in your timeframe if your travel itinerary is already set.

Early Season

(late May through mid to late June)

        During our early season, fishing right around Gardiner is more limited than it will be later.  Thankfully, we're not far from waters in the Park that fish great early on.  The Yellowstone is virtually always blown out by snowmelt, running extremely high, fast, and dirty, and isn't worth your time except as a whitewater river.  Local lakes such as Dailey remain fishable, though if spring is warm the rainbows will begin moving offshore at this time, since Dailey is a warm, low-elevation lake in an open valley.  Thus, the big draw at this time of year is Yellowstone National Park.  The Park opens to angling the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, at which point the Firehole River is virtually always fishable and is frequently in prime shape.  A week or two later, the Madison and lower Gibbon come into shape, and soon all three are producing some of their best fishing of the year.  The Firehole above its falls and the Gibbon from Gibbon Meadows downstream, in particular, are usually in prime condition by mid-June.  The Lewis River just downstream from Lewis Lake and the channel between Lewis and Shoshone lakes also can produce well at this time.  For those of you who don't mind dredging large nymphs in off-color water, the lower Gardner River and the Yellowstone below its falls and above the Lamar confluence frequently become somewhat fishable by the middle of the month, though these rivers are not as aesthetically pleasing as they will be later in the season.

        At the opener, most Park lakes remain frozen, and Yellowstone Lake and Trout Lake are closed.  By the second week of June the ice goes off all area lakes save those at high elevation on the Beartooth Plateau.  When the ice goes out, the shallows of Lewis and Heart Lakes produce their best fishing of the year (good luck hiking to Heart over the still-snowbound trail, however), and grayling pack the outlet of Grebe Lake.  Other backcountry lakes can also produce some exceptional fish at this time of year, while Joffe Lake provides an excellent place to teach children how to cast a fly, as its eager little brook trout are usually happy to take small streamers and wet flies with a lot of movement.

Early Summer

(mid to late June through most of July)

        In early summer we have our gala hatches.  These start with PMDs on the Firehole, Madison, and Gibbon, and continue with hatches of various small stoneflies and caddis in the Gibbon's canyon --think a #12-14 Olive or Yellow Stimulator with a #16 Four Feather or Prince dropper.  In late June, the Gibbon sees the emergence of Brown Drakes and Pale Evening Duns in its meadows, a good time to look for the large browns that make their homes in these slow, challenging pools.  Drench yourself in bug spray and be prepared for many fish to laugh at you before you can laugh back.

        For somewhat different fishing, early in this period the Gardner and Yellowstone upstream from the mouth of the Lamar start to come into shape.  Both will still be very high, but the signature hatch for both rivers --the famous Salmonfly or Giant Black Stonefly-- will happen soon, and the nymphs of both these insects and the less glamorous Golden Stone or Trout Fly will be moving towards the banks.  Even if the water is still high and fairly cloudy, the fish will be gorging on these and other smaller nymphs, though you'll want to leave your dry fly rod in the car.  A good rig in both stretches is a #4 Matt's Stone or #8 Golden Stone with a #12 BH Prince or Four Feather dropper, or you can try ripping a streamer in the eddies and slower pools.  While this is not your classic image of fly fishing, it can be quite productive.

        On June 15, Trout Lake and Yellowstone Lake both open to fishing.  The latter offers fairly fast fishing for hungry cutthroats cruising the warm shallows and somewhat slower action for lake trout.  This is a good time to do your part to eliminate the latter species from what was naturally home to only cutthroat.  All lake trout must be killed in Yellowstone Lake, and a large silvery baitfish pattern (a baby cutthroat pattern, in other words) fished on a sink tip or shooting head is a good way to go about doing so.

        By late June, the Firehole begins to slow due to geothermal inputs raising the water temperature beyond the comfort zones of trout on hot days, though the Gibbon and Madison still fish well.  The stoneflies are now moving in earnest throughout the Yellowstone and Gardner systems, and you might see your first dry fly action of the year on these rivers before the month turns, if runoff is early.  Be ready with big Salmonfly patterns (#4-8), slightly smaller Golden Stones, #10-14 tan and brown caddis, and #14-16 Yellow Sallies.  By around the 4th of July, the northern part of Yellowstone Park, including the Yellowstone and Gardner, will start really turning on, with lots of fish looking up.  Frequently neither we nor our clients bother to fish nymphs between the peak of the Salmonfly emergence and the end of July.

        By the middle of the month, the meadow streams in the western part of the Park, the Firehole, Gibbon, and Madison, slump into their summer doldrums, with water temperatures exceeding 75 degrees on a regular basis and the fish either fleeing into cooler tributaries or sitting down on the bottom of the deepest, coolest holes.  The meadow streams of the Park's northeast corner now come into their own, however, with heavy hatches of Green Drakes and PMDs during the day and caddis in the evenings.  Though these streams are popular and crowded, a skilled angler can fool cutthroat averaging from 13 to 16 inches (with some much larger) and a few rainbows, provided their fly is right and their drift just about perfect.  Likewise, the upper Yellowstone opens on July 15, and though runs of cutthroat from the Lake are down due to drought, whirling disease, and the predations of illegally-introduced lake trout, this stretch of river offers your best shot at a true trophy river cutthroat, with some fish stretching to 24" or even larger, the largest Yellowstone cutthroat ever get. 

Late Summer

(late July or early August through Labor Day)

        By late July, hatches on the Yellowstone in its canyons and outside the Park and in the Gardner start to slow down, with evening caddis now the most common emergence.  The fish still look up, however, and they take grasshopper patterns and attractor dries like Trudes and Stimulators well.  In the Park's northeast corner, though Pale Morning Duns, Green Drakes, and, increasingly, the Little Green Drake or Flavilinea mayfly still predominate, a well-presented hopper, beetle, or ant may be the ticket to fool even the wariest fish.  For those anglers willing to stay out until dark, less-crowded conditions and dense spinner falls await, as well as an occasional serenade by one of the many neighborhood wolf packs.

        In August, though the weather is most commonly hot and dry, as in most of July, an occasional break usually occurs, in which a cold rain or even a rare summer snow shower cools the water and brings out the first fall Blue-winged Olive hatches.  When gray skies, cold wind, and rain predominate, hearty anglers who hit the Yellowstone or the Park's northeast corner can have phenomenal fishing, during hatches most commonly seen elsewhere only late in the year, reminding the visitor that he or she is, after all, both a lot farther north than many places in the United States, and far higher in elevation.  When it's warm, as it usually is, grasshopper and other terrestrials remain key patterns, as well as the caddis, Drakes and Flavs, and PMDs.

Fall

(Labor Day through early November)

        September can be a continuation of August, with the sun beating down and grasshoppers getting blown into undercut pools where they are snatched by large trout.  It can also be a replica of winter, with snow falling heavily even at lower elevations, though it rarely sticks so early, save on the high peaks surrounding most area rivers.  Either way, September is a lovely time to visit the area, with good fishing in a variety of places, and smaller crowds as kids head back to school.

        By Labor Day, brown trout are starting to begin their annual spawning runs on the Yellowstone, Gardner, Lewis, and Madison Rivers, with fish sometimes traveling up to fifty miles or more on salmon-like quests to climb rapids and wriggle across shallow gravel bars to reach their spawning grounds.  Also like salmon, they fast on these runs, striking only out of aggression.  Thus, in a few well-known and  many other not-so-well-known pools and runs, some of them made famous by decades of anglers, streamers and big stonefly nymphs now start to produce some surprisingly large fish in surprisingly small water, though the peak of the run occurs much later, near the end of the season.

        In September, the Park's northeast corner can be great, or it can be terrible, depending on weather.  On hot, dry, still days, the now gin-clear streams in this area will test your patience, with long leaders, light tippets, and small flies requirements for success when casting over trout that have been hooked many times throughout the summer and which have therefore become very cautious.  On bitterly cold days, when the wind howls and chilly rain or snow falls, these streams can be simply too cold, the fish and water both feeling an early shot of winter.  Perhaps the best days are those in the middle, when cool temperatures and clouds bring out the Blue-winged Olives and Flavs, and when a beetle or ant can still fool a large, wary trout grown fat on summer's bounty.  By the middle of the month, the Firehole and Gibbon may again be producing fish, especially on the coldest days, when the geyser outflow is offset by cold runoff.  When the snow flies in September, Blue-wings may hatch in the greatest profusion on the Firehole, even as the fish in the Lamar are shivering.

        Likewise, dry fly fishing on the Yellowstone, from Livingston all the way to the head of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone at the Lower Falls, is usually excellent during September, with attractors and grasshoppers still pulling fish on warmer, brighter days, but with great hatches of Blue-Wings on most cloudy or cooler days.  There are also a few of the big Western Sulphurs (Epeorus), a #10 or #12 mayfly best matched with a Parachute Light Cahill.  When nothing is happening on top, a Woolly Bugger or other streamer fished on a sink tip might bring a runner brown below Knowles Falls, but even in the lower Grand Canyon at Tower, a stretch occupied almost exclusively by cutthroat, the fish feel the approach of winter and slam big streamers in the boulder fields, preparing for the lean months ahead.  The river is now low and clear, with well-defined riffles, boulder fields, and pools --quite different from the willow-lined torrent of July.  All these water types can offer fine fishing. 

        After the equinox, which is frequently accompanied by the first serious winter storm of the year, the northeast corner of the Park shuts down for the season, the metabolisms of the trout slowing to a crawl as water temperatures there drop through the forties.  The Firehole, Gibbon, and Madison return with a bang, with dense hatches in the meadow sections and runner browns beginning to move in earnest throughout the Madison and into the Gibbon and Firehole below their respective falls.  These runner browns increasingly become the focus for most anglers visiting the area throughout October and until the close of the Park season on the first Sunday in November, and on the Yellowstone until December or it simply gets too cold to fish.  Few anglers make the journey, since dry fly fishing is what the area is famous for, but for those that do make the trip and put up with cold fingers and several layers of fleece, many large brown trout await.  Most of these fish, be they in the Lewis, Madison, or Yellowstone drainage (including the lower Gardner), stretch 16-20 inches, but for a lucky few, fish to ten pounds are possible.  One local angler once took two six-pound browns on consecutive casts in the Gardner.  Both the Madison drainage and the Gardner also receive some fall-run rainbows, fish either spawning in winter due to hatchery-bred genes still issuing their commands thirty years after area fish were last stocked, or running up early for the spring spawn.  For both species, large nymphs and streamers --even fished using spey rods-- are the order of the day.  Patience like that required when fishing for steelhead is often required, with pass after pass through a pool needed to excite a fish into striking; but when the strike happens, a steelhead-like fight might await.  Best of all, this can happen --if you know the right places-- out of sight of any other angler.

Our Off-Season

(mid-November through mid-May)

        Parks' Fly Shop is open year-round, but our guide service slows down a great deal from the close of the Park season on the first Sunday in November until it opens again on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.  This does not mean there aren't opportunities for the visitor early and late in the year.  While Yellowstone National Park is closed to angling from the first Sunday in November until Memorial Day Weekend, catch and release trout fishing in the Yellowstone River outside the Park is open year-round.  Throughout the winter, warm days bring midge hatches, especially near hot spring vents and the mouths of spring-fed tributaries.

        This situation changes when the snows of winter begin to recede.  After the low-elevation snows have melted and valley-level lakes have thawed, there is usually a window in which fishing can be quite good, both in lakes and rivers.  Dailey Lake, located approximately thirty miles from our shop by car, offers good fishing for stocked rainbow trout that can reach well over twenty inches.  This is a classic spot and stalk fishery, as the rainbows patrol the warmer, shallow flats along the shoreline.  Good glasses are a must.  On the Yellowstone river itself, one of the best hatches of the season takes place in the narrow window between when the water begins to warm and when the muddy runoff from mountain snows turns the river brown, high, and mean.  This is the fabled Mother's Day caddis hatch, when billions of caddis hatch in profusion.  Sometimes sections of the river literally change color with the profusion of hatching caddis.  After a long, hard, winter, the fish take full advantage of this bounty, and fishing can be phenomenal.  This is a hard hatch to plan for, however, because of the brief window in which the bugs hatch.  If you are able to hop on a jet to Bozeman at the drop of a hat, upon hearing that the fishing is on, this is the hatch for you.  E-mail us regularly between early April and mid-May, or check our River Report to find out what the snowpack and weather forecasts tell us about when the hatch is going to happen.  For those of you who think the Salmonfly hatch is easy to catch, this may be the next step for you.  An easier one to hit, and a hatch more likely to produce consistent fishing, is the spring Blue-winged Olive emergence.  These bugs, a size 18 Adams Parachute is close enough after a long winter, usually hatch from mid March until snowmelt dirties the river.  During the same period, hungry post-spawn browns and pre-spawn rainbows and cutts attack streamers and large nymphs.

        There are plenty of opportunities for the casual visitor to enjoy many of the area's other attractions in winter and early spring.  Few tourists are present except those who enter via snowmobile at the West Entrance, which means that Yellowstone Park is uncrowded.  Gardiner is the only entrance of the Park open year-round to wheeled vehicles, making it a mecca for wildlife-watching enthusiasts.  Winter and early-spring visitors frequently see even more wildlife than those later in the year, often including the more secretive fauna of the area, including wolves on the hunt.  In addition, the cross-country skiing available across the north end of Yellowstone is phenomenal, allowing you to see the scenery of Yellowstone from a whole new perspective.  This is the chief reason Parks' Fly Shop transforms, to a degree, into Parks' Ski Shop from December through March --check with us for your cross-country ski needs.  After the snow begins to melt and the Park Service begins opening more roads, opportunities for photographing newborn bison and elk exist, as well as rare treat of visiting the Park's geothermal features when few tourists are present.