Livingston Montana Fishing Report

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This NO BS Livingston Montana fishing report is valid from September 1 until about September 15, roughly, unless there’s a huge shift in the weather.

General Comments

Cool weather hit for real late last week, with a couple days here and there with highs that struggled to get out of the 60s, nights dropping into the 40s even at low elevation, and a lot of rain. Except for the muddy water from the rain, the fish and fishing have responded positively. We put a couple browns in the boat over 20 inches on hoppers on Friday and Saturday. Hopefully more this week!

Most hoot-owl closures have now been lifted in our operations area, with the Lower Madison and the geothermal waters in YNP the only notable places where you’re still required to quit at 2PM. You probably don’t want to fish such places yet, anyway. Mid-September for them.

Here is the current list of hoot-owl and complete closures in the state of Montana. Note that this list lags by a few hours.

Here are YNP news releases. Closures will be noted in new or updated releases.

The Details

The Yellowstone River: has been very good since the middle of last week, except when muddy. The dry fly fishing in particular has really perked up. Some places this means a bunch of hand-size fish on little dries. Some places it means a few “unicorns” eating your hopper, even if most fish are smaller and eating the dropper. Some Baetis have been around, but the most common bugs on the water have been Epeorus, Heptagenia, and some Tricos. Absent notable numbers of rising fish, tie on a peach to burnt orange hopper. From Mallard’s Rest up to Gardiner, fish this with an ant or Hazy Cripple more often than not. Downstream of Mallard’s and especially east of Livingston, go with a pearl or silver Spanker nymph on the dropper instead. The browns are getting frisky as they start thinking about fall spawning migrations…

The Boulder River: is too low below Natural Bridge. Above, fish hopper-dropper combos. The upper Boulder in particular will fish better in the afternoons moving forward, as it comes down out of the high, cold mountains in a hurry and will get very cold at night.

The lower Madison River is still under hoot owls, but might be worth checking out on cool mornings. Fish Perdigons or similar in the holes below weed beds, or go with a hopper-dropper. Ants can work here in the fall, too. The weeds and drunk tubers will still be annoying for a couple weeks.

The upper Madison is fishing well on small beadheads and ants. Word is that the hopper bite has been so-so. Hoot owls have been lifted except in the short stretch of water from Hebgen Lake upstream to the YNP boundary; the hoot owls in this section are in line with those in Yellowstone Park immediately upstream.

The Stillwater River is running low, but the rain has meant flows have come back up over the 500cfs “magic” level where floating doesn’t require quite as much raft-dragging and rock-dodging. Once flows drop back under 500, and especially under about 425, you will have to be up for dragging your raft or have an ultralight. Even then, only the lower river is still floatable, from Jeffrey’s Landing to the Yellowstone. Some fall mayflies are already possible here on cooler and grayer days, but hopper/dropper is the way to go most of the time. Run a #10-12 Bob Hopper or Morrish-style in pink, peach, or mottled tan/brown (which doubles as a Nocturnal Stonefly) with a gold, silver, or pearl Lightning Bug on the dropper. Early mornings are likely to be slow, as this water runs much colder than the Yellowstone.

The Missouri River is very far away and is in its weedy late summer doldrums. A few Tricos will still be around in the mornings. Hoppers and ants can bring some risers if there aren’t any Tricos. Otherwise, most fishing involves nymphing the holes in the weeds with Zirdles trailing sowbugs and midge pupae. One of the shops in Craig likes to complain about guides from elsewhere in Montana coming up there in late May and June, even those of us who were doing it before their shop opened. Well, right now is when I see guides from that shop in the Livingston area, sometimes guiding and sometimes fishing on their own. That shop doesn’t have anything to say about this.

Montana Small Streams: Even the low elevation streams like the East Gallatin are now reasonable prospects. On the meadow-ish streams, fish hoppers and ants, but be prepared to match hatches of this and that or to nymph. On the steeper mountain creeks, don’t bother until lunchtime due to cold water. Then fish hoppers or your favorite attractors.

Local Trout Lakes and Reservoirs: With the cooldown in temps and heating up of the fishing in flowing water, we’re now sticking to rivers and to a lesser extent small streams.

The Paradise Valley spring creeks may see Sulphur or midge hatches, with calm/cloudy days generally best. More of the fishing will be subsurface, with sight-nymphing or nymphing the riffles the most likely prospects. Midge pupae and tiny mayfly nymphs are best.

Yellowstone Park: NOTE: 2:00 closures remain in place on the Madison in YNP, Firehole, and Gibbon downstream of the bridge near Norris Campground. The tributaries are under the same closure.

  • Gardner: Too warm and weedy below Boiling River. The best fishing will be from lower Sheepeater Canyon to Boiling River. Fish a Chubby/dropper combo or straight nymph with a stonefly/attractor combo. It can be worth getting a very early start here through September due to heavy guide traffic hitting the larger pools with nymphs. If you know, you know…
  • Yellowstone River from the Lake to the Falls: Fish numbers are declining fast, since most of the fish in this stretch spend their winters in Yellowstone Lake. If you encounter a hatch and rising fish, match the hatch. Various sizes of Green Drake are probably most likely now. A more likely tactic is swinging streamers. Trout spey fishing a big ‘Bugger is a good tactic.
  • Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone: Streamers will be the best bet for the next three weeks or so. Side dishes will be hatches (BWO, Tan Drakes) and waning hopper-dropper fishing on warmer afternoons. If your access is crowded, fishing will be tough.
  • Black Canyon of the Yellowstone: Similar to Grand Canyon, but terrestrials will be more productive the closer you get to Gardiner.
  • Lamar River: Hoppers, ants, beetles, and even bees are good choices if there’s no hatch. Hatches might include midges, Tricos, Little Green Drakes, Tan Drakes (aka Drake Mackerals), BWO, and a few full-size Green Drakes. This water will be crowded. If there aren’t many anglers, there will be bison.
  • Soda Butte Creek: Same flies and tactics (and bison) as the Lamar, but the angler crowds until about September 20 are going to be insanely high in the meadow water. We never like Soda Butte due to the crowds, and the next three weeks see the worst crowds of the year, since the “newlyweds and almost deads” who flock to YNP in September “after the crowds go home” and thereby make their own crowds don’t tend to hike very far and this is the easiest-access water in the region.
  • Slough Creek: Similar to Lamar. Ants are generally far more effective terrestrials than hoppers here. Beetles are also a good choice. The fish are going to be very spooky from here on out in the meadow water.
  • Gibbon River: 2:00 fishing closure below the bridge adjacent to Norris Campground due to high water temps. Above, fish attractor dry/dropper combos in the rougher areas or match hatches in the Norris Meadow. The choppier water further from the road will offer better opportunities for decent numbers of cutthroat or grayling.
  • Firehole River: Closed at 2:00 due to high water temps and not really a good place to fish except in the headwaters upstream from the Old Faithful permanent closure zone until temps really start dropping. The tribs like Nez Perce Creek are a more reasonable option.
  • Madison River: Closed at 2:00 due to high water temps. That said, it’s worth chucking a bobber in the Barns Pools first thing in the morning. Fish a Rubberlegs with some sort of attractor nymph on the dropper.
  • Lakes: We generally don’t fish lakes in the park for the remainder of the season, but the grayling lakes will turn out some fish on leeches, small soft hackles and nymphs, and occasionally offer up a Callibaetis or damsel hatch. Mornings before the wind kicks up are best.
  • Small Creeks: Steep mountain creeks should still be nice and cold, with the possible exception of tiny trickles like [[[NAME REDACTED]]]. Afternoons will be best. Fish some flavor of hopper/dropper combo. The smaller the creek, the smaller the flies. The gentle meadow streams are going to be awfully skinny to offer productive fishing. Do you really want to chase spooky 8-inchers in low, clear water? On the other hand, most other people say “no” to that question, too…

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