Livingston Montana Fishing Links
This page is a grab bag of Livingston Montana fishing links. Purchase licenses, learn about regulations, check water conditions, etc. Individual fishing report and fisheries pages have links specific to the relevant watersheds.
If there’s a link that should be here, please let us know. No commercial inquiries, please.
Licensing and Regulations
- Yellowstone Park’s Fishing Pages: Everything you need to know about fishing in the park begins here.
- Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks FishMT: Regulations, license purchase, info on species, fishing access sites, etc.
- Montana Fishing & Boating Regulations: We are located in the Central District.
- Montana Area and Waterbody Closures: These closures mostly occur during late summer due to high water temperatures or wildfires. Closures seldom impact the Yellowstone River or its tributaries, but are common on lower-elevation rivers further north and west, particularly those lacking deep-draw dams to cool the water.
Local Private Fisheries
Note that many local private fisheries (especially ranch lakes) lack websites and must be booked through a fly shop or outfitter. Some allow non-guided fishing, others do not.
- Depuy Spring Creek
- Nelson’s Spring Creek
- Armstrong Spring Creek
- Sitz Ranch Recreation: Private ranch west of Bozeman, the only private lake property that has online booking.
Streamflow, Snowpack, and Water Clarity Links
- Montana Streamflow Gauges: of particular note are the Upper Missouri and Upper Yellowstone drainages. E-mail us if you need to know how to read these tables. Generally speaking, sudden spikes mean dirty water. On the Yellowstone, flows over about 10,000cfs in May, June, or early July mean the spring runoff is underway and the river is and will be unfishable for a while. On the Missouri at Hauser or Holter Dam, flows over about 6,000cfs make fishing on foot nearly impossible, though you can always fish from a boat.
- Montana Snowpack Information: Use this map (and the next) to keep track of winter snowpack, which is the primary driver of our water year. Higher-than-average snowpack generally means higher, colder streamflows in the core summer season (good), but can make for a long spring runoff on waters impacted by the spring melt (bad). Lower-than-average numbers mean an early start to the summer season (good) but low, challenging water levels and potentially warm water temperatures in mid-late summer (bad). Our drainage basins are the Upper Yellowstone, Gallatin, Madison, and Missouri Mainstem basins.
- Wyoming Snowpack Information: River basins in Wyoming that impact our summer water (by flowing north into Montana) are the Yellowstone and Madison-Gallatin basins in the far northwest corner of the state.
General Fly Fishing Links
Local Fly Shops We Recommend
Book your fishing trips with us, though!
- Yellowstone Angler, Sweetwater, and Dan Bailey’s in Livingston.
- Troutfitters: in Bozeman.
- Beartooth Flyfishing: in Cameron
- Blue Ribbon Flies: in West Yellowstone
- Crosscurrents: in Helena and Craig.
Other Shops/Guides
- Jack Uxa: My cousin, a conventional tackle guide on Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks.
- Curtis-Wright Outfitters: in Western NC. Ask for Josh.
- Hopper Juan: Tyer and guide Juan Ramirez, in Colorado.
Gear Brands We Love
- RO Drift Boats
- Outcast Boats (AIRE Rafts Subsidiary)
- NRS
- Farbank (Redington, RIO, Sage)
- Orvis
- Simms
- Umpqua Feather Merchants
- Montana Fly Company
- Patagonia
- Hareline Dubbin
- Jvice: The world’s best fly tying vise, but not (quite) the most expensive.
Believe it or not, we wear Wrangler outdoor pants as our wading pants in the summer. They’re half the cost and just as durable as fly fishing-specific brands.