Livingston Montana Fishing Report

This Montana fishing report is valid from mid-March through early April. Many of our individual fishing reports pages were updated today.

Low snowpack and forecast warm weather means that the next few weeks should offer great fishing locally, even floating. The one X-factor is the potential for a few days of murky water due to low-elevation snowmelt.

Afternoons will be best everywhere, though mornings might be okay on the Missouri and the spring creeks.

This is definitely a less consistent period than summer, though it’s better for big fish, and expect on the nice, sunny, warm weekends, crowds are basically nonexistent. That said, on those nice sunny weekends you might have trouble finding good spots to wade fish.

The Yellowstone River is great this time of year, especially if you are looking to target larger rainbow and cutt-bow trout. Fish a stonefly nymph with an egg or attractor nymph dropper (or a San Juan or Squirmie if the water is a bit off-color), or swing large, dark streamers. There’s potential for midge and BWO activity in the afternoons if it isn’t too windy, but we really do prefer targeting the big fish deep this time of year. Look at the big, long, walking-speed runs, especially those near tributary creeks.

The lower Madison River will fish similarly to the Yellowstone, but you might see more hatches and should fish streamers on the swing a bit more often due to this river’s shallower and more homogenous nature.

The Paradise Valley spring creeks probably produce more fish now through April than they do at any other point in the season. Why? Spawning rainbows up from the Yellowstone. While it’s totally unethical to directly target spawners over shallow gravel, there will be plenty of fish in the deeper water downstream feeding on eggs and insects disturbed by spawning activity. Stick to the dark-bottomed water that’s at least waist-deep and you won’t hurt those making the next generation. Keep an eye out for BWO and midge hatches after lunch. Eggs, San Juan Worms, pink scuds, WD-40 and similar midge/BWO crossover bugs, and modest-sized streamers are the best subsurface flies.

The Missouri River is a great bet in late winter and spring. For now, the focus is on nymphing deep, with a side dish of swung streamers. If nymphing, stick to assorted pink and rainbow patterns, many with orange “fire beads.” Good choices include the AMEX and Rainbow Czech, Caviar Scuds, pink Lightning Bugs, and similar. Given the low water anticipated through spring here, smaller flies are likely to work best, and there will be less of a San Juan Worm bite than usual. Below Holter Dam, you may see fish rising to midges and you should avoid areas of shallow gravel. The area below Hauser Dam (aka Land of Giants aka Land of No Ethics) relies on trout stocked in Holter Reservoir for most of its population, so fishing shallow redds is not as dirty a tactic. Expect combat fishing here on nice weekends. Even 15yr ago, we didn’t fish this stretch on foot except during the week, and preferably during bad weather.

Yellowstone Park is closed to fishing. As of right now the official season beginning is the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. We hope to have a major announcement about this soon—we know things we can’t reveal just yet. Let’s just say we expect to see major increases in our winter guiding business starting next November at the latest.

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