Fishing Report Updated April 19, 2022
This Paradise Valley Spring Creek fishing report is valid from April 19 until about May 5.
Spring fishing can be very good on the spring creeks, and the weather we’ve had lately is ideal for nymph-fishing (not quite so ideal for dries). Rates are $80/angler/day through June 14.
Absent a BWO or midge hatch (most likely on calm, gray afternoons in the 50s), nymphing is the ticket for numbers. Fish the deeper runs downstream of shallow spawning gravel–leave the shallow gravel alone. Spawning activity is heavy right now and spawning activity kicks up lots of food into the drift. BWO nymphs, midge pupae, slender San Juan Worms (little ones, #16-20), and egg flies can all produce excellent numbers of trout. We would probably start with a slender San Juan trailing either a WD-40 or a Sunkist Baetis. This latter fly is a BWO nymph with an orange beadhead, so it suggests eggs as well as insects.
Moderate-sized Woolly Buggers can produce some larger fish both on the swing and the strip, but seldom produce similar numbers as nymphs.
Our next Paradise Valley Spring Creek fishing report will drop in early May as spawning activity and BWO hatches wind down.
Learn about fishing the Paradise Valley spring creeks.
Relevant Links
- Armstrong Spring Creek
- Depuy Spring Creek
- Nelson’s Spring Creek
- Spring Creek Specialists: This shed-size fly shop is located on Depuy Spring Creek and is dedicated exclusively to flies and tackle for fishing the spring creeks. It’s the one shop I always visit when I’m guiding on one of the creeks.
- Livingston, MT Weather