Livingston Montana Fishing Report

Detailed Reports

This NO BS Livingston Montana fishing report is valid from December 5 2025 until early February 2026. Nothing much will change until then, except for the ice getting better on area lakes and worse on the big rivers.

General Comments

We’re now into peak fly tying rather than fishing season. There’s still some fishing to do on warmer, calmer days, but it’s strictly for diehards and strictly for a couple hours right after lunch. We won’t think less of you if you stay inside dreaming of summer. We’re mostly doing that, or getting our snowboards waxed and tuned for the Bridger Bowl opener next week.

Low and slow is the name of the game. The flies vary a bit from river to river, but except on the Paradise Valley spring creeks and maybe the lower Gardner River, the fish will be in the big, slow, walking pace pools. You want to bump bottom with nymphs and in a few cases slowly-swung streamers. Look for chest-deep water or so.

The Details

The Yellowstone River: Fish a stonefly or streamer trailing a midge pupa or small mayfly nymph. The best water will be near warmer inputs, such as the Gardner River or Depuy Spring Creek. In these areas you may see some midge or tiny winter BWO activity on calm days.

The Boulder River is too low and cold for us.

The lower Madison River is a good winter bet. Crayfish trailing eggs or BWO nymphs and midge pupae are good options. So is swinging a light but very flowy and mobile streamer on an intermediate or floating tip.

The Stillwater River is similar to the Yellowstone, but has less slow water. When you find the right pools, expect them to be jammed up with fish.

The Missouri River is definitely the best winter public water option within about 3.5 hours. Both the Hauser (Land of Giants) and Holter tailwaters are worth hitting. Some BWO or midge hatches are possible, and swinging streamers can work, but the best option until late March is fishing pink Lightning Bugs, pink sowbugs, pink scuds, and pink junk flies like AMEX in combination, maybe with a Zebra Midge or WD-40 trailer. The lowest crowds of the year await, though it’ll be cold here, too.

Montana Small Streams are too low and cold now.

Local Lakes and Reservoirs are generally frozen, but you should 100% test the ice before going out. It has been rather warm, so the ice may not be suitable for ice-fishing yet. It never gets thick enough here for driving trucks on and so forth like they do in Minnesota and wherever.

The Paradise Valley spring creeks will probably see the widest window of good fishing, provided the wind isn’t blowing 40mph like it has been some days lately. Nymphing is now the best option. Eggs might still work, but skinny floss San Juan Worms, midge pupae and larvae, and maybe some tiny mayfly nymphs are the most likely bets. Absent a midge hatch (possible but fairly unlikely), the fish will be in the pools rather than the riffles.

Yellowstone Park fishing is closed except on the Gardner River below Osprey Falls and on the Madison downstream of the MT/WY boundary near the Barns Pools. Note that the park interior roads are also closed, so you’re looking at a 3hr plus drive to get to the Madison via Bozeman and Big Sky from our base in Livingston.

  • The Gardner will fish best below Boiling River. Either hike down from Mammoth or up from Gardiner. The passage through the Chutes where the road was wrecked in 2022’s floods is only for mountain goats, so you really can’t fish the “Gardiner Beat” and “Boiling River Beat” from the same access point. Trust us here; for most people, getting through the heart of the Gardner Canyon will be impossible, and it’s dangerous for everybody.
  • The Gardner will fish best on stonefly nymphs or multi-role flies like TJ Hookers trailing eggs, midge pupae, or skinny mayfly nymphs. Midge or winter BWO hatches are possible on warmer days, but will be fragmentary. While the spawn is probably about done, beware of brown trout redds. The eggs won’t hatch for several weeks yet from the posting of this report, and the fry will stay in the gravel longer than that. It’s basically best to avoid any patches of conspicuously clean gravel, whether you’re sure they’re redds or not.

Note: Montana Outdoor‘s website is the only commercial external site authorized to use this content. Please let us know if you see it anywhere else.

Relevant Montana Fishing Report Links

Do you find these reports helpful? We don't sell flies or otherwise make money off of them, so we humbly ask that you consider Buying Us a Coffee. Also, if you've got the funds, you can...

Book a Trip