First Week Fishing Report

The river water level has been rising each day - from 60 to 120 to 250 to 315 to 400 to 480 to 590 cubic feet per second (cfs). We've fished the past 10 days and each day we're getting to know more about the early season bugs and the eating habits of the fish. This is our first time being here so early. Last year we wanted to get here for opening day, but we were delayed and arrived in mid-June. There are no dry flies happening so it's all nymph fishing and tiny nymphs at that.

This is really different and perhaps reminisent of years ago fishing in the West Yellowstone and Last Chance areas early in the season. We can still see snow on the surrounding hillsides and there are more than a few local rivers (like the Big Hole) nearing flood stage with the warm weather bringing heavy snowmelt. And some of the local rivers (like the Madison River) are experiencing muddy conditions as a result of the run-off. Because of the above average snowfall in many parts, the lakes and reservoirs are at near-full capacity. Not dangerous levels, just good levels.

The water temperature in the river is about 46 degrees and the outside temperatures have been around 70 degrees during the day, with the nights getting down to the low 30's. Good sleeping weather! For the first couple days of fishing we put on our shorts and water sandals and wet-waded. The cold water felt good - for about 5 minutes. Then once numb we could last quite a while longer in the water. Thank goodness we caught a few fish so we could walk to the bank and out of the water to release them and defrost. It was pretty darn cold and a number of fellow-fishermen would comment on our ability to stand the cold, which made me able to stand the cold a little while longer. When I walked out of the river yesterday a guy asked me "Do you have any feeling in your legs?" I replied, "Yep, like a thousand pins and needles."

For a couple days the temperature dropped a little and we decided to break out the waders. Yep! We gloved up. We pulled on the rubber pants. We laced up the Patagonia wading boots, some of the lightest boots out there, and they still felt like cement shoes. It was nice to be able to get in up to our knees and not freeze our toes off, but we both would rather wet-wade. For a couple days we wore the chest waders, the only time we've wadered-up in a few years. Today we weren't even going to fish because of all the people camping and fishing on this long holiday weekend. But I talked Rick into it and we grabbed our rods and chest packs, and with our water sandals, we fished for about 3 hours. We caught a few fish each and were very happy.

The absence of mosquitoes in these early days has almost made up for the number of fishermen on the river. Rick says the blood-sucking mosquitoes will be showing up any day now so I'd better enjoy it while it lasts.