Montana Trout Scout

Time to fish the Shoshone

Wow, what a great two weeks of warm weather! I've been down to the Shoshone the last two Wednesdays. The drive to Cody is spectacular this time of year. Lots of raptors and antelope, snow capped peaks and beautiful blue skies. The fishing doesn't get good until after noon, so I usually plan to get there about 11 o'clock. A quick trip to Peter's Cafe for a sub to go, and then down to the river. I like to sit on my tailgate and eat while watching for bugs. The streamer fishing has been slow, nymphing fair. The main attraction is the hatch around 1:30. It's mainly midges right now, but a few baetis are starting to pop as well. Check out the current lines coming off of rocks and snags for rising fish. Wyoming stocked 30,000 cutthroats in the Shoshone last fall, so there's no shortage of 8 inch fish chowing down on dry flies. (As Kory says, "There's nothing dumber than a cutthroat except a stocked cutthroat). Last week there was a strong hatch and no wind, so those little cutts were eating my #22 griffith's gnat every time it hit the water. I fish the gnat behind a #16 parachute so I have some idea where it is. The parachute got gobbled a few times as well, but the gnat was the big winner. I managed to find a few bigger noses at one point. Then the challenge was getting my fly to drift over them without being clobbered by all those little fish! I wound up the day with one rainbow, one brown and two cutts around the 14 inch range. I stopped counting the little fish I caught after the first twelve. Here's what you need:

#22 griffith's gnat (midge)

#20 kaufman's emerger (midge)

#16 olive parachute (baetis)

#16 sparkle dun(baetis)

#20 skinny nelson (baetis nymph)

#22 zebra (midge pupae)

#20 blood worm (midge larvae)

The Clark's Fork was clear and sections were ice free when I drove by. I almost stopped. Almost. I'd suggest big nymphs deep if you decide to try it.

Finally fishing again!

Boy, I thought the weather would never get warm enough to fish! It's been a cold one up here in the frozen north. We've had lots of snow so far, so should have good water levels this summer.

The temperature yesterday was above forty for the first time in over a month. Bucky and I took the opportunity to run over to the Clark's Fork. Absolutely beautiful weather and gorgeous scenery. The Beartooths are amazing in their snow peaked splendor. Winter is raptor time on the Clark's Fork. We saw two huge golden eagles and too many hawks to count.

The fishing was another story. The river is frozen solid below Robertson's Draw bridge all the way to Belfry. Above Chance bridge there's plenty of open water, but the banks are solid ice. Bucky and I had to crawl out to the open water because the ice was so slick. We fished upstream of the hatchery at Clark to begin with. There are several springs that come in along that stretch, so we thought maybe fish would be holding there. No such luck. The water temperature was 30. Bucky threw streamers and I nymphed with big stone fly patterns. Nothing even tried to eat our stuff.

Later in the day, we started to see some midge activity. That's when we decided to go down below the hatchery where the water is usually warmer. Midge hatches can be thick this time of year. There were a few bugs, but no rising fish. I fished a parachute with a red brassie dropper to imitate midge pupa, but nothing was working. Bucky stuck with the streamer. No luck. Finally, I walked right up to the big culvert where the hatchery water dumps in. There were a few nice fish in the shallows, as usual. I got a couple of refusals on the parachute and a nice fish ate my dropper. He ran all over the place and scooted the other fish out of there.

Oh well, one fish is better than none! I'd be out again today, but the wind is howling! It's time to try the Shoshone. Hopefully we'll get some warmer days without wind in the next couple of weeks and I'll make the drive to Cody.