Montana Trout Scout

PMD's on the Stillwater

Pale morning duns are hatching on the Stillwater. The river's still pretty high, so wade fishing is tough. Look to the side channels and slow eddies for rising fish. Pale morning duns are a greenish yellow mayfly that actually hatches in early afternoon around here. As the weather heats up, the hatch gets earlier. Right now, it's happening around 2pm. This is not a heavy hatch. You will have to pay attention and look for bugs and rising fish. Try a yellow parachute in size 16 to match the adult. Fish were taking a size 16 prince or pheasant tail nymph before and during the hatch. The nymph is considerably darker than the adult.

Stillwater finally fishing!

The Stillwater has finally come down enough to fish! Still pretty high for wade fishing, but good for float fishing. We floated Cliff Swallow to Johnson's bridge yesterday. That's above the Rosebud  convergence, so no problem with water clarity. Fish were eating a Madam X or Trude without hesitation. We fished the dry flies (size 10) with a bead head dropper. It didn't seem to matter what bead head, they ate everything we tried. Sizes 16 and 14 were best.

Bugs were everywhere! There were several kinds of mayfly coming off along with the occasional caddis. Giant golden stones were also around, which explains why fish were looking for the big dry fly patterns. It's time to fish!