InsideSeam

Greg and I will be out of the office for a while. While we're out Andrew will keep the Shop Reports updated, and may post his reports and photos periodically.

We'd really like to get some audience participation on here, but the response to my Plea For Help was a bit underwhelming. In fact, I wasn't whelmed at all. Please 'continue' submitting reports via reports@insideseam.com until we can finish setting up a user registration function.

We'll be back on the rivers as soon as the freezer's full.

The 2pm-midnight restriction has been lifted on the Sheilds, Gallatin, East Gallatin and Lower Madison rivers. For details see, http://fwp.mt.gov/news/article_5947.aspx.

The referenced press release states that restrictions remain on the Lower Madison from Warm Springs to Three forks. However, other pages on the FWP website seems to suggest otherwise: http://fwp.mt.gov/fishing/guide/waterclosure.aspx
http://fwp.mt.gov/content/getItem.aspx?id=29184

Either way, the forecast looks pretty warm, so it's probably best to just lay off for a while yet.

Also, check out our updated photos, shop reports and articles/instructional video pages.

Any Gun's and Roses fans out there? I believe Mr. Brownstone was from the Appetite for Destruction album...I am sure Matt will know.

We floated 4 days in a row on the Yellowstone and did well on all of the trips. The only minor setbacks were a lost oar and a broken down vehicle. Thanks for helping out Troy.

Hot Fly List
-Olive Zonker
-Tan or Brown Kiwi Muddler w/ silver belly
-Olive Sculpin w/ white belly
-Lofontaine Sparkle Boach
-The Good 'ol Prince Nymph
-Any Hopper

A friend of ours recently went chasing brown bears in Alaska. They stumbled into a few pigs but, 'unfortunately', they all had fins (more pix):

I doubt he'll be able to sustain the streak, but apparently Greg's floated four straight days now. Surprisingly enough, he hasn't had time for an update. It sounds like they've got some good shots (and video?) to show us soon.

If you're heading out before he makes it in, they're catching fish on the ol' hopper/dropper setup, and sticking hogs with dead drifted sculpin/nymph rigs.

We floated Mayor's to 89 yesterday right before dark. The fishing was decent. We caught some nice rainbows, one slab in particular. All in all a nice evening float. Got rained on for a little bit but we need it right?

After the fishing we thought we woud stop for a beverage at the Murray. Apparently it was not in the cards as our buddy Bob freaked out on us. I guess he is on a tight leash these days.

Late!

So, rumor has it that some of our own are withholding info. I could understand it if the 'sensitive intelligence' concerned some unknown river in some unknown region with some unknown flies or some such, but this was about hooking (i.e., not landing) a few 'lunkers' on a standard float....weak, to say the least.

Anyway, I floated the Lower Madison this morning. Despite what some people are saying, the water is reasonably cool (low 60's). Assuming you play them aggresively and don't manhandle them, they should survive a catch and release just fine.

The fishing was actually rather mediocre for us. We fished hoppers religiously and hooked (i.e., not landed) what appeared to be one legit toad. Other than that, we moved several and landed a few decent trout (by 'we', I mean mostly Andre).

There was a bit of moss in the column that would have made streamers tough, and we just weren't in the mood to watch an indicator, so I can't speak to the effectiveness of other approaches.

I have a confession: fishing is a seasonal obsession for me.

I don't expect to see much river time during the month of September. We'll continue to update the site, but we'd really like to see a few more people posting first-hand reports. Shoot me an email if you'd like to be an author.

If you're a shopkeep or guide, you'll be able to showcase your wares (as long as they're woven into some sort of "useful or entertaining" context). At the very least, you could post some of your latest "glory shots" and send a link to your mom...

I drove up and down the Gallatin canyon today. The river was the color of a strong White Russian on the way up, but was trending toward a weak Scooby Snack on the way down.

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Assuming no more rain in Taylor Fork, it should be fishable by tomorrow and in good condition for the weekend.

Posted for meade:

Quick note on a great place to bring beginner fly fishers or out of town guests. Down stream from Cameron Bridge is a great place to get dry and nymph action. The fish are small but tenacious. Nice slow open water with a clear backcast can be great for the first or second timer who wants to catch fish. They were hitting terrestrials and any nymph in the box. Crimp your barbs for these little guys because they really smack those flies. Remember, always wet your hands before touching a trout!

Best,

Bob Meade

Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures
888-777-5060
406-585-8667

http://fwp.mt.gov/news/article_5874.aspx

I understand it'll remain closed until the water level stabilizes above 200cfs.

The fallout from yesterday's thunderstorm runoff is suspended in the Gallatin and Yellowstone Rivers:

Carp on the fly, as promised:

The Report: We floated the Upper Missouri looking to stalk feeders. We saw many, hooked three and landed one. I was warned that they spooked easily, but the reality was ridiculous. Cracking a fresh beer would send fish waking into the depths. A strong pull on the oars will spook every fish within 100 yards.

We found singles tailing in shallows and groups gulping in back eddies. The flats didn't produce a single eat. When one of us managed to sneak within casting distance, our flies were ignored. They will not move far for a fly. You may have a chance with a perfect drift right under their nose. Although, I don't know for sure, as the best we managed was two inches inside.

The gulpers would eat, if you could get a cast in without blowing your cover. The schools sometimes had 20+ fish in them and, like a herd of elk, if you get busted by one you're done.

Anyway, it was good fun, but I expect it'll take a good ten months before I feel another carp jones.

If you have not heard the restrictions on the Yellowstone have been lifted. The river is now open all day from Gardiner down to Highway 89 bridge. Having an 8-5 job has kept me and a lot of my friends out of the game on the Stone during the week. So, as soon as we caught wind of the news Bob, Troy and I jumped at the opportunity to take an afternoon float.

After being questioned by a few locals, we put on at Mayor's. We had a hopper dropper rig in the front of the boat and a sculpin/nymph rig in the back of the boat. It was a little slow at first but then it turned on. Thanks to Troy, we boated some nice fish. I think the false cloud cover (smoke) helped.

While the sculpin/nymph setup generated some violent strikes, the hopper dropper and straight nymph rig were the big producers. Right before dark the caddis came out. We were going to fish the slow water by the 89 bridge but there were some goo huckers posted up so we decided to pass. Then some dudes dropped in a jet ski so we got out of there. Troy Pork-Tinezzz had his day boating 2 nice bows and one slab brown.

If you can handle the smoke, the Yellowstone is now open 24 hr above the Highway 89 bridge. The 2pm-midnight closure remains downstream.

For details and updates check http://fwp.mt.gov/news/article_5852.aspx and http://fwp.mt.gov/fishing/guide/waterclosure.aspx, respectively.

Also, check the Shop eReports page for the latest from Slide Inn, Montana Troutfitters, The River's Edge, and others (if you'd like us to include your reports here, let us know via reports@insideseam.com).

Something to whet your app:

I realize this wasn't caught on fly gear, and that it didn't come out of the Jeff or Mo, but just look at it:

YO,
Put on @ 8:00 AM Saturday morning at the Manhattan Bridge. Things were a little boney off the bat which was no problem because we were in Slojac’s Cat-a-raft. To all you sayers of nay out there, this was the perfect boat for this float. I would have destroyed my Hyde on this stretch. Anywho, due to the river’s level you knew exactly where the trout were gonna be. It was a forward row to the next sweet spot type of deal. We only pulled one fish out of each hole though, not a multiple fish deal. No action on hoppers, or steamers but just plain ol’ bead head nymphs was getting’em. Slojac lost 3 nice fish, toads that we had visual confirmation on and we landed a few smaller ones. There are some really nice fish in that river.

A few nuggets of wisdom:

1.) They don’t start selling beer till 8:00 AM
2.) They don’t start selling beer till 8:00 AM

We also forgot the lighter as to enjoy a nice post fish ciggy. So no lighter we decided to try the fire bow trick. We fashioned a fire bow and got some dry grass and actually got some smoke happening. After our 6th attempt we decided we really didn’t want a cigarette that bad, BUT it will work with perseverance.

Have fun out there and always practice safe fish handling!

Meade
Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures
888-777-5060
406-585-8667

I floated Lyons to Palisades with a few folks yesterday. The wind was up and it was hot out so the float turned out to be more of a cruise then anything. Good thing the cooler was stocked with coldies.

We floated in the middle of the day and as you know that is not the best time for fishing this time of year. I did catch a few fish on a Fat Albert hopper pattern and I even caught a few on the spider dropper, a recommendation from the Beartooth Fly Shop.

The other angler in the boat, Mark, tried the hopper beetle set up and had no luck so he put on the good ol’ nymph rig. The water was very low up there. As a result all he caught was bottom. I also tried dead drifting a bow river bugger and Louie Lips showed up...sweet. That is all I got from the weekend. Maybe it’s time to start hitting some of the smaller creeks with the 3 weight.

We floated Varney to 8 mile yesterday afternoon. It was overcast with just a little wind. The conditions seemed great for an evening float. Unfortunately, the fish didn't cooperate. We tried everything from stripping and dead drifting streamers (bow river buggers, sculpins, yellow yummies), to nymphing (both big and small) to a hopper...we even tried a mouse pattern right at dark. We hooked one nice fish and that was it...and we didn't even get her to the boat.

Not sure if that stretch got slammed during the day or if we were just off (probably the later), but either way it was a humbling experience. I can't remember the last time I got skunked on the Upper Madi. A boat behind us said they were getting them on hoppers...hmmmm.

The Yellowstone seems to be clearing nicely and so does the Gallatin. Have a great weekend and let us know how you did out there.

-Greg

Also on the Upper last evening:

Afternoon into evening fishing was skunskville on Varney to Town. We heard some gapers behind us hooting and hollering but it was probably just a belly hooked whitey. Personally I think the fish were tired. Right before they pulse I think it will be gang busters. Bettle’s are still getting looks as well as a typical hopper patterns. The Claimjumper was consistent last night and that’s about it. Oh they were out of chili so I couldn’t order the dirty diaper.

Bob Meade
Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures

The Upper Maddie was not fishing well at all yesterday. Even snagging up and having to re-tie a different fly NUMEROUS times by each person in the boat did not produce any fish. Greg Burden had the only hook-up of the day but was 40 feet behind the boat, which led to the fish throwing the fly - BOACH!

Nate Kepler
Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures

Bill Berg, president of www.CoolWorks.com, has a webcam looking out his office window up in Gardiner. Click on this image from earlier today for updated views:

I'll re-post this entry on the Resources page for future reference.

Thanks Bill!

The Yellowstone is still muddy and the guys at Angler's West said there might be some more mud coming down from the Lamar. There is about a foot and a half of vis (maybe less) so if you are fishing it I would use streamers and bigger nymphs. It might be a few more days before this is happening again.

The Gallatin is still off color but is clearing. I expect this one to be significantly better tomorrow, barring any major rain storms. There is a slight chance of precipitation on Friday but we are looking good till then. If you are fishing this one I would dead drift bigger nymphs.

Both the Yellowstone and the Gallatin are the color of chocolate milk this morning. Find somewhere else to fish. We will keep you posted.

As we all know the spring creeks can be really tough but with the conditions the way they have been they are a viable option for out of towners. 1.) Your gonna see some really sweet fish. 2.) If they get happy they can be fooled. 3.) Those places are gorgeous.

My buddy Lex was in town from Houston this past week. He sits in a cubicle, crunches numbers, and makes 6 figures so the $100 rod fee was a piss in the bucket. That being said we hit the crick about 9:00 Thursday August 2nd. We would have been there earlier but 317's coche bombas put the kybosch on that. We hit the morning hatch perfectly but they really didn't want the bugs that had already emerged. We found a happy fish, made a well placed cast with a little beetle and it was on! Kiwi fishing at its finest. I coached him from the bank for a team victory. I could have sworn I heard the fish say DOH! These guys see a lot of bugs and to get one to take with that kind of tenacity was pretty cool.

We headed into the Slack Knuckle in Livingston had some sliders and wheat beers and headed back out to the crick. With some texture on the water 6X was enough to fool some more fish on the beetle. Once the wind died they were hitting it but not with the same gusto. Later on we ran rubber legs through fast shady overhangs and moved some pretty pissed off brownies.

All in all it was a beautiful day in MT and it was cool to put my corporately leashed buddy on some fish.

See ya in the shallows...

Not sure how significant this is, but there may be some mud on it's way:

Decided to take my wife Jen, my mom, and Tom on a float down the Madison on Saturday...bad call. First off the water level was up so it was running fast. Four adults in an old 'high profile' Clacka is a tough deal especially with the wind gusting.

Put on a hopper and got Tom to make some casts towards the bank...nothing. He asked if he could row so I said sure. I wasn't into my 3rd cast when we were headed for good size boulder...sideways. I told him to point the nose at the boulder and pull back. You can only hope for so long before taking action so I dropped the rod in the boat and jumped back on the sticks. That was the end of my fishing for the day. Jen did manage to hook a few nice fish out of the back of the boat on a hopper.

An hour and a half later we got hit by an intense T-storm. To make matters worse we forgot the rain gear. My mom was covered in a cotton towel which was soaking up every bit of moisture. After maneuvering the boat to the bank, my mom almost fell out of the boat on the way over, all 4 of us huddled up under a tree and got out of the rain. After about 30 minutes the rain finally let up a bit so we got back in the boat and floated the last hour to the take out.

To top it off we got a flat tire on the drive home. Not what I would call an epic day of fishing but definitely a trip we will remember. Thanks for coming out mom...good to see ya.

The Yelly fished really tough the other morning. Even with a nice early put-on the fishing was slow. The guys at Troutfitters said dead drifting sculpins with the red spaghetti trailer. It wasn’t until we passed through town…side note; take plenty of time on setting up through the 9th street bridge, that thing can get real hairy real fast, we finally found some cutties stacked up in some slow deep water and it was a fish after fish scenario on the red san juanito. Other sources say the fishing is better a little later but with hoot owl 2:00 PM cutoffs it’s almost futile to do a float in excess of 7 miles. Good luck out there you Gapers!

Bob Meade

Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures
888-777-5060
406-585-8667

I got a quick float in on the Henry's Fork this morning. Aside from the relative seclusion, it was your typical late-summer day in the Box Canyon. We got out early to avoid the tube hatch, and passed a few hours running double nymph rigs through slot after slot. [I suspect that a Lucky Lil's next to Trouthunter would crush it.]

As usual, we saw most of the action on deep dead-drifts (and I mean dead) in current, near large boulders with a big/black + small/green set-up. More than most rivers, I think fly placement is key to moving fish in the Box. There is so much food in the water column that they usually just won't bother chasing more than a few inches.

Anyway, here are a couple photos from today:

The result of my first cast of the day -

Meet Huck. He likes fish. (BTW, if you ever find yourself raising a would-be bird and boat dog, I wouldn't recommend 'building prey-drive' by letting him toy with trash-fish) -

I spoke to the guys at Angler's West in Emigrant this morning and they said the Stone is off color...2-3 feet of visibility...but definitely fishable. Not sure whether or not another mud plug is coming through but we definitely had a nice downpour in Bozeman last night.

The Upper Madison spiked so my guess is that the fish will be hanging out more towards the banks. I will be fishing the Madison tomorrow so I will try to post an update tomorrow night. As for weekend plans take your pick-clarity issues on the Stone or water level issues on the Madi. Hopefully the conditions will stabilize in the next day or so. Good luck.

Sorry, I've been slacking. I haven't fished for a few days now, and it's not looking good for today or tomorrow. The weekend can't get here soon enough...

We have updates from a couple shops, so check out the Shop eReports page for that.