InsideSeam

"Southwest wind between 5 and 11 mph"... mmm hmmm.

Put in at Carter's around 2:45 this afternoon, pulled up to the 9th street ramp around 4:25. There wasn't much water to push us, so the wind picked up the slack.

On the bright side, Greg caught this dark brown a couple hundred yards below the ramp:

It took a brown and orange lead-eye rubberlegged chunk of hardware off the bottom in a slow inside run. Things were looking good, but the afternoon sort of stalled at that point.

We picked up a couple other browns on the strip, as did Mason and Bob in the other boat. In all fairness, the wind was ridiculous and there weren't too many great drifts over the last 4/5 of the float.

I also had a little talk with this honker about a third of the way through:

It turns out that a big white drift boat is the perfect camo for geese hunting on these rivers. This bird and his buddies were posing for another photo op, when I pulled out the ol' 870 wingmaster. I felt a little guilty shooting, but I suppose the education will serve the remainder well once they move out for the season.

Finally, a word of warning, figure out how to split your next Chop House tab before the bill comes. We spent at least 30 min learning the hard way that the staff and credit cards don't get along.

I started to update the shop reports this morning, but since every shop has essentially the same report for every nearby river, I'll just sum it up here: the fishing is generally good; use small BWO dries on cloudy days, two-fly nymph rigs w/ big-ugly/beadhead when they're not rising, or swing for the fences by stripping streamers.

Also, here's my photo-excuse for not fishing this weekend:

We hit the Yellowstone from Grey Owl to Mallard's Rest today. The fishing kept us entertained, if just barely. Most of the day was spent bobber fishing w/ big uglies (bow river bugger, double bunny, zonker, halloween bugger, etc.) and a small nymph (serendipity, copper john, prince, pt, etc.). Those rigs brought a bunch of whitefish to the boat, as well as a few trout; both fish seemed to like both flies better on the strip. We didn't boat anything spectacular, but we did lose a couple big browns and a couple unseen fish that were pulling hard.

It was sunny most of the day, so the beatis thing wasn't really happening. We spotted several pods of risers but, once again, they were dominated by Louie Lips. The best we could do on dries was a few medium sized cutties.

Here are a couple marginal shots from today. I recently bought the waterproof Olympus 790SW for fishing photos, and I'm still figuring it out...

She's flowing low and slow, so it may be a good idea to shorten up your floats and spend any extra time hunting heads.

Also, for the cast 'n blast crowd, Anthony connected with a passing honker early and I jumped a blue-wing teal a bit later.

Twice in the past week I've found myself holding a fly-rod - October 1st on the lower Madison and yesterday on the Yellowstone. Both reports are essentially the same: we found pods sipping small dries (beatis and/or midges), but couldn't get the big stuff to work.

The 'highlight' of streamer fishing was snagging this little guy out of the boat ramp foam line:

As far as regular fishing reports go, I can't really commit just yet. I'll do what I can (e.g. see updated Shop Reports), but I have many other fall responsibilities that require attention.

Specifically, while I'm done chasing elk for the year...

...I drew a once-a-decade deer tag that I'd rather not eat...

...and pheasant season opens this Saturday:

Anyway, thanks for your patience. In the future, I'll try not to neglect the trout - they deserve better.

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

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!

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

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).

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!

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

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

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 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.

Headed over to the Jellystone early this morning only to find a plug of mud smoking through the valley. So, we jumped in at Mayor's and floated to the highway 89 bridge.

Fishing: The bite was never exactly "on", but there was some decent action before 10:00. The highlights were a fat brown stuck right out of the gate while stripping a black Bow River Bugger, three 'bows in three casts at the head of an inside riffle, and moving (read: not landing) a big brown to a modified chubby chernobyl.

Weather: Calm and overcast early, then the wind picked up pretty good around 10:30--we weren't exactly disapointed to see the take out.

Food: Mark's In & Out Beefburgers for Quadburgers and Cadillac Gravy Fries.

Not sure how long that mud will last. It looks like it came from the Lamar:

The flows near Corwin Springs mirror the Lamar and appear to be dropping. However, the forecast shows a chance for more T-storms later today and tomorrow afternoon. We'll post any info we get, but if you're thinking of fishing the Yellowstone this weekend you should call a shuttle service or your favorite shop for current conditions.

We took a couple photos, but they were pretty marginal and poorly focused...next time.

This report was submitted via reports@InsideSeam.com yesterday afternoon. I was about to turn the guy into the FWP for violating the current restrictions.

Turns out the report is a bit dated (like, 9 months), but it's never too early to start thinking about late-season brownies...

"I went to Manhattan last evening and got some lines wet on the Galli. Started out underneath the Nixon bridge and moved upstream...Not the biggest fish I've caught in the Galli, but it felt like I was reeling in Rosie O'Donnell. ~Anonymous"

While I'm at it, here are a couple others:

Note the look of utter devotion (or, perhaps, disbelief) on Cory's face: