The Gallatin is one of the Park waters that has been fishing pretty darn well all summer, and yet receives much less attention that many of its more famous cousins.  The Gallatin in the Park is also unique this summer in that no restrictions have been place on it whatsoever.  Up until the rains of the past couple of days the river has been fishing very well - it will be back to that state in a couple of days.

The big impact for the next few days will be the effect of the passing thunderstorms we’ve had the last few days.  Up until mid day Friday the 17th, flows had been steady (at the Gallatin Gateway gauge) at or just below 400 cfs, pretty darned low but fishable.  Starting Thursday evening we’ve had pulses of showers coming through, heaviest Friday evening and Saturday, and yesterday (18th) the river blew out, with lots of mud being pumped in from Taylor’s Fork and Fan (Specimen was clear yesterday) - see our note from late on the 18th.  Flows ran up to over 500 cfs yesterday, and are 490 cfs this morning at 0645, with today’s average 572 cfs.  There is still a chance for rain for a couple of more days - without any more heavy rain it will likely be 2 days before things settle back down throughout the river system, maybe three if there’s more measurable rain today.  The Park section will clear on the earlier end of the time scale, without rain today, it might even be fishable late this afternoon up high.

That said, when it does settle back down, the main hatch activity on the Gallatin has been Caddis in the afternoon and evenings.  You might see a Spruce Moth down in the Canyon section outside the Park, but they have about run their course.  There are some PMDs in pockets, but not in great numbers.

The best approach right now is probably to plan to work attractor dries and terrestrials with droppers.  Below the Park in the canyon section you’ll see fewer terrestials, but the approach will be very similar.  Single attractor dries could be reasonable, and we did well several evenings ago using a double nypmh rig, running a smallish bugger ahead of a bead head prince or lightning bug. 

The Gallatin below the Park is fishing great also, we’ll update the Gallatin outside the Park in the morning (Monday) at Best Fly Fishing Montana.

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Flies to Have in the Box

Dries:  EHC, tan and olive; CDC caddis, tan and olive; X Caddis, olive; Ripcord caddis, Mangy Caddis, olive and brown; PMX peacock, royal, and lime/green; Spruce Moths; Royal Wulff;

Nymphs: Mega Prince, Copper John, red, blue; Rubberlegs, olive and brown; Hares Ear; San Juan worm, red, brown; BHFBPT; Bubbleback PMD; Lightning bug, gold, silver, green /olive

Terrestrials: Hoppers - Grand, tan, yellow; Dave’s; Para Hopper; Beetles - Fire, Foam, HiVis, Krystal Leg; Ants - Wilcox Glo Ant, CDC winged, epoxy, brown /cinnamon /black

Streamers / Other: Wooly buggers, olive, brown, black; Girdle bug; smaller sizes; Kiwi Muddler

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