The Yellowstone River in the Park remains a fairly challenging target this summer.  As we noted last week, after the opening on the 15th the consensus of opinion is that there are simply not the numbers of fish in the river this year as compared to years past.

The Yellowstone River below Seven Mile Hole remains under special regulations right now - basically the river below Seven Mile Hole is closed from 2 PM to 5 AM.   We feel that most waters should really be closed by noon - or whenever water temps rise into the high 60s.

There is some good news - the weather continues to moderate just a bit.  There have been some rain showers but not as heavy as last week (when the Lamar pumped a fair amount of mud into the river), though remember - an hard thunderstorm rain can blow the Lamar and the Stone out in a matter of hours.  The Lamar flows had bumped just a bit on the 0915 reading this morning, and I just checked the Coolworks Electric Peak/ Yellowstone River webcam and it looks like the river might be a bit stained this morning at 1120….

Flows remain very low overall - at the Yellowstone Outlet today flows are 997 cfs (average 2200 cfs, the 20% marker is 1570 cfs).

The best strategy below Fishing Bridge right now probably is to target the waning early PMD hatches; otherwise you’re looking at searching with big attractors and terrestials (think big hopper) with nymph droppers, or maybe with a double nymph rig.  Evening caddis are sporadic, but can be productive, and you can fish after 2 PM on this section.  The Drakes are present, spotty, with a buddy seeing a few both Green and Gray Drakes this past week.  This remains pretty challenging fishing - not the place for the impatient or inexperienced.   The Type 2 Incident Team managing the Columbine Fire has set up camp near fishing bridge and we hear traffic has been a mess.  We’re going in Thursday to do some interviews in the Park and will get some pictures of the area just for grins. 

Yellowstone Canyons - throw a big attractor rig or hopper with a dropper (beadhead of your choice, we still favor the old warrior the Prince).  We’ve had success with a Turck’s Tarantala as well as Stims here.   There are caddis coming off in the late evening, though the river is closed after 2 PM and will be so for several more weeks at least.

Down near Gardner (and below) we would suggest terrestials or maybe a small attractor with a dropper rig, and with the restrictions lifted off the Yellowstone from the Park to the 89 Bridge east of Livingston, expect evening fishing to be good. 

We have a full report available (updated yesterday) for the Yellowstone River outside the park on Best Fly Fishing Montana, and Montana’s FWP has just rescinded the hoot owl restrictions today on the river from YNP to the highway 89 Bridge east of Livingston - hot damn!

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Flies to have in the box:

Dries:  PMDs - parachute, sparkle dun, sprout, cripple, CDC emerger, PMX - yellow, peacock, royal; Parachute Adams; Lime Tude; Stimulator, olive, yellow; X-caddis; Goddard caddis;  Turck’s Tarantula; Drakes, life cycle

Nymphs:  Lightning bug, green and gold; Hares Ear, include BH;  Copper John, various colors; FB PT; SH PT; Prince - BH, your favorites

Terrestials: Hoppers, small to mid size, ; Beetles, Ants - chernobyl, ParaAnt, black and cinnamon;
 
Streamers / Others:  Wooly Buggers, brown / black, rubberlegs; Bow River Buggers

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