8/19-8/26 Montana trout fishing

Headed out to Montana with my Dad and brother for the week last Saturday early morning from the Atlanta airport. Arrived in Bozeman, MT and drove down to West Yellowstone along the Gallatin River, where I was immediately submersed in trout country.

Checked into hotel and prepared for next morning's float on the Madison River, just down from Quake and Hebgen lakes. Woke up to a 33 degree morning, a welcome crisp in contrast to the 100+ heat indices I left behind in Charleston. Floated about 10 miles, mostly fishing hoppers and other terrestrials. Big fish of the day was a 17 inch brown that fell for a flying ant thrown tight on the bank.

Next day we headed into Yellowstone National Park and saw a few of the park's attractions before heading up the Lamar Valley and fishing the Soda Butte on the way to Cooke City.




On Tuesday we hiked into Slough Creek's second meadow. Lots of nice cutthroat eating terrestrials along the meadow's undercut banks. A good 4-5 mile hike in and out along some of Yellowstone's most beautiful scenery.
Wednesday we drove back across the park via some more of the major attractions. The plan was to be back in West for the night before another float on the Madison River the following day.

Thursday we floated the Madison again, this time a few miles lower than on Sunday. The fish were more active this day, with more and bigger fish coming up on hoppers and the occasional baetis during sporadic hatches.

On Friday, we got up and started working our way back up to Bozeman along Hwy 191 and the Gallatin River. We stopped every few miles to fish the river and were rewarded at each stop. The highlight was hitting a good stretch of dry fly water at lunch time just as some clouds came in and cooled things off enough for a heavy hatch, much to the enjoyment of ourselves as well as the feeding rainbow trout.

Saturday we were up at 4 am and at the airport for our flight back home. Great trip and great fishing, and back just in time to fish the last few good flood tides before the reds here begin their Fall/Winter patterns.

More pictures can be found in the Freshwater album of the photo gallery on the website. http://www.spottedtailproductions.com/gallery/