Latest fishing reports - please scroll down for older reports:

2010 Archives

2009 Archives

2008 Archives

2007 Archives

2006 Archives

10/2-Deani, Tom and Dave joined me for another hike and fish trip today. We dropped into the Clark's Fork canyon and had great fishing once again. Too bad the scenery wasn't any good.

10/1-I took Kevin, Terry and Dave on a tour today. We started at Little Bear Creek and caught a ton of brookies, then went to Island lake for a few rainbows and finished on the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone.

9/30- Chad and Deani signed up for the Copper Lakes trip today. Chad gave the evening fishing report to the group in which he said "if I'd known how tough the hike was...I wouldn't have gone." He also went on to say that the day was one of the top 5 experiences of his life, just behind his marriage and births of his children.

The fishing was fabulous with really fun sight fishing. The cutthroats would come from 5-10 feet away and slowly sip the fly. Really fun fishing. The hike did wear out Luna though.

9/29- I had a day off to fish with John and Lynn today. We fished my favorite stretch of Sunlight Creek for the afternoon hatch. Again great fishing. Notice Lynn with the fish on in the background.

9/28-Jim and Deani fished the Sunlight gorge with me this morning and the ranch in the evening. We had good fishing for rainbows in the gorge and brookies on the ranch. Here's Jim with a signiture over the log dabbing move that netted him several rainbows.

9/27-I took Blake, Kevin and Dave to Cache creek and the Lamar River in Yellowstone National Park today. It's a 4 mile hike in which is half the fun. At our first rest stop we had a wolf trot over the hill 150 yards in front of us. The second rest stop was for a herd of Bison, then we saw a badger at the third rest stop. Yellowstone is awesome. We had tough fishing on Cache creek, but great fishing for cutthroats on the Lamar.

9/26-I had to start work today. I took Cliff and Steve fishing locally on Sunlight creek. Fishing was slow in the morning and fantastic in the afternoon. I left the camera in the car today.

9/25-Family fishing in the Beartooth Mountains today. Bubba likes to bring a few home from the put and take lakes.

9/24- Leslie and I hiked to Copper Lakes today to scout some fishing. Good fishing, good hike. Awesome scenery.

9/23-I'm in Wyoming for a week of guiding at my family's 7-D Ranch. Today was a family fishing derby on Sunlight Creek. My parents: John and Lynn guided Leslie, Emma and I on the home waters. Fall colors were spectacular in the beautiful sunny weather. The brookies are in fall colors as well. It doesn't get any better.

9/22-I guided for Dan Bailey's today. We fished the Yellowstone for a morning half day. Beautiful weather and nice people.

9/20-I took Taisuke and Taro to the Milesnick Ranch today. The fishing was spectacular. Tricos continue to hatch in big numbers and the fish are totally keyed into the spinner fall mid day. There were pods of rising fish to target, but that doesn't always equal pods of fish caught. Trico spinner fishing requires pin point casting. Luckily Taisuke and Taro were up to the challenge.

9/18- Taisuke Buyo and Taro Yakakita purchased a trip that Renegade Outfitters and the Western Heritage Inn donated to Tsunami relief in Japan. We fished Nelson's Spring Creek today with strong wind and sunny skies. The conditions were really tough with the wind howling in the morning. Taisuke and Taro are really good anglers and were able to get some fish in the morning with the midge hanger pattern. We had some good baetis fishing right after lunch and then the wind really blew.

9/16- I worked for Angler's West today guiding Norman and Steve on Depuy's Spring Creek. The weather was overcast with intermittent rain and a little wind. Fishing was fantastic with fish rising to midges in the morning, and baetis mid day. The sulphur hatch was incredible in the afternoon. There were so many naturals that fishing got tough during the peak of the hatch. It took a lot of good casts to get the fish to eat your fly. Here are the boys.

9/12-The last day was the best for Gary and Mike, they crushed the fish in the morning at the dam. We had planned on chasing trico risers in the late morning, but a strong downstream wind blew them all away. The wind also blew hundreds of hoppers into the water. I've never seen anything even close to the number of hoppers floating down the river. The fish were on them from bank to bank and it was possible to anchor up, watch for a rise and cast your hopper at it with incredible success. When Mike arrived 5 days ago, he told me he had a dream about catching a big brown. He got it on his last cast of the trip 100 feet from the boatramp. Here he is also measuring Gary's hat after netting it out of the river...we didn't have any fun or laugh at all in 5 days. I can't believe they keep coming back.

9/11pm- Night fishing legend Greg Falls, led a walleye hunting trip tonight. Dave McKee joined us for an after dark adventure and provided some spin gear for me. The score: Falls got 15 plus big rainbows on the fly rod rig. McKee landed the only Walleye on a floating crank bait and I lost $50 worth of crank baits and several fish, but didn't fall down at least. Here's a picture of Colton who we met at the ramp. Yeah his Dad Steve got a big boy, while we stumbled around in the dark. He was nice enough to give me some pointers for the next trip. I can't wait.

9/11- We hit the canyon stretch of the MO today and again had good fishing, highlighted by Gary picking off a 20 inch rainbow that was sipping trico spinners first thing in the morning. A sharpshooter move. The rest of the day, fish were right where they were supposed to be. Here's Gary.

9/10-Mike, Gary and I headed to the Missouri for a few days. Fishing was good with nymphing at the dam in the am and hopper fishing in the afternoon. There was a 10-15 mph north wind, and we saw a couple dozen natural hoppers on the water, some of the hopper takes were violent and the Missouri river fish always impress me with their size and power.

9/8- We had planned on trying the Gallatin or Jefferson today, but after much discussion and yesterday's great fishing , we decided to go back to the Yellowstone. The day was warm/hot and sunny with no wind....and the fishing was less than stellar, in fact, I thought it sucked. Mike did manage to land a baby sucker by hand at lunch time and put me back in the running for the 2012 sucker championship.

9/7- Gary Hancock and Mike Barbour are back for their 15th year to Montana. We've been fishing together for at least the last 10 years, none of us can remember any longer than that. We started on the Yellowstone today and had some of the best hopper action of the season. The big fish were searching for hoppers in all kinds of different water and Mike and Gary made the most of it.

9/6- Yusuke and Natsumi Tanaka are in Montana for their honeymoon. I had a blast fishing with them on the Yellowstone today. Again, hopper fishing was good with beautiful weather. Natsumi, the bride did most of the catching as is usually the case. Here she is cooling off with some beer and hard lemonade.

9/4pm- I floated with friends and family on the Yellowstone for the afternoon. Weather was spectacular. Marcus and McCray Engler put on a clinic in catching and netting early and our neighbor Delany from the Howler's Inn bed and breakfast picked up the fly rod for her first time. It took her 5 minutes to master casting and 10 minutes fishing with a hook to catch her first fish. She had plenty of help netting it with Emma her buddy Brynn. Luna the Lab kept watch.

9/4 am- I was out on a morning half day extravaganza for Dan Bailey's fly shop today. I got to work with L.J. Glover and Jeff Hennen. Marco and Pirsilla were in my boat for their first experience fly fishing. Pirsilla was a natural and listened to the guide, she out fished the other two boats all by herself. Marco ended up in a distant second place despite the front of the boat.

9/3- I worked for whitewater legend Phil Sgamma today. Tim Trafton rowed the 3rd raft and we had a fun group of anglers. We rafted the Yankee Jim Canyon of the Yellowstone looking for Cutthroat trout and hoppers. We found both. George and Debbie rode in my boat and got the job done on their first experience with fly fishing despite a nasty upstream wind that would have sent most rookies to the locker room.

9/2- High winds were in the forecast today, so instead of fighting the driftboat, we headed back to MZ Ranch. The tricos were blown away and we had to resort to the hopper dropper rig. The fishing was outstanding again. Here are Barney and Steve satiated.

9/1-Barney's fished all over the world and most of the spring creeks in Montana, but he gave me a more than usually puzzled look when I told him today's destination would be the Milesnick Ranch. He'd never heard of it...I assured him he'd like it. It was cool and cloudy and spitting rain when we arrived. We were the only anglers on the ranch today and Barney and Steve had already had a good day by the time we finished checking in with Mary Kay. She is the best. Then we walked up to the bank of the East Gallatin to see the water boiling with fish rising to tricos. Conditions don't get any better than they were today. Check out Barney's shirt, is this guy a rookie?

8/31- Barney Scollan and Steve Heron made a last minute trip to Montana. They were rewarded by really good fishing on the Yellowstone today. Steve started the morning out with a brown a couple hundred yards from the put in and the fishing only got better until we were hit by some dirty water about 4. There were some vicious hopper bites after lunch.

8/30- I fished the Upper Madison today with Pat Ebling adn Aaron Lifson. Mike Henry from the "Old Kirby Place" rowed Mick Lifson and his brother down the river. Pat an Aaron told me, this was their second day flyfishing. I think they were full of it, these boys could fish and we caught more than our share on a beautiful sunny day.

8/29- My clients were delayed by Hurricane Irene, so I slipped out to MZ ranch for some scouting. It's game on, trico swarms rising fish and no tracks on the banks. If only my casting and hook set weren't so rusty...

8/28- Tim and Tina Rider floated the Yellowstone today, they brought their A games in the morning and overcast skies got the fish to cooperate. The afternoon things tapered off, but a good time was had ...by me at least.

8/25- My friend and neighbor Don Daniels gets to go fishing once a year, and for the last 3 years he's hit some amazing fishing with me on the Boulder. This year, I warned him we wouldn't get the numbers he's used to. He didn't catch 50 today on the Yellowstone, but we had steady action all day and got some really nice rainbows on the hopper rig. Here he is same shot as the last few years, rod bent, smile.

8/24- Jennene and Steve Knight are in town for a little fishing. We fished the Yellowstone and once again the fishing was outstanding. Steve didn't even fall out of the boat as he said he did on his first float trip on the Snake river last week.

8/22- Christy Fullen and Darryl Kneiszel hit the Yellowstone with me today. Fishing was great. Here's Darryl with the Brown of the day.

8/20-Camped on the Yellowstone last night with Leslie and Emma. Emma and I did a little fishing in the morning. She out fished the old man 2 to nothing. Here she is with a smile widened by last nights ketchup, possibly chocolate and a rainbow on the line.

8/17-8/19- Marston and Sondra Nauman are back in town for 3 days fishing on the Yellowstone. We had good hopper fishing each day especially in the afternoons. Here they are with some fine brown trout.

8/16-Koji and I went to step up the difficulty level at Milesnick Ranch today. It was great to see Mary Kay and Tom Milesnick who had just returned from their first summer vacation ever. Real ranchers don't get much time off. The creeks hadn't been fished in two weeks and we had them fresh. There was a fantastic trico hatch in the morning and we started on Thompson creek stalking tough fish. The first cast has to be a good one to get these wary trout. Koji was up to the challenge and landed a few good ones. We tried Ben Hart creek after lunch, but didn't find much/anything rising. The deep holes are holding some big trout, but they weren't interested in rising with the trico spinners waining. We stopped by the East Gallatin, which is finally coming down to fishable levels. My guess is that nymphing would be red hot, but Koji would rather stalk risers, so back to Thompsons for us. The Psuedo hatch was heavy enough to get fish rising from 2-4. Psuedos are tiny and fish feeding lanes reflect the size of these bugs, we tied on a #14 beetle and had fish charge over 3 feet to take it. Good stuff.

8/15-Koji, my lab Luna and I rafted the Upper Stillwater today. The morning was cool and cloudy, we were wishing we were on a spring creek with those conditions. Fishing in the am was slow on the cold water of the Stillwater, but after luch the switch turned on and the Chubby Chernobyl fishing was incredible... to many bites to count. Poor Koji had to listen to me say "hit it" about every 3rd cast. Here he is, with a nice whitey, I guided him into with a nymph in the morning. If you're looking for whitefish, give me a call.

8/14-This is Koji's 15th year coming to Montana, you've got to do some traveling to show him new water. We did just that today as we headed to the lower Stillwater River. It was hot (95) and windy today...hopper time!! After lunch we had great hopper fishing. We did a very short float that included 2 miles of the Stillwater and 1 1/2 miles of the Lower Yellowstone. The Yellowstone is a big river down there and the fish seem to key into movement. We worked on twitching techniques with big hoppers and had fantastic results with rainbows hammering any pattern we threw at them. The nocturnal stonefly hatch is in full swing down here and I'm sure the fish were taking our tan hoppers for a stonefly as well.

8/13- Koji Otani joined Dr. Kamitani, Rika and I on Depuys spring creek today. We had good fishing with just enough PMDs hatching to get the fish rising in the mid morning. Everyone got fish right off the bat. After lunch Rika and Dr. Kamitani headed to the Henry's Fork and Koji and I explored the whole creek. Koji put on a clinic on the Depuys pond nailing the first 3 fish he cast to. This is not easy water, my midge hanger pattern was working and I checked a stomach to confirm that the fish were keyed into midges...suprise, the brown we checked was full of snails, time to get back on the vise for a new floating snail pattern.

8/12- Dr. Kamitani and Rika Kawanishi are back again this August. Usually, we concentrate on spring creek fishing before they head to the Henry's Fork for the "tough fishing". Today, we mixed it up and went rafting on the Boulder. Dr. Kamitani doesn't like to fish out of the boat, so we stopped and hit the skinny water riffles and side channels with single small dry flies. These spots get left untouched by the passing rafts and were very productive. Rika as always, caught the first, most and biggest fish, and helped me keep Dr. Kamitani in line.

8/10- I worked for 2011 exotic fish champ (yes I conceed) Dave McKee today. It was a 3 boat trip and I was lucky enough to work with Sean Blane and Steve Leibinger Yellowstone guide aces. We had 3 generations of the Dwight Short family out on the Upper Yellowstone. The grandsons were 9 and 11 and amazing anglers as well as fly tiers. I had Dwight and Lois in my boat, and the action was steady all day with some nice fish being caught on the bugger bead combo in the morning and we got them to eat dry flies in the afternoon....oh yeah, it's finally dry fly time on the Yellowstone! Nobody's having any fun in Steve's boat. Better luck next time.

8/9- I fished the Boulder with Will Lassiters folks, Will and Mable and their friends from North Carolina today. The fishing was outstanding. We switched up boats throughout the day. Young Will rolled into the ramp with his father bleeding with a Chubby in the finger and a pheasant tail in the thigh. Why is he smiling? Not because his son crimped the barb...he didn't, but because he landed the fish before things went south. Maybe he just likes a free pass on the the flip off.

8/7-The Rupert Brothers again did more catching than fishing today with Aaron Hanson. We rafted the Boulder. Here's Mark examining my fly selection...big suprise "Chubby". By the way, they are not off the Chubby when Mark is drifting perfectly down each seam or pillow. "Rock pillow eat...Wow, that was awesome!" We said that more than once and never mentioned mending.

8/6- It's quite an honor to have Headhunters Fly Shop owner, outfitter and Montana fishing legend, Mark Raisler hire me to row him down the river. This is Mark's 4th year coming to fish with me. He brought his best client Mike Rupert and Mike's brother Chris on this one. Aaron Hanson put the Rupert brothers on fish all day, while I rowed Mark around. We hit the upper Stillwater and had good fishing. Although the fish are not up to Missouri river standards, Mark definitely looks satiated. Casting all day will do that to you even without the PBR.

8/5- I donated another trip to local non-profit Eagle Mount today. Eagle Mount helps people with diabilities get out to do recreational activities. I was one of 5 guides with the group today. My good friend Liz Ann was fishing in my boat. She nailed a whitefish on her first cast! We got hammered by a series of thunderstorms, but I didn't hear any complaints from this group. Here are some shots from the day. I can't wait for the next one!

Dave Kumlein, Charlie Conn, Tom Harms, and Troy were the other guides. Thanks!

8/4- I fished with a group from the Double T River Ranch today on the Smith River. Tim Trafton and Andy Celander joined me guiding the Furano family. The private stretch of the river we were on hadn't been fished this year and the first cast in each hole was money. An afternoon thunderstorm and impressive mosqito hatch ran us off in the afternoon. I look forward to getting back to this water when the grasshoppers get a bit bigger. Here's Bucky and Andy returning from the lower river with smiles.

8/3- I worked for legendary outfiter and current 2011 mountain sucker competion leader Dave Mckee today. He claims to have 4 landed already this year and I started the day with a big fat zero. Dewy and Bryce were in my boat and Steve Leibinger (one sucker) guided James and Bryce's dad. We floated the Yellowstone and had good action nymphing with the bugger/bead combo...and Dewey got me on the board, with a legally hooked sucker on a 16 pheasant tail...watch out Mckee!! Here are Dewey and Bryce, oh yeah we got lots of other fish too.

8/2-John Hathaway and Darren Huls got me fresh today. These guys are were born and raised in Bozeman, John left to find good work, and comes to visit each summer, Darren is still here. It was great to hang out with two high school buddies. We floated the Boulder and had some great fishing. It was the kind of day when you just knew you were going to get hit when the fly was drifting in the right water. Check out the Hathaway crouch...this guy is ready!!

8/1- My buddy Zach Mertens from Idylwilde flies is in town for some business and pleasure....Zach is fond of saying "fishing is business". That's what we had in mind today, fishing/product testing. I met Zach at his favorite local river at 10 am, he handed me a beer and we started digging through is fly boxes filling a ziplock bag with handfuls of new stuff and old favorites. The rule of the day was, when you catch one, change flies. Zach put on a clinic twitching hopper patterns on slow deep banks. Twitching is an artform, properly done fish can't seem to resist it, done poorly, they run for cover. There were some crushing strikes as browns charged out of the depths. We were float tubing/one man rafting 4 road miles of a meandering river. After 5 hours on the water the thunderstorms were building and the western horizon was black. Zach checked his GPS and we had gone less than half way...time to run to the road and hitchhike for the cars as fast as possible, just like old times, new water, adventure and some wild trout.

7/29- Manoa Hoshina is here for a fishing vacation. Hoshina is a remarkable angler and fly tier. His flies are inovative and effective...I put him in the same catagory as Bob Quigley and Rene Harrop. I was excited to fish Armstrong spring creek with him today to see what kind of tricks he had up his sleeve. When we rolled into the creek this morning we must have been the last anglers to check in. No problem, when I guide my best anglers, I love to challenge them with water that is impossible for novice anglers. I told Hoshina I was taking him to the "toughest water" on Armstrong's. We went right for the slick above the big spring, where currents are tricky and the fish are constantly on the move. We watched the sporatic risers for a few minutes, scanned the water to see what was hatching and Hoshina eased into the water and moved into position like a blue herron, peeled out line, measured, with a cast out of the feeding lane and bang first cast the fish ate his midge..he got 4 strikes and landed one on 8X tippet on his first 5 casts. He looked at me and said "this is tough?"...only for mortals. The fishing did get tougher when the PMD hatch arrived, we then moved to some faster water and continued to get them with almost no refusals. Perfect flies, drag free drifts and no casts off target enough to warn the fish.

7/28- Same crew on the Boulder today. We had decent fishing and a nice float. If you see this crew anywhere...get out of the way.

7/27-Back the the Stillwater with the Yale crew. Fishing was slower today, but didn't seem to get Emory too mad.

7/26- Will Lassiter joined me to raft the Stillwater River with Emory Clark, John Deneffile, Phillip Perriman, and John Coggswell. All Yale classmates and formidable anglers. Fishing couldn't have been better with the fish chasing down the Chubby Chernobyl with recless abandon today, but the scenery sucks.

7/24- Nobu and Tatsu joined me at Depuy's today. Sunny weather in late July spells tough fishing on the spring creeks. These guys were up to the test. The creeks are loaded with fish this year, I think because the Yellowstone river is so high and dirty still. We found good action on a sparse PMD hatch in the morning. Mid day summer baetis produced some nice cutthroats and the late afternoon we sight nymphed with outstanding success.

7/23- The weather cooperated and the Missouri was once again in it's prime. Speaking of prime, Patrick loves tough fish. The tougher the better. We spent 3 hours working 3 different fish sipping inches from the bank under overhanging willows. Getting the fly in the spot was a victory in itself, drifting naturally and in timing with ultra selective trout is what Dan and Patrick came for. Patrick put it all together with a hookset and we were off to the races with a 21+ inch rainbow that ran well into his backing for the most memorable fish of the trip. It's nice to see the Mo inside it's banks these days with head up.

7/22- A morning rainstorm put off the spinner fall today and afternoon wind made the caddis fishing tricky. We held out for the evening rise and the river came alive from 8-dark thirty. Dan and Patrick are great company and we had good laughs if not stellar fishing today.

7/21-Dan Goble and Patrick Eisenhaur hit the best fishing of the season on the Missouri today. The flows are down under 10000cfs and the fish were up feeding on dry flies...hooray. We had great action all day mixing it up with PMD spinners in the am and finishing with the evening caddis frenzy. 13 hours of fishing will wear most people down, but Dan seems fairly happy landing his last fish on the ramp at 9:30...satisfaction!!

7/20- Shui and I rafted the Boulder today at 3250 cfs. It's a hell of a raft ride at this flow and we had to stop to zero in on the fish. Shui works for MTV Japan and has a hilarious sense of humor. This morning driving to the river he was asking me about large male brown trout with the big hooked jaws...his favorite target. He told me he thought they have the look of Angelina Jolle. I almost had to pull over I was laughing so hard. We looked for Angelina all day, but couldn't find her. "Angelina, Angelina...where are you?" sang Shu-chan. This one ended up being a 16 inch rainbow, bummer.

7/19- My good friend Shuichi Arimaki is back in Montana after 8 years of waiting. His request was to fish some places he'd never tried before. We spent the day on a friend's ranch on a small local stream. The water levels have dropped and cleared on the small streams around Bozeman and the fish are looking healthy. Shui caught bunches of rainbows and browns on a small single dry fly, with a fiberglass rod and I felt like I'd fallen back into my childhood, no people, unselective and willing trout and good times today! Wow, what a relief to finally be fishing freestone rivers with dry flies after the floods of this spring. No photo's I can't risk giving away the location.

7/18- I fished with Bob Hanold and John Lambert for Dave McKee outfitting today. We went hunting Salmonflies on the Upper Madison. We found the Salmonflies, but unfortuneatly, the wind was a major factor. It was blowing 20-30mph when we put in and just got worse as the day progressed. Lesser men would have hung it up, not Bob or John. They kept after it with very little reward.

7/17- Doug and Bill hit the Horse Ranch lake with me today. In the morning we found some interesting fish in shallow water that were keyed into damsel flies that were mating and hovering over the water. We couldn't immitate that, and the fish didn't seem to like our damsels looking dead in the water, but they did respond to large beetles with a twitch to get the interest. Lookd like Montana eh?... no condos out here anytime soon.

7/16- Doug Albright and Bill Bush somehow got their hands on 2 rods at Nelson's Spring Creek today. We had a blast working the ever selective fish there during the PMD hatch. The fish are fat and big this year on the creeks and Bill and Doug showed me what they've learned fishing the Paradise Valley spring creeks over the last several years. As always, presentation is the key...but a knock down dun pattern doesn't hurt either. Watch out, you could lose a finger in that gator brown trout's mouth!

7/13- Will Lassiter joined in the mix at the Horse Ranch Lake today. The fish are growing at astounding rates and landing them is a chore. Randy and John held their own, but Marcus was putting on a clinic for me and Lynn.

7/12- Andy Celander of Tri Mountain Outfitters, and I took my folks and Marcus and Randy Acker on a small stream adventure today. We had a great time fishing Butte and Sheep Creek. Butte creek has the most beautiful West Slope Cutthroat I've ever seen. On Sheep Creek Randy and Marcus caught: rainbow, brookie, westslope cutthroat, brown and whitefish. Talk about your grand slams! Here's John and Lynn Dominick getting a ride with Andy.

7/11- The news of the day is: the Missouri is dropping (to 17900cfs today). We had good to great fishing in the canyon today. The fish were really chasing down the big crayfish immitations. Here' s Doug with a flopping 20 inch rainbow just above the takeout.

7/10- Bill Bush and Doug Albright hit the still mighty (22,700cfs) with me today. We explored some of the areas we wanted to fish while we could. We got a few fish right behind a staircase where you had to high stick over a yard light that was interesting. Doug did his best to get one from the picnic table way back in the mid cannon access, but I think we were a bit late for the worm hatch.

7/9- More of the same today with Patrick and Terry. The wind was only gusting into the 30s today making for much easier casting and rowing. We found some great fish in the mouth of Stickney creek where we had some sight fishing in Gin clear water for large cruising trout. Here's the first fish of the day.

7/8-Patrick Eisenhaur and Tery Jones were in town for some Missouri River fishing. I was running a bit late so, I had Terry tie up some flies for us while he waited for me to get organized (ie lunch, shuttle, ice...b.s/network). We had some interesting fishing in flooded lawns and islands. The fish are after the crayfish, which by my latest estimate equals the protein equivalent of plus or minus 2,000,000 PMD nymphs. If you can't throw dry flies you might as well throw some meat. We battled a wind that was gusting over 40mph and ripping high water to get our fish today.

7/6- Mother nature saved the best for last for the Matsunaga's. We hit Armstrong's spring creek today and the morning provided a decent PMD hatch and good, but tough fishing in sunny conditions. After lunch a thunderstorm rolled through paradise valley just to the south of us. We got clouds and a few drops of rain. The clouds were enough to get the PMDs really rolling and fish rising everywhere! I've never seen the spring creeks any better than Armstrong's was today from 2-5. It was lights out fishing.

7/5-More sightseeing and pond fishing today. We hit the Horse Ranch Pond and had a blast with the fat rainbows there. It was relaxing fishing punctuated by a Matsunaga Double...did I mention there was a Calibaetis hatch...look at the bugs on Fumiko.

7/4-Independence day at Depuy's spring creek. Sunshine, PMD's hatching and tough rising fish. It doesn't get much better. The fish are getting wiser by the day and flies have to be spot on immitations. Tadashi had the fly of the day, a CDC sparkle dun tied sparsly on a special hook. The hook was designed by Kenji Sugisaka to improve hook setting on large selective trout. It's essentially a fine wire overcurved scud hook. It gives the biot body a nice natural looking downturn and also gives you twice the gap to stick the big boys with.

7/3-I get sick of cliches, but we did have to work for them on dry flies today. There was a heavy PMD hatch that brought a few fish up here and there. Tadashi and Fumiko made the best of their chancss today.

7/2-We hit Dean's Pond this morning and had some very interesting sight fishing. There were midges, calibaetis and tons of blue damselfies. Some of the fish were keying into damsels that were hovering over the water. The fish were taking them out of mid air!! This one ate a bee pattern...go figure.

We hit the river in the evening and Tadashi took a turn on the oars. We went back to the scene where the fish were rising the night before. Same time, same place...nothing rising. Our most interesting fishing was on a flooded mowed lawn that had formed a small lagoon. There were a couple of big browns taiing in the shallows, pulling worms out like robins. We had a few chances but spooked them before we could seal the deal.

7/1-Tadashi and Fumiko Matsunaga are back in Montana for the annual trip. We started on the MIssouri searching for rising fish at unprecidented flows of 22,200. We found a few rising to PMDs mid day, but had good action in the evening as the caddis hatched and the sun got lower. Mother and Son hero shots.

6/28-Will Lassiter and Tom Harms joined me on a trip to check out a lake near White Sulphur. The Horse Ranch pond didn't disappoint.

6/27- My wife works for Eagle Mount, a non-profit organization in Bozeman that provides recreational opportunities for people with disabilities. I volunteered to help with a group today along with guides: Will Lassiter, Charlie Conn, Tom Harms, Satoshi Yamamoto and Franklin Coles. Will set up the pond we fished in. It perked my interest when he mentioned that one concern would be smaller participants being pulled in. These were the biggest trout I've ever seen. Here are a bunch of pictures that say it all.

Here's Will Dances with Trout Lassiter with a big boy. Don't worry, he's got it.

6/25-The river bumps finally caught up to us. We had to work for them today. It's really amazing how good it was considering the water rose 1 1/2 feet in 24 hours. Here's one Tom caught on top of a flooded campsite.

6/24- We hit the canyon again today with perfect weather. The crayfish/bugger rig was on fire. The boys roped them today. The bad news was the river bumped again to over 21000 and dirtied a bit. The good news was the big browns are on the banks and on the bite. Tom got a bunch of big browns in the 19-22inch range. Here's how Charlie, Jack and Greg Falls like to come into the ramp at the end of the day.

6/23- Tom Lachance is back for his 4th annual trip to the MO. This time he brought his brother Jack and nephews Sam, Charlie and Jason. Greg Falls, Steve Leibinger and I rowed the boats and netted the fish. The MO was at 18500 this am and rising. We had some good fishing in the canyon pounding the willows with crawfish/worm rigs. We got hammered by a thunderstom mid day and that seemed to get the fish going even better. Here we are waiting it out under the bridge.

6/21- The summer solstice brought our first day of summer weather with temps in the 80s and sun. The river bumped to 17700cfs today and we felt it in the afternoon. The morning was good with the "double dirt snake rig". We had a great two days of laughing and fishing... although there were a couple of mishaps...should have gone barbless.

6/20-Carl Westphal and his lovely wife Davonne were back to the Missouri this year. We fished the river at 16600cfs today. Good nymphing again today, but the good news was the PMD and caddis hatches are intensifying and we found a few rising fish to aim at. Carl nabbed a couple of big boys on PMDs in the slowest of water. Well done.

6/18-I have not mentioned that Kenji is an incredible angler. Here's an example of his passion and skill. We went to MZ Ranch today. Conditions were prime for a PMD hatch, but this time of year rising fish are hard to come by. We found some small and medium risers on Thompson's that Kenji made short work of and then headed to Benhart creek. Kenji checked below the corral, and I walked 2 miles to the mouth of the creek looking for risers. I found just 2 and they were a long walk. I went back to Kenji and told him what I saw...2 fish rising that might spook on the first cast. "let's go!" he said and we walked back to them. As Kenji tied on his fly, it started to rain and blow...the fish stopped rising. We waited and the rain subsided and the fish rose a few times. Kenji moved into casting position and the sun came out...the fish stopped rising. We waited another 20 minutes for a cloud to come and the fish started rising again. Kenji made his first cast 2 hours into this expedition and the rainbow ate it. He missed the hookset and fell back into the grass as if he'd been shot. As he was sorting himself out, the fish rose again (it hadn't felt the hook). He waited, made a short cast, then another perfect one and caught the fish. Awesome. There was still a big brown rising on the bank. Kenji repeated the process for the Brown which ended up being a 21 incher. Awesomer.

6/17-Kenji and I went to check out a spring fed lake north of Big Timber. Jones Lake is out there in classic Montana ranch country, and the grassland was as green as it ever gets. I was envisioning floating around in the boat, sight fishing and casting to fish rising to the calibaetis hatch. It was clear that wasn't going to happen when we parked by the lake and the wind about ripped the car door off it's hinges. White caps on the lake made it impossible to sight fish or find rising fish. We spent the day casting streamers and nymphs and caught some of the giant rainbows Jones lake is famous for. The smallest was 20 inches and 4lbs, the biggest 23inches and 6lbs and they fight like crazy.

6/16- My good friend Kenji is in town on a business trip with Simms and had a few days free for fishing. I just got cancelled and was able to hang out with Kenji and check the local waters. We hit Depuy's today. It was cool and partly cloudy...and the first day of a good PMD hatch! We waited until 11:30 before seeing the first rising fish, but it was game on after that. The fish were chasing down the big PMDs with a good baetis hatch mixing in as well. I left Kenji after lunch. His report later was "three casts, one fish".

6/3-6/5- The "Chicken Trip" as it was dubbed by outfitter Joe Moore, was a good way to kick off the summer guide season. I was the last guide added to the trip. There were 10 of us in all and I got to follow the masters of the Missouri around. Joe Moore and Pat Bond came in from West Yellowstone, Chris M from Missoula, Josh Stanish from Bozeman and the Craig local legends included Greg Falls, Mike Kunhert, Peter Skidmore, Headhunters fly shop owner and unofficial mayor Marc Raisler. The weather the first day was a steady rain with intermittent downpours and a high temp of 50...hard to get the fingers working in this stuff. All 3 days we had good nymph fishing and and the Poultry industry clients were a blast.