Small Stream Fishing is “Cool”!

Brookies love a parachute hopper!

This brookie is the king of his hole. Trophy proportions in an 8 inch fish!

The West Fork of Rock Creek

With the continued hot weather down country, I’ve been sampling the small streams around Red Lodge. Rock Creek and it’s tributaries offer cooler air and water temperatures. Brookies and rainbows are ready and willing to eat a hopper anywhere you get a drag free drift. No eddy is too small to hold a fish or two, so drop a fly behind every rock!

Good Hopper Fishing on the Yellowstone

The cool weather last week made for some great hopper fishing, along with tricos, PMD’s and gray drakes. Water temps fell on the Stone, some cloud cover helped, and the fish started playing on the big bug. Look for fish sipping spinners in the flats and tail outs in the morning and on cloudy days. They are tough to catch, but there are some big boys slurping tiny mayflies. Later in the afternoon, fish are in the ambush positions, waiting for a big mouthful to float by. Hit every current line and curl with a fat hopper and see who wants to play. We also had some success stripping a small black bugger. Here are some of the fish caught since my last post.

The top flies of the week are:

Peach foam hoppers, bead head hare’s ear, red copper john, prince, black bugger, parachute adams, trico spinners, yellow parachute.

Rock Creek Fishing Great on the Hopper!

Had a great morning on Rock Creek and the west fork today. Fish were all over a Royal PMX with a prince dropper. The parachute hopper was working, too. Every good pocket and run gave up a couple of fish.

Water Temperatures Falling

Henry got ‘er done, too. Not many fish, but quality!

Big Jim caught a couple of nice ones in hot water. That’s a happy angler.

Water temps on the Stillwater and Yellowstone rivers are falling. Cooler daytime temperatures and cool nights in the high country are helping out. Fishing has been tough due to the higher water temperatures the last few days. The Yellowstone suffered from some muddy conditions late last week as well.

Hopper fishing has been slow. You need to go deep with a double nymph rig to get any action. Hopefully, the lower temps and clear water will turn that around. Tricos are out early this year, and some fish are on the spinner in the slicks. Very technical fishing with size 22 and smaller bugs, but rising fish will make a mistake and take a bigger parachute once in a while. Trail a Trico spinner behind a size 16 rusty dun and see which gets eaten. The most productive flies lately have been:

Hare’s Ear, size 14

Prince Nymph, 14

Pepperoni Yuk Bug, 10

Halfback, 10, 12

Foam hoppers, peach, size 8

Be patient. You will take a couple of nice fish if you stick with it.