Sure sign of spring in Red Lodge!
The Stillwater and Rock Creek are in early spring mode! Rainbows are running up the Stillwater for the spawn. Caught several nice ‘bows around Absarokee today. A couple were definitely Yellowstone fish in spawn color.
Baetis nymphs are starting to darken up before the hatch. The Stillwater is crawling with them! Should have a good hatch this season. They could start hatching soon, judging from the change in color over the last week.
Little black stoneflies. That’s my scientific name for, well… the little black stonefly that comes out on area streams this time of year. There were quite a few out today. Every once in a while, a fish or three would rise, once. Once. Not in the foam lines, out in flat water. I associate that with the stoneflies. There tends to be one here, one there. Hard to dry fly fish that kind of action. Nymphing, on the other hand, can be really good. It was good today. I fished a baetis nymph and some stonefly looking stuff. The stonefly stuff killed it. Try a Montana Prince in size 14. Regular Princes work very well, too.
Streamer fishing has been up and down. Stripping a black and blue wooly bugger worked great last week, not so great this week.
Here’s hoping for March Browns and Caddis in a couple of weeks!
Montana Trout Scout 