I love reading other shops fishing reports and seeing them write that a river is unfishable. The slightly muddy water is some of the best fishing you will get all year. I am not talking about when the river is roaring at flood stage, but when its still real high and looks like it has about 6 inches of vis and has that muddy green color to it, it doesn't even have to be that green. So during these conditions the fish are starving and concentrated all in the same place, (the banks and the slow water) and there are lots of big fish.
Yesterday I was itching to fly fish after being on a long but wonderful vacation. While I was driving home through the Gallatin River canyon back to Big Sky I was thinking to myself "its muddy but I bet it will fish". So I geared up and went out for a quick late afternoon fish. What do you know the unfishable water was on fire. Almost every cast rewarded me with healthy hot Rainbow Trout . Its pretty simple fishing the high water if you just keep it simple with a short leader not much weight and heavy tippet. The casts only needs to be a few feet past the end of your rod and the main meal are stone fly nymphs. Pretty easy.
So here I am back in Big Sky ,very happily married to my Beautiful wife after an awesome trip to Mexico and New York. I am ready to check out the Upper Madison to see whats going on over there as well as the tributaries feeding Hebgen Lake which this time of year are just loaded with huge spawning lakers. I hope to see y'all soon and I will post some photos after I hit up some more water. Things are looking good for the summer I can't wait to put y'all on some.
Sean Efferson
