“Willow Flies” Are Crawling—And the Hatch Is Starting The Salmonflies have begun their crawl up the banks and into the willows—exactly where the trout are looking. These insects don’t emerge midstream. They migrate to the edges climbing rocks grass...

Why I Choose Smith Optics and Suncloud for Fishing Around Livingston by Max Smith and Matt Swan Fishing around Livingston means dealing with a variety of water conditions—from the gin-clear spring creeks like DePuy’s and Armstrong’s to the bigger of...

Every great trout water has three “signature hatches ” I’d argue. Applied to the Yellowstone River you’ve got the Mother’s Day Caddis swarming over the river prior to runoff and the ‘hopper “hatch” in mid- to late-summer as the Montana breezes blow...

Spring 2025 fishing in the Yellowstone Valley continues to produce great fishing although the Yellowstone has teetered towards its annual cycle of spring runoff.  Yellowstone River Up-and-down weather has bounced the Yellowstone River to muddy near-...

The Yellowstone River is soon to be big and muddy Throughout the state of Montana and particularly in the Yellowstone watershed we received a good amount of high-mountain snow this past winter. All of that snow needs to melt and make it through our...