Fall Fishing Outlook for the Yellowstone River!

The Yellowstone River is flowing at around 1800 cfs in the Livingston area right now, which is a little below average for this time of year. Water temperatures are reaching their highest in the evenings around sunset, averaging around 55 degrees F. Lowest temps are earliest in the morning pushing high 40s. We don’t see any real hurry to get on the river early these days. The boys at the shop have been experiencing much better fishing in the afternoon and evening. Basically, the drastic temperature changes right now are keeping those fish lethargic until the river starts to warm up.

Afternoon dry fly fishing has been pretty consistent the past week. Look for slower water along bubble lines and you will probably see some rising fish. This time of year you could expect a number of different types of hatches – Blue winged olives (baetis), mahogany’s, tricos, and midges to name a few. We have had good success fishing a bigger, bushier attractor dry like a Royal Wulff #12 to a small size 18 Purple Haze or Sprout Baetis or something similar. You could even get ambitious and look for those last few hopper eaters out there, you might be surprised.

We have certainly seen an increase in the streamer bite this past week as well. We would expect that bite to continue and get even more consistent as we get closer to November. Big black buggers and yellow streamers have been producers for us.

As always, you can catch trout on bead head nymphs in the fall. Size 18 CDC Pheasant Tails and size 12 Prince Nymphs are two patterns that have produced nice trout this past week for us. (Evan got this Darla-approved brown trout on the Prince Nymph)