Cloudy, rainy, chilly, why would you fish on a day like today? Because the fishing could be really good, that’s why! It’s a day ready made for throwing streamers. And we’ve had good reports from anglers doing just that yesterday. And if that’s not enough to get you out today, you may very well run into pods of fish rising to blue-winged olive (baetis) mayflies. You might have to look hard to find the trout rises among all of the whitefish. But even whiteys are fun to catch on dry flies.
Yes, you can fish streamers, even if you don’t own a 7- or 8-weight rod with a sink-tip line. We’ve got plenty of small to medium-sized streamers that will cast just fine with a 5- or 6-weight. And they catch fish, even big ones. Some to try include Sculpzilla, Hansen’s Meal Ticket, Baby Gonga, Space Invader, and Slump Buster. On cloudy days, I usually start out with a dark-colored streamer – black, dark olive, brown. But don’t be afraid to switch it up if you’re not getting any action.
Many of the baetis mayflies that we’re seeing on the Yellowstone River these days are tiny, like a size 22 or 24. But don’t worry, the Yellowstone is not the spring creeks, and you can do quite well fishing a size 18 or 20 Parachute Adams or Purple Haze. Something you actually have a chance of seeing on the water.
The Lamar River up in the park is on its way up today, which could herald some muddy water tomorrow. But, as we’ve pointed out before, a little color to the water doesn’t stop the fish from feeding, and the streamer fishing in particular can be good to great in muddy water.
Have you downloaded our mobile app yet? You should. It’s got lots of great resources, such as mobile access to these fishing reports, GPS points for all of the fishing accesses on the Yellowstone, weather reports, stream flow graphs, and much more. It’s available for both iPhone and Android. And you can send us pictures of your catch directly from the app. We love to see your photos!
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