Yellowstone Country Fly Fishing

08/12/2024

REMINDER

Book Your 2025 Trip by the End of the Year to Lock in 2024 Rates!

06/12/2024

We've made it official.

18/11/2024

Here's a sneak peek at our latest fly tying tutorial. The new video drops in HD at midnight, replacing a 15yo video in woeful quality.

The caddis are back on the Yellowstone after the flood! Great hatches occurred both in May and in July, and this bug was the ticket.

Learn to tie the Clacka Caddis with this fly tying tutorial courtesy Walter Wiese, the creator of the pattern. A top rough water dry!

11/11/2024

It's definitely "tying season" nowadays. Did you know we're doing weekly fly tying tutorials? Now you do!

Check out this week's fly, the Olive Zonker.

Learn to tie the Olive Zonker, a classic streamer fly pattern that's still effective, with this tutorial courtesy YCFF.

03/11/2024

Here's a sneak peek at our next fly tying tutorial and video. They were ALL OVER this pattern last week in Yellowstone Park.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku_RXpNSVRQ

Reminder... the park is now open to fishing year-round on the lower Gardner River and on the Madison from the Wyoming-Montana border downstream.

28/10/2024

I'm updating a 3yo phone that was "backup to my backup". Now it has been promoted one step to "backup" because I wrecked my good phone. I stopped using this one back in 2022 because I soaked it and it quit. Then it... got better? I wish more phones did that.

Anyway, here are some 2022 pics I didn't remember at all that were still buried in the phone. That big rainbow is why you should consider fishing private ranch lakes. The others are from the Boulder and the Lower Madison.

22/10/2024

Latest fly tying video and tying tutorial!

Learn how we tie and fish the Thread Frenchie Stonefly Nymph, a durable, easy, and fast-sinking stonefly nymph.

Hint: we fish this pattern this time of year because it works on the pre-spawn browns...

Learn to tie the Thread Frenchie Stonefly nymph with this tutorial courtesy Yellowstone Country Fly Fishing. A fast-sinking meat fly!

20/10/2024

There are good reasons I drive a 2005 vehicle.

18/10/2024

The change in weather has done wonders to move us into fall fishing conditions. I got out for about four hours yesterday and caught around 25. This was a mixed bag of resident rainbow and brown trout, fall-run browns from 15-18 inches, and a couple of chunky rainbows that had likely followed the browns.

Pressure was heavy enough in recent weeks that I caught almost nothing from the big, obvious pools. The fish were almost all in the pocket water and the small holding slots that were difficult to access. Various sz16 pink eggs and sz12 tan/brown TJ Ho**ers were all I used, though I could have put on a BWO for about 15 minutes in one pool. The most productive egg and TJ Ho**er colorway are pictured.

Note that I saw several brown trout redds (all unoccupied) already, which was something of a surprise given how warm it has been. This cold snap will move the spawn into high gear. If you see patches of clean gravel/cobble in shallow, walking-pace water, AVOID FISHING NEAR OR WALKING ON THEM! It's sleazy to target active spawners. It's fine to fish the deep, bouldery pockets and pools where the browns hang out prior to "doing the deed," but once they're actively making the next generation, they need to be left alone.

16/10/2024

It was time for a bit of a cosmetic makeover on our site! The content hasn't changed much, but we hope we've made the site a bit better looking, particularly on phones. We're sure there are still some kinks to work out, and we'll be chasing those bugs the next couple months.

Want to help? We'd appreciate it if you clicked around and let us know about anything that seems off. Thanks!

Custom Livingston Montana fly fishing trips with the region's most flexible guides. Drift, wade, power boat, and private water trips.

15/10/2024

What's that old song, "Back in the Saddle Again?"

I'm back in the fly tying video saddle with a new series: Montana Guide Flies. These will all be patterns I rely on when guiding.

First up is my purple Hazy Cripple, my most productive dry fly of all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5gWqxgbHT0

Like the fly, buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ycff

14/10/2024

I'll be posting fly tying videos again starting this week and am hoping to monetize this content, since it's no longer subsidized by a fly shop with materials to sell. If you'd like to support my business but can't afford a guided trip, I'd appreciate it if you dropped a buck in my "tip jar" at Buy Me a Coffee.

We are a small Montana fly fishing guide service based in Livingston. We specialize in custom trips for individuals and small groups on the Yellowstone, Boulder, and Madison Rivers as well as Yellowst

29/09/2024

26/09/2024

Could the purple Hazy Cripple be dethroned?

Probably not.

But... but...

Yesterday the top fly was a different purple cripple. A brand-new one that had never been fished before yesterday.

No pics this year. You want to fish it, you need to book a trip. I will just say it's a weird one.

19/09/2024

You could about walk on the Yellowstone right now from all the mud. It came up about 1000cfs in the past two days and will go higher. The Lamar went from about 100cfs to 1300 and has just crested. No fishing the 'Stone until probably Sunday. The screencap is from a we**am courtesy Montana Whitewater in Gardiner.

16/09/2024

Remaining 2:00 fishing closures have been lifted over the past few days on the Lower Madison River and on the Firehole River. This means that we no longer have any fishing restrictions in the region.

The Yellowstone River should see excellent BWO hatches this week, provided it doesn't rain too much. Cross your fingers!