When to Go to Montana, Idaho and Wyoming?

[keith4him]

Me and a couple of friends are wanting to put together a week long pilgrimage to Fly Fishing Heaven next year 2010. Camp streamside, eat dutch oven.

We would like to fish Fish Silver Creek, Henry's Fork, Madison, South Fork of the Snake, etc next year.

While I know there is not absolutely perfect time to go or maybe there is, when in a general sense is the best time go during Summer Months?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[keith4him]

Me and a couple of friends are wanting to put together a week long pilgrimage to Fly Fishing Heaven next year 2010. Camp streamside, eat dutch oven.

We would like to fish Fish Silver Creek, Henry's Fork, Madison, South Fork of the Snake, etc next year.

While I know there is not absolutely perfect time to go or maybe there is, when in a general sense is the best time go during Summer Months?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Bump, any takers from you experienced guys. Come on help a Noob out.

[WhipperSnapper]

I don't know anything about those rivers, but you can probably find some info if you search on yahoo or something... Maybe look for a message board that's in those areas.

[mems]

Aloha, I have fished all of those rivers you list. They all fish well depending on the hatch. You want to go after runoff, and avoid crowds as best as possible. South Fork of the Snake is great dry fly action for large cutts, but is best floated. Madison at the three dollar bridge is like a 5 mile long riffle with huge fish. Most high stick a nymph, I fished buggers and had a great time on large browns, and bows. Silver Creek and Henry's are very challenging. There you set up on a single fish and cast to it. Long leaders, perfect presentation and big fish. Box Canyon is more difficult to hike to, but the fish are more forgiving. My favorite is the Big Wood on a Green Drake hatch, caught some huge fish on big flies. August is pretty hot, but you can fish large terrestrials. I would fish late september, low water and hungry fish. When ever you go you will have a great time. Check with some of the local shops and they can get you a hatch chart. That would be the best way to plan a trip there. Good luck, I hope this helps, Mems.

[dryflychico]

Check your PM

[pgw]

depending on what you want to fish with (dries, nymphs, terrestrials, streamers) or the numbers and size of trout that you desire, different times of the year fish well on on the rivers you mention. Ive' fished up there (almost) every year for the past 30 years (I may have missed 3 trips during that time) and I've fished all of the rivers you mentioned at some time between April and November. Biggest fish for me have come in October, most fish in late June and July, most fun has been fishing the rivers in Yellowstone Park (watch for open seasons) any time.

Spring (before runoff) can be good for dries (Mothers' Day Caddis & baetis),

June & early July (during runoff) can be good short lining with nymphs (it's pre-emergence for the Salmonflies...think BIG Rubberlegs) as well as caddis and mayflies and the high water allows you to walk the banks and fish the 6" to 2' of water between the bank and the !@#$%^&*(@#$%^& heavy current,

The rest of July is everything (especially caddis between 4 and 9 PM),

August and early September is Terrestrials (think Hopper & dropper), caddis in the evening, and maybe some streamers,

Late September through October is big fish on streamers or small mayflies, migrating out of lakes to spawn or looking for a lot of protein befor things get cold and metabolism slows down.

November is @#$%^& cold...really small flies (dries & nymphs),

That being said, if you haven't fished there before, contact a outfitter/fly shop that works each of those rivers to schedule at least one day with a guide (as previously mentioned, the South Fork of the Snake requires a drift boat in almost all locations, I recommend the Swan Valley section for a drift) to familiarize yourself with each of the rivers' characteristics.

Have fun,

Paul

[Chris Gearhart]

I have only fished the South Fork Snake. I do it almost every year. Great river to float and camp. I really like going first week of Sept. . Crowds are gone, hoppers are going as well as mayflies and caddis, and the weather is usually good. Its hard to go wrong with any those places.

Chris ps If you are on the Snake next Sept. I will see you there.

[jblack]

If you want to stay streamside on the Henry's Fork the Riverside campground is a great one. near the middle of the river and access to the highway so you can easily go up and down stream.

[Victor Yee]

Having worked one summer in Montana, I can honestly say that the Bighorn River at Fort Smith is a wonderful fishery. I would even go so far to say that it may be the best river to fish in the lower 48 for quality and quantity. The Missouri Rainbow by Wolf Creek are some of the fattest fish I've ever seen. In Wyoming, the Shonshone outside Cody and on the way up to the park is really breathtaking. Lets face it, you can't go wrong. When I left the fishing lodge in Montana, the roads can be treacherous coming home. By late Oct. you may be socked in at Jackson or Park City until the weather clears. But do yourself a fav and give yourself some time to enjoy the history of the area. Especially if you are into the cowboys and Indians and even Lewis and Clark, Jim Bridger, etc.

[Kevin Goding]

I do a lot of travel for work and just passed through most of the areas you mentioned from Aug 24th to Sept 5th. We started up in Kalispell, MT which is close to Glacier National Park, up there you have the Flathead River and a ton of tribs, mostly big water, aka float trip, but I fished and waded a few of the smaller inputs and caught lots of fish. During this time period it was definitely hopper time, my typical setup was Hopper on point, grey hackle peacock on the dropper. From there we worked our way down towards Missoula then east towards Helena, didn't do any fishing on that stretch but lots of good looking streams. We have a site near Monture creek, bull trout country, but was pretty skinny water there, didnt see much fishable water, but didn't have time to explore. From there we headed down towards Billings, then into Wyoming. In Wyoming, I would say fish the Shoshone out of Cody up the way towards Yellowstone, it may be crowded, but was also good fishing. The fishing starts about 30 miles or so out of Cody once you get past the resevoir.

As far as Silver Creek I guess it depends what area you fish. The section I've fished this year and last is off some Sportsman's access areas on your way to Idaho Falls and I can't even remember the highway. One is a trophy trout section right along the highway, it's tough fishing because the entire bank is lined with willows and its fairly deep (not wadeable) in a lot of sections, but has some big fish. But I prefer the upper access point, which is riffles and runs through some flat ag land. Last year, though, the water was really low and warm, all small to medium browns and whitefish. This year was a better water year for that stream, and the same area had browns and rainbows this year, but in that area nothing huge, a big fish will be 14-16 inches, and pretty rare. Most of the fish will be in the 8-12 inch range or smaller. The trophy section, that's just a few miles down the highway does have some big fish though, but its slow deepwater fishing, which I dont prefer, and access is tough down there, however I really haven't explored that trophy section very well. Mostly its walking along the willows to find a wadeable spot, wading down and casting from midstream directly upstream to working fish, because thats the only way you're going to get casting room. I caught three really nice fish there in under a half an hour though, but I got tired of all the stickers and mosquitoes in that area and bailed quick.

Most of the Snake I saw was guided floats. It's also big water fishing. If that's what you like then I'm sure you'll have a blast as I saw a ton of drift boats on the water. But, if you're into wading smaller stuff, try finding the Hoback I think it was. It dumps into the Snake at some point and looked really good. There were a lot of really shallow areas, but lots of good fishy water as well, and there were people fishing here and there at times, but not like what I saw on the Snake. The Salmon River in ID would probably be worth it as well. Unfortunately, we had to haul back up from Jarbidge, NV to Missoula in a day and didnt get to fish it, but one of our site operators said it was fantastic fishing, and it looked like it to me.

But depending on what kinds of waters you like to fish, as you drive through those three states just get out and fish what looks good. You will see so many fishable streams it's mind boggling. If you want more specifics on the routes we drove let me know. After all the travel I do across the country, highway numbers and stuff all become a blur to me. Year to year I just make mental notes on the areas I want to fish the next year, and do it.

[scharp]

I would recommend the middle two weeks in September. There are no mosquitos, the crowds are managageable, and the fish are hungry.

I just returned from a two week camping trip in Yellowstone. For the first week and a half the weather was was 65+ and sunny during the day. FOr the last 3-4 days it was intermittant snow. The fishing went from excellent to really tough. I had a similar experience last year.