Anglers Miss Great Fishing, Says Expert

The nation’s fly fishers who like to fish West Yellowstone area streams, particularly the Madison River, are in for a shock when they read the assessment of last year’s fishing by Craig Mathews, one of the nation’s most respected guides and book authors.

Mathews said fly fishing at several world-renowned streams was outstanding at times last year, so great that those who fished the rivers sometimes couldn’t believe their good luck.

Thousands of fly fishers assumed, as the result of a long, snowy winter, that the rivers would be too high to fish during the major hatches and that the whirling disease had killed most of the rainbows. They fished elsewhere.

They can learn what happened by reading Mathews’ account of the fishing in the 1998 Blue Ribbon Flies catalog.

Mathews and John Juracek operate the Blue Ribbon fly shop and guiding service in West Yellowstone.

“While the information highway informed anglers that the water was high and the fishing terrible, the truth is early season fishing on many of our local waters was the best we’ve had in a decade, maybe two decades,” Mathews wrote in his review of last year’s fishing.

You might assume that Mathews, because he makes a living selling fly fishing merchandise and guiding fly fishers, exaggerated last year’s fishing. The fact is, he’s a respected expert who has created numerous new fly patterns and has co-authored excellent books on fly fishing in West Yellowstone waters.

His latest book, “Western Fly Fishing Strategies,” will be published this month.

In other words, he’s a guy you can believe.

You’ve undoubtedly heard about the “whirling disease,” the disease that’s decimated trout populations in numerous Montana streams and has affected trout and steelhead in other Northwest states. It knocked the Madison River’s rainbow population for a loop. The rainbow population reached an all-time low in the fall of 1996.

Last year, however, fisheries biologists reported a “significant increase” in yearling rainbows.

So far, brown trout have shown resistance to the disease. Their numbers remain high in the Madison and other streams.

This is what Mathews had to say about fishing along the Madison: “The Madison’s normally predictable mid-summer evening caddis hatches were anything but predictable in 1997. At best, anglers had three of five nights with sporadic caddis activity. But if you were there on one of the two of the five nights the caddis came on, it was like the good old days.

Mathews said that after a long, cold and snowy winter, he and others were happy to start fishing the Firehole and Madison in Yellowstone Park.

By the end of May, he said, fly fishers were fishing Pale Morning Dun hatches on the Firehole. And a couple weeks later, Gray Drakes showed on the Madison in the park and continued until the Fourth of July. PMDs, Gray Drakes and Little Yellow Stoneflies continued on the Firehole and Madison in the park.

“On July 17,” he said, “my fishing log says: ‘the best park Madison fishing in years.’

“The Gibbon and Henry’s Fork fished well, too, during Gray Drake hatches and spinner falls during early July.

“Salmon flies began in late May on the Henry’s Fork and Firehole. The Madison in the park saw wonderful dry fly action during both the giant and golden stonefly hatches below Earthquake Lake; the big bugs started on July 3.”

He said that the Yellowstone River in the park fished best during caddis and mayfly emergences and egg-laying periods from late June to mid-September.

High and off-color water along the Lamar and Soda meant that “anglers were not able to hammer the trout during the summer months.” As a result, he said, fishing should be great this year along those two streams.

He predicted that this will be a great year along the Firehole.

“The Firehole is again producing big trout like it did years ago,” he said. “1998 will be a great year for this, my favorite, river.

“The Gardner, Gibbon and Henry’s Fork have fished as well as they have in the past several years.” They should provide excellent fishing this year, he added.

You can bet many fly fishers will be checking periodically with the Blue Ribbon and other West Yellowstone area fly shops this year. They won’t want to miss what could be terrific fly fishing.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelle The Spokesman-Review