Hebgen Dam 921cfs
Old Kirby Place 1470cfs
Varney Bridge 956cfs
Lower Madison 1470cfs
Winter is here now. Literally right now, as I write, he is sitting outside holding down a balmy -10 degrees Fahrenheit. That may seem cold until you find yourself in other parts of the beautiful state on Montana where temps are below the -30 degree mark like West Yellowstone this morning. Hasn’t he been here for a wile now you might ask? Yes, technically speaking its been winter since December 21st. It’s just that it had felt more like a cold extension to fall until Winter showed up some time in late January or early February. Temperatures that hover between 20-40 always make it seem like it is not really winter, just some murky in-between fall and spring thing that is hard to define and we all must get through to get to the other side. That’s Montana for you. Just when we think we might escape without a river gorge, have early access to Ennis Boat Ramp, get out of it with out sub zero temps, Old Man Winter comes around to remind us that he is not done with us yet. Which, being old and winter, is his prerogative I guess. It just puts a temporary hold on the winter fishing. Gives me more time to get flies tied and write blog posts I suppose. Its not all bad though. With all that cold that finally came our way came plenty of snow.
Snow pack reports across Montana are at or above average for most drainages. Water in the form of snow that gets locked in good with cold temperatures is always a good thing looking forward.
A couple of new items of the vise and ow the wood lathe. I like that I can incorporate the lathe into my life by making some of my own fly tying tools. Mostly bodkins for now but I also mad a hollow tie tool with a bodkin on one end. I can also turn foam poppers which is kinda cool. Although I have to admit I’m currently using the Howitzer popper heads (from at Fly Men Fishing Co.) to construct some flies based off of Niklaus Bauer weedless pike fly. He’s got a great You Tube video on how to put it all together. I went in a popper direction with it. I have also found I can scale it down. With that comes smaller saltwater and bass flies. You can check that stuff out here for now.
I’ll let you know when it warms up a bit.
Brian Rosenberg