After weeks, months of cold, icy, snowy, windy weather that kept most sane people off the rivers and the rivers themselves in marginal shape, things turned around in the Northern Rockies on April 23rd. That’s about a month later than normal. Overnight temps in Bozeman stayed above freezing for the first time in months. Most of the low level snow had disappeared and the Yellowstone was running low and clear. I made the trek to hotspot #29 for a few hours to see if the fish would cooperate. First time on the water in 2023. A front was going to move through late in the day and bring some rain and maybe some snow, but the cloudy conditions proved useful for some streamer work. I had not been to hotspot #29 since the 2022 flood, so it was interesting to see what havoc the flood caused. All along the shoreline, well above the normal high water mark, whole trees, stripped of their bark lay strewn high up on the banks. I was at least 40 miles downstream from the Lamar River canyon where these trees originated and were uprooted by the flood. Although the wind was gusty most of the time, a black Pine Squirrel streamer with red flash connected with a number of fish, browns and cutthroats holding at the edges of fast chutes. Still lots of snow in the mountains but nighttime temps will keep it there for another few weeks. Spent about 3.5 hours on the water before fatigue set in and I headed home. Pretty good start to the season here in SW Montana.
