Yellowstone River Fishing Report March 12, 2021
It’s time to pull the boats out of the garage and dust of your rods! Warm weather has decreased the ice flow and the Yellowstone temps have come up. Ranging around 40 degrees at the height of the day. Midges are certainly a good option throughout the day, and you should expect a hatch on the calmer overcast days. If you are going to get out, the last couple hours of daylight should be really good. Zebra midges and smaller flies in the #18-#20 range should be good to imitate midges. Black will be a good color to work with. We are also expecting to start seeing our baetis start to get active in the coming weeks. #16-#18 parachute adams, para-wullffs, and Like the midge hatch, calm overcast days are the time to get out and look for rising fish. Like most areas in Montana right now, be sure to target the ‘winter water.’ Slower and deeper runs are going to hold more fish this time of year.
We have also heard some reports of success on streamers. We would recommend fishing smaller stuff, like leaches and sculpins. Water color is slightly off, so fishing darker will lightly be more effective than flashy and bright. Crystal buggers, sculpzillas and slumpbusters should be a good place to start. Slower on the retrieve likely will produce some good results as well.