With conditions like these, I might actually have a decent chance of getting within a quarter mile of an elk.

In fishinig news, area rivers like the Yellowstone, Lower Madison, Jefferson, and MO are in prime Fall shape. Erik Severson landed this 31" brown last week on the Yellowstone by Livingston - BOOM!

 That'll keep my fishing gear in the truck for a little while longer.

I've spent the last couple of weeks following my bird dog through Eastern Montana. The weather has been perfect, and although bird numbers are down from recent years, we've had some good hunting.

We came back to West Yellowstone to hunt opening day of elk season this weekend. After four days of crawling around bone dry mountains, getting outsmarted by elk that hear me coming long before I know they're there, I think it's time to get back on the road and find some more birds.

I did sneak in a few good days on the water over the last few weeks. Sara and I fished a beatis hatch on Rock Creek by Missoula, Jaime Greene and I had some dry fly fishing on the Missouri below Craig, and I hit the Madison between the Lakes this week to chase some fall run browns.

This beautiful weather is much better for pheasants than it is for brown trout and elk. So, I'm off again tomorrow with Pat and Willy to freeman country.

Stay Tuned.

September has a way of lulling me into a false sense of never-ending Summer. Even the word "September" sounds warm and pleasant. And, in fact it's been a gorgeous month. But, October is a different story, it's truely Fall. The aspens and cottonwoods are all in color. It's well below freezing each morning. And, despite deceptively warm days, you know what's right around the corner. It's a bittersweet feeling for me each year. I can never get enough of the Summer season, but I can't wait for the Fall to arrive.

Before our Summer officially came to a close, engineers at Hebgen Dam devised a fix for the broken gate. Evidently, as the crew faithfully slid one stop log after another in front of the headgate only to see it get sucked into the tube and shot out the other side, one of the workers suggested, and when I imagine this it's in the voice of one of the Simpson's characters, "Hey, why don't we tie four of those logs together at the same time?"  What do you know? It worked.  Over several days the flows were brought back down to normal levels, and the fishing has adjusted back to it's normal Fall routine.

Last week I spent several days on the Missouri with fly fishing guide extraordinaires Pat Bond and Joe Moore. We fished with a fun group of guys from California. The weather was beautiful for each of our days. Too beautiful, unfortunately, for very consistent dry fly fishing, but we manged to find some nice big Missouri River fish regardless. Thanks for a fun trip guys. I hope to do it again.

Fall weather has entrenched itself in Yellowstone country, and it's remarkably beautiful. Morning lows have been well below freezing and afternoon highs have hit the high 70's. The aspens and willows are turning. Bull elk are bugling, fighting, and otherwise resembling an Alpha Sig brew fest.

Hebgen Dam continues to spew forth at 3100 cfs bringing the lake level down with it to 76%. Each day there's magically a new solution to the problem that for some reason or another doesn't seem to work . 

The Madison is still big and in the willows (that should be the name of a bluegrass band), but has fished very well. I've spent the last two weeks guiding every day, and we've spent most of our time on the Madison. Nymphing has been the name of the game for most of the day with good numbers of fish holding tight to the banks just like they do during Spring run-off. On a couple of cloudy days we saw some good baetis activity and a few fish rising. Hot sunny afternoons have brought on a little hopper action as well. Wade fishing the river around $3 Bridge has been consistent, but floats from Pallisades downstream, despite breakneck speeds, have been good too.

Yesterday, I had the great fortune to fish with one of fly fishing's true gentlemen, Mike Mercer, and one of my greatest clients, Jim Murphy. Mike and Jim have traveled all over the world together chasing trout with a fly, and every year they say this is their favorite trip. We spent the day fishing a small moutain stream in the Madison range with hoppers and attractors. The fishing was fast and furious for beautiful, chuncky rainbows, and the day could not have been prettier. Thanks for an awesome time, guys. It was one of the highlights of my season.

On Sunday, I started the day gulper fishing with Jamie Greene. The winds picked up early and forced us to look for some risers in a wind sheltered bay. We found a few feeding fish and, after chasing them around the weed beds for about an hour, landed one big rainbow.

Over the course of the afternoon, our first Fall storm rolled in with vengeance. Temperatures dropped quickly and strong winds blew in mean clouds with rain and snow up high.

Meanwhile, sixty feet below the waves on the surface of Hebgen Lake one of the four head gates on the dam failed. The flow out of the dam is controlled by two adjustable gates. Two more gates are permanently sealed and not adjustable. One of the non-adjustable gates broke blowing it's full capacity of water through the dam and into the Madison River. The flow imediatly spiked from 850cfs up to 3600cfs.

Officials evacuated campgrounds, fishing accesses, and some houses in the Raynolds Pass area. By Sunday evening the rumor mill had generated some world-class bullshit about the failing of Hebgen Dam. Every imaginable scenario from the collapse of the dam itself to the likely breech of the earthen dam at Quake Lake and the devastation of the Madison Valley and all things downstream spread around the area.

The two adjustable gates on Hebgen Dam have been closed, and the total flow is now coming through the broken headgate at 3250cfs. The latest word from PPL is that efforts are underway to somehow repair the headgate. The rumor mill has now shifted from Hebgen Dam - Armageddon theories to Hebgen Dam repair theories, and there's some good ones out there.

In the meantime, we've continued to fish. On Tuesday I spent the day with Mike and Michael, a great father and son team from St. Louis. We decided to avoid the run-off flows on the Madison and head up to the Northeast corner of the park.  The storm's aftermath left us with cold temps, snow-capped peaks and beautiful, clear skies. Unfortunately, 40 to 50 degree air temps don't do too much for the cutthroat fishing in the Lamar and Soda Butte. But, we stuck it out, regardless, and had a good baetis hatch in the afternoon that brought fish to the surface. Afterwards, we built our egos back up with some fast and furious brook trout fishing. Thanks, guys!

Yesterday, Joe Moore, of Big Sky Anglers fame, and I spent the day with a great group from Colorado and California. We got a heads up in the morning that the sprigtime flows on the Madison had cleared some, and fish were holding in their classic high water spots right on the bank. So, we stocked up on Rubberlegs and San Juan Worms, and headed down to Raynold's Pass. Two of the guys had never fly fished before, and they caught on to the nymphing routine in no time. In fact young Trevor was the first to land a fish, a nice brown on his third ever cast with a fly rod. Fishing turned out to be just what we were hoping for. Fish are stacked as close to the bank as possible, and they seem to be settled into feeding again. Nice job guys. Thanks for a great trip!

Cool, unsettled weather is forecasted for the rest of the week. Barring any more unforeseen cataclysmic events, Fall fishing should heat up soon. We'll have to wait and see.

Stay Tuned.

Nice work guys! I'll look forward to seeing you again this Fall.

Thanks for a great day guys!

It's felt more like early Fall than late Summer this week. I've been on the Madison every day and we've seen everything from mid eighties to mid fifties. Winds have been a big factor too with gusts up to 30 mph on several days.

Fishing has held up through the wild weather. Cooler temps brought some baetis mayflies to the surface the last few days and added another challenging component to the ant and hopper fishing. Nymphing has been consistent as well.

It's hard to believe, but bird season is just around the corner. Our opener is September 1, and my Wirehair is about ready to get in the truck and drive himself to the closest Hungarian Partridge, opposable thumbs or not.

Fall seems to be settling in pretty quick around here, and with it comes some fun times. Stay tuned.

Ken Morris joined me for a couple of days on Hebgen to chase gulpers, and luckily for us, the  gulpering was in full swing. We found a decent number of c-baetis duns on the water as early as 8:00 am and tons of spinners by 10:30am. Lots of fish were one or two time risers, but  there were enough tracking fish to keep us occupied until the wind came up. Yesterday's wind didn't puff up until nearly 1:30pm.

Thanks Ken! See you next year.