June 2, 2009 - Steve Hoovler
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 5:31PM 
Gray skies, 48 degrees, and a light soaking rain. That's the report from this neck of the woods, and I, for one, am psyched. As nice as it was to see highs in the upper 70's in West Yellowstone, it was starting to make me a little nervous. It was only May,after all. We're supposed to average 20 days of precip during the month of June, and it seems to me as if everything from wildfires to wild flowers goes a lot smoother when we get that much moisture. I'm as excited as the next guy to see the Madison clear up, but a nice slow run-off is always better for the fishery. Colder weather like this will certainly shut the mud machine down a bit. In just the last week, we've lost more than 20" of snow in the upper Madison Range. That's a lot of water to come down in one week. July and August fishing will definitely benefit from a slow cool flow of water coming out of the mountains. We don't need it to all come down at once.
Sara and I filled up the thermos this afternoon, turned on some Steve Earle covers of Townes Van Zandt, and took a slow rainy ride to the Firehole. We checked out a few spots that offered a view of the river without leaving the heated seats and warm coffee in the truck. At 1:00pm temps were still in low 40's and there were no signs of bugs. By 2:30 we had made our way to Muleshoe Bend, and could see a fish or two rising from the road. Decent numbers of baetis brought good numbers of trout to the surface for a solid two hours. We left rising fish after 4:30 well satisfied and ready for a warm ride home.
Firehole weather is in the forecast for the next week. Stay Tuned.