The following fishing report is from Montana Angler, get more info here:
Lots of snow has fallen on the Paradise Valley Spring Creeks the past few weeks and they look like a winter wonderland these days. If you are looking for some places to fish this winter near Bozeman or Big Sky, consider the spring creeks. The consistent flow of the spring creeks mean water temps are the most conducive to find feeding trout when other rivers and creeks are too cold or full of slush. The consistent water temps produces a higher metabolism in spring creek fish than trout in other waters and gives anglers a better chance to hook up.
The more active nature of spring creek trout in the winter combined with high trout concentrations makes them a top choice in the cold weather months. You can almost always find a rising fish or two if you hunt hard enough that are looking for midges but on most days expect to nymph fish. The slower slots with will concentrate trout but they won’t move far to take flies so expect takes to be subtle. As a rule I always use yarn indicators on spring creeks – generally custom cut to be just big enough to not sink. These indicators allow you to detect very subtle disturbances resulting in more hookups. Fly selection doesn’t have to be very sophisticated this time of year and a scud trailed by your favorite size 22 midge larva should be good enough. Where you fish and your presentation is much more important than changing out lots of flies.
The Month Ahead:
Winter fishing on the creeks is relatively straight-forward, but still technical and requires special skills and fly and tackle selections. A guide is very helpful in winter, but, not essential if you have experience fishing small waters and techy situations. In winter spring creek trout are sluggish and feed on very specific insects. Presentation rules the roost when fishing the creeks in winter. Long leaders–12 feet is a good starting point–and light tippets are important. The standard spring creek set up is 12 to 15 leader tapered to 6X. Additionally in winter, fluorocarbon is crucial for fishing subsurface flies.
Photo credit: Montana Angler
