...We had a brief reprieve last week with temperatures reaching the 70’s for a few days! As you can imagine, getting out on the water was a high priority for many of our local anglers, including myself. In the 30 years that I have called Bozeman home, the winter of 2023 seems to be the only one that kept me off the water for as long as this one. While most of the area rivers increased in flows and turbidity this week as the warm weather quickly melted our low elevation snowpack, they are already clearing and dropping back down, thanks to this most recent cold front.

Most of Southwest Montana is still sitting well over our long-term averages in terms of snowpack. We watch this data closely through the winter and are always careful to make any “bold” predictions as things can change quickly throughout the winter and spring. However, we are feeling good about the trend this winter and know that we should be in really good shape through the end of July if nothing changes and we get an unusually hot early summer. If the summer is “normal” we should be in great shape throughout the season given the current snowpack levels – so let’s hope for some normal for a change.

Currently, we are expecting a continual “yo-yo” situation on local waters as the low elevation snow continues to melt through the rest of April and into early May. This means that we should expect to have some days when the rivers are coming up with warm days but followed by a drop in flows with cooler nights. Once the low elevation snowpack clears out, the high elevation snowpack will be soon to follow and once this happens, everything typically gets tough for a few weeks in terms of the fishing in the Bozeman area. This runoff period typically occurs between May 15 and June 15 and is a time during which we focus most of our guiding on the Missouri River near Craig, MT, and portions of the upper Madison.

The water situation should be great in the Bozeman area for the summer peak season which usually runs between June 15 and September 15. We are starting to fill our schedule around the prime July dates, so we recommend getting a reservation on the books as soon as possible to ensure availability. Reservations can be made directly online or through email and our deposit/cancellation policy is the most customer-centric in Southwest Montana.