The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Hi All,

Any information you have are welcome. Friends come from Asia to try to do a 10 days fly fish trip to the big sky state. I have never been that area before, any information such as patten, any special regulations, best time of day, and/or camping, RV spots, are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Kevin

I will wave to you if I see you all on the river then.

I will leave the fly selection to you. Match any hatch you see, and the standard nymphs (PT, prince, stones, etc) all work on the Gallatin, as do streamers. If I was going to go all the way to MT to fish (and I will be that week), I would be fishing SOMEWHERE from dawn until dusk. I always liked the Gallatin in afternoon and evening, tho, when the bugs came off.

There are several Forest Service campgrounds in the canyon, but I do not know about RV hookups there. There are RV campgrounds near Bozeman (a KOA in Gateway, I think).

As for regulations, please pick up a copy of the regs and READ them. Never rely on "Joe said it was OK" information on regs.

You may want to contact one of the local fly shops, such as Rivers Edge in Bozeman:
http://www.theriversedge.com/

If you're going to be by the Gallatin for 10 days, there are a lot of other pretty accessible (and accessible in Montana might mean a four hour 80 mph drive) options. Yellowstone, Madison, Jefferson, Ruby, Big Hole, and on and on. A local fly shop can give you the best, most up to date options. Have fun, you should have a great time. I really like the Gallatin once you hit the canyon.

Thank you very much for the information Andrew and Cookie Monster,

Actually, I posted the question for some of my friends who are coming to the US this and next month. They will be arriving via Seattle, so the yellowstone area looks like logical from where they will be traveling from.

I might not be able to go far for fishing in Gallatin river, at lease for this year. However, after reading your post, I am started to think it might not be a bad idea to plan on going there in the future.

Kevin

If they're coming from Seattle, they can fish in Idaho along the way, then maybe use Missoula as a base and fish Rock Creek, Clark Fork, Blackfoot, Bitterroot. I'd probably say that Rock Creek is my favorite. Check out www.grizzlyhackle.com.

Thanks Andrew, I think Rock Creek is on their plans as well, I don't know if they know of other river you have mentioned, but from that web site you have posted, there are some information of each river.

I will forward the info to them.

Thanks again,
Kevin