Spring Creek Stoneflies

Perhaps this is a little obscure. Perhaps just an excuse to play with some new photo equipment on my part.

There are three spring creeks in the Yellowstone River Valley fishermen routinely pay a lot of money to fish. Armstrong's (aka O'Hairs) DePuy's and Nelson's Spring Creeks. Armstrong and O'Hairs are different sections of the same creek.

This is the toughest time of year, at least until the midges start hatching again. The mayfly hatches are over for a while. No Blue Winged Olives yet. Pale Morning Duns long gone. Local guides roll their eyes when talking about guided trips this time of year. However--there are a few bridges and culverts where the current picks up. Even at the top of the Nelson section there is a fast riffle coming down from the Dana property above.

And all those riffles contain a surprising number of nice fat stoneflies. Like this 1-1/4" inch long Golden Stonefly which came from below the main culvert on the O'Hair's property this past July. Not many spring creek fishermen think about large nymphs when the fishing gets slow. But they do work. Even now. At least if you fish them in what little fast water there is. Some of the biggest fish on the creeks hang out in the deep fast water below the culverts too. Some of them huge.

For reasons I have no idea about how to explain the culvert fishing is at its best--at any time of year--on days like today when it's socked in cloudy and drizzling rain. All day long. I'd be there now. If it didn't cost $125 dollars to do it.