Montana fly fishing has more to offer than blue ribbon rivers and spring creeks. Hebgen lake is a large impoundment of the Madison River that is located about 15 minutes from the town of West Yellowstone. The fly fishing for trophy trout on Hebgen is legendary and draws dry fly fisherman from far and wide hoping to catch an epic day chasing cruising brown and rainbow trout.
Great fly fishing begins as soon as the ice comes off the lake in the late spring. Hungry trout patrol the receding ice shelves and are susceptible to slowly stripped streamers. Midge hatches and early callibaetis mayflies can bring trout to the surface in the early summer, but the main event is in the second half of the summer season.
In late July, August and early September Hebgen experiences daily hatches of trichorythode and callibaetis mayflies that bring monster trout to the surface. Tricos are tiny mayflies that hatch in the morning and usually bring up some a few of the rising and cruising trout. Later in the morning the callibaetis mayflies emerge. They are much larger in size and often bring nearly every trout in the lake to the surface in feeding frenzy. On days when the hatch is at its peak there are trout ranging from 17-25" swimming along the surface greedily slurping down the mayflies. The gluttonous "gulpers" are fair game for a well presented imitation. A day spent sight casting to huge trout is a great option for those targeting a Madison River fly fishing vacation.
