A Spring Journey

By Mike Hodgens

Paradise valley in the spring is unpredictable.  Some years it is snowy and cold, others have bluebird days.  Some years the Yellowstone is in full runoff, while other years it is perfectly floatable.  For more than a decade I have headed to Paradise valley to fish this unpredictable time of year.  

It started with my father.  After annual trips to the NE corner of Yellowstone National Park in September, he was sick of the heat and needed to fish at a lower elevation.  Spring in Paradise Valley checked all those boxes.  Nelson’s Spring Creek Ranch was our host, and we fished their creek as well as DePuy’s, the Yellowstone River, and other creeks and lakes for many years.

While my dad has passed on, the spring fishing tradition continues.  This year, after a quick 14 drive, I was at the ranch and the next morning, picking my friend and fellow TCTU board member Yves from the Bozeman airport.  We headed to the ranch for a day of fishing Nelson’s Spring Creek.  The creek is stunning, with crystal clear water and very visible, somewhat selective, wild trout.  Brown trout, rainbow trout, and Yellowstone cutthroat trout to 20+” await a well-placed fly. While the BWO hatch eluded us that day, Yves showed his skill and found some willing trout on tiny midges and streams both.

The next two days we fished DePuy’s Spring creek with the "legendary" (or perhaps "infamous") cat fly in hand.  Now stained with algae, it was too green for these smart trout.  Still the afternoon of the second day saw a strong hatch of cream baetis.  We enjoyed dry fly fishing with rising trout all around us!

​At that Yves jumped on a plane back home, while another group of friends arrived to fish.  We enjoyed another wonderful day on Nelson’s spring creek and a stunning day on Story Lake.  The calibeatis were hatching sporadically, but streamers were the name of the game.

Just like that my friends were back on airplanes and I was left with one last day.  I was able secure access to another lake in the foothills outside YNP.  There were rumors of amazing fishing, but the weather looked tough – screaming winds and highs in the 40’s.  What a day that was.  Hard fighting 20+” rainbows taking streamers bent my 7wt over double throughout the day.
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Then it was time to drive home.  A tough 2 hours of slogging through 6” of wet snow gave way to 10 hours driving rain.  The memories made fishing with good friends made it all worth while.