Leksie, our oldest German Shorthair, nearly jumped into my lap while Sid, our puppy excitedly runs around with a rawhide chew in his mouth. Thunder rumbles off the Madison Range of mountains and lightening lights up the pre-dawn sky to the south of us. Finn our middle dog continues to fetch and bring Jackie his "indestructible" nylon toy for her to throw for him again. It's Thursday morning at the Mathews home, time to write another fishing report. Leksie is afraid of thunder and lightening but if chasing birds afield and guns blazing she doesn't mind at all, but it is a challenge to type this and hold a sixty-pound dog in my lap at the same time.

Last night was another stormy one as has been the past week. Lightening, thunder, hail and rain have made for some interesting evening fishing situations. I was going to sit the evening out as it began raining hard around 7p.m. The night before my fishing buddy Tim and I hit the river at 7 and had fish rising. We watched a big trout rise for ten minutes sip who-knows-what as we sat on the shore. Of course neither of us had our insect sampling nets both safely stowed in our fishing packs in my truck, so we both stared at the water in a futile attempt to determine what the fish was rising so well to. There were Epeorus spinners and a couple caddis along with emerging midges drifting by and by the time Tim knotted an Iris Caddis on the fish quit rising. While we waited for the spinner to fall a north wind kicked up and blew the spinners off and fish quit rising in a spot there are always risers at dusk. I scored a couple on a skittering Iris and Tim took one a soft hackle and we called it a night.

Back though to last night as I sat and watched another storm roll into the valley and grumbled to Jackie and the dogs about how another unsettled weather evening was putting the damper on my evening fishing. I should not complain. The moisture has been awesome and the cooler temperatures have made for fine fishing. For instance, even the Firehole at Biscuit Basin has flowed at 62 degrees lately. I did not complain for long last night, the storm passed and I heard a voice from the kitchen quietly tell me to, "go fishing", and I did.

At 8 p.m. I arrived at my new favorite spot. It was calm and a few mayfly spinners were hovering over the riffles as caddis fluttered by searching for mates. I put on a #16 Epeorus spinner and took 3 fine rainbows in an hour before a beaver floated into my pool. I asked it politely to leave and not spook the few rising fish still sipping spinners. It responded by smacking its tail not 10 feet from where I sat on the bank casting to rising fish and putting the fish down for the night. I headed home satisfied with my evening on the river!

This morning as daylight comes inching over Echo and Finger Mountains to the east I can see several Epeorus duns on our screens and windows. With another round of storms rolling in and the forecast calling for them to continue this afternoon I know where I'll be today, and this evening. We should see good emergences of Epeorus and Baetis if the rain shows and good evening spinner falls if rains hold off during spinner time, 7-9pm.

I'd like to get my lawn mowed soon but due to wet conditions I can't get at it so I might as well go fishing! I hope to see you on the rivers. For the first time in recent memory it seems we have a few Whiting Grizzly Saddles in stock. I did take one and cut it in thirds leaving one-third natural another I dyed Fall Drake Mackerel brown and the last third I tinted bright yellowish-olive for tying green drakes for next season. I'll be set for tying all big Yellowstone drakes this winter. All fly tiers are hoping that the end of the hair fashion graze using grizzly saddles has run its course and we can get back to tying with these saddle hackles. Time will tell but for now I am hedging my bets and laying in some grizzly saddle to tie with.

As usual in the rest of this issue, you'll find fishing news from Yellowstone Country in the weekly Fishing Report. You can see what's hot off the vise in the Fly of the Week, and stay up to date with the guide staff and their trips in the Guide Trip of the week.

You'll be seeing a new email newsletter most every week throughout the spring and summer to keep you tuned in to all things fly fishing and fly tying in the greater Yellowstone area and beyond. Throughout the seasons, we'll keep sending you news of hatches and fishing holes around West Yellowstone. So without further delay, go ahead and jump right into the newsletter. And as always, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email if you have any questions, or if you just want a little fish talk.