[ARCHIVE] Stillwater River Report 5/25/2020

Stillwater 5/25: Flows dropped and cleared with the cooler weather, creating a window of fishable water. However, things are likely to change with the warmer weather this week and expect higher off color conditions. So for wade fishing it’s usually best to go above the Rosebud confluence. Nymphing is probably the way to using a girdle bug, dark stonefly pattern, or san juan worms along with a small beadhead like a red copper john, optic nerve, batman, North Fork Special, or Lil’ Spanker. Streamer fishermen have had success as well, with the Grinch always the #1 pattern. In off color water try a darker body color streamer for contrast. Caddis may still be popping here ant there as well as a stray March Brown or two. If so, try fishing a dry/dropper setup with a smaller stimulator, jack cabe, purple haze or march brown with a caddis pupa dropper nymph. There’s still a lot of water yet to come out and the river has yet to crest.