Come on people, chest bumps all around for the 2010 Simms Fish Bowl Champs Sweetwater Fly Shop. After three years of heartache and defeat team captain Scott Schumacher led us to the light and finally got some free shit from Simms. Go Team!

The Yellowstone begins to change. First green, then olive, then brown then hopefully back to olive. Underneath its foam lines and riffles lies THE biomass, millions of Brachycentrus occidentalis (Mother’s Day Caddis). They are becoming restless in their little homes and with that comes restless trout. Soon the bio-mass will be released, and all hell will break loose until runoff comes to wash it all away.

Every year it’s the same. It slowly works its way into my psyche like a bad habit. I find myself staring at the river longer and longer, watching the Yellowstone slowly brew up its annual feast of bug soup. I begin to twitch a little. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I can no longer look at the bobber, or if I’m just tired of listening to the Serbian kid go on about how he only fishes during the week and hasn’t fished a nymph all spring. All I know is that Caddisflies mean two things: that winter really is over and I can now fish dry flies to big, gluttonous trouts. I will skip out on work and make excuses to my wife with the well polished justification that my binge will soon end and I will repent come high water.

Broken flood gates on Hebgen Dam raised the flow of the upper Madison from approximately 900 cfs to 3,600 cfs in a matter of hours Sunday afternoon. All fishing access points from Ennis to the dam are now reportedly closed to recreation. Here on the Yellowstone we are bracing ourselves for the onslaught of Clackacrafts and bobbers headed our way.

OK, so the economy is in the crapper and gas prices are at an all time high. Here at Sweetwater Fly Shop we try and look at the bright side. Steelhead returns to the Skeena system in B.C. are twice the 10 year average this year, which is great for those of us able to make the trip north. Charlie however will not. So to compensate for this great injustice he had fried chicken for lunch while admiring the steelhead flies that he won’t be fishing. For more on Skeena steelhead returns check out the Skeena Fisheries Blog.

Our buddy Derek DeYoung and local fly tying guru Doug McKnight showed off their talent last week at Livingston’s art walk. Derek displayed many of his paintings which complimented Doug’s beautiful Salmon Flies quite well. The show will run through August 8th so if you’re in Livingston be sure to stop by the Livingston Center for Art and check it out.