Rosebud Creek - Fishtail, Montana

We flew into Billings on our way to Bozeman for a quick 3 days of fly fishing.  We stopped on the way, just south of Columbus, Montana in a little town called Fishtail.  We stopped in the Fishtail General Store to ask directions to the Stillwater River access points and one of the locals suggested we fish Rosebud Creek.

Just past the Fishtail General Store is a fishing access road to the Rosebud Creek.  This area has a really nice campground and great water for wading.  In just an hour I caught two rainbows and a brownie.  The rainbows were about 10 inches and the brownie 14.  The rainbows were taken on a hopper and the brownie on a nymph dropper.

I would recommend the Rosebud.

The summer in Montana has been extremely hot with very little rain.  In fact, many of the rivers had limited access for fisherman.  Anyway, we tried to see if we might catch some trout.

We fished hoppers; spanking the bank, nymphs with droppers of pheasant tails and copper johns, a dry and a nymph and various other combinations to no avail.  We only caught a few fish that were very small.

I’d love to find out from others if this is unusual based on the time of year and the weather or if we were doing something wrong with our approach.