Paddlefish season live on the Yellowstone and Missouri as late-May hatches build

What's Biting

What's Next

With the Yellowstone flowing at 1,330 cfs as of May 25, float and wade anglers are in reasonable shape through the Memorial Day weekend. That said, late-May snowmelt from the Yellowstone Plateau can push flows up quickly. Watch USGS gauge 06043500 closely over the next 48 to 72 hours, especially if daytime temperatures spike in the upper watershed. A sudden rise of several thousand cfs can cloud the river and push trout out of productive feeding lanes.

For paddlefish anglers, now is the time to review the updated MT FWP harvest protocol before heading to the river. Per MT FWP Fishing News, the new tagging system mirrors big game requirements: complete the tag before the fish is tied up, moved, stored in a cooler, or cleaned. The snagging season on the lower Yellowstone and upper Missouri typically draws significant crowds to popular access sites, so arriving early and having your gear organized will help.

For trout, conditions should improve as late-May hatches build. Flylab (Substack)'s John Juracek notes that insect emergence timing and species composition across the Yellowstone drainage have shifted over the past 30-plus years, so anglers should not rely on dated hatch charts. Watch for midday caddis and mayfly activity on calmer stretches of the upper river. A subsurface caddis emerger or lightly weighted nymph fished in the film is the first call when trout are visibly rising. On runs without surface activity, swing soft hackles or drift attractor nymphs along the bottom.

The First Quarter moon this weekend tends to correlate with stable, spread-out daytime feeding behavior in freshwater rather than concentrated dawn or dusk bursts. Plan to be on the best holding water between mid-morning and early afternoon for the next several days. On the Missouri River tailwater, walleye and trout typically remain active through late May before summer heat begins to push fish deeper; no specific bite reports are in hand for this week, but the timing is historically favorable.

Context

Late May on the Yellowstone and Missouri systems typically marks the tail end of peak spring runoff and the start of a productive stabilization window for trout anglers. In most years, the Yellowstone River near Livingston crests somewhere between mid-May and early June, depending on snowpack depth in the Absaroka and Beartooth ranges. A reading of 1,330 cfs at USGS gauge 06043500 on May 25 represents a relatively moderate flow for this time of year, suggesting either a lighter winter snowpack, an early melt cycle, or that runoff has already peaked. Anglers familiar with this drainage know that the transition from high, off-color runoff to stable, clear summer flows is one of the best windows of the season; trout push back into feeding lanes quickly once clarity improves.

Flylab (Substack)'s John Juracek, co-author of the landmark book on Yellowstone hatches written with Craig Mathews, notes in a recent piece that insect emergence timing and species distribution across the Yellowstone system have changed considerably over the past 33 years. The practical implication for 2026: treat published hatch calendars as starting points rather than schedules, and stay observant on the water.

Paddlefish are a late-spring tradition on the lower Yellowstone and upper Missouri, typically drawing harvest pressure from late April through June depending on the year and applicable regulations. The 2026 season update from MT FWP is a meaningful procedural change, not a minor clarification. Anglers who ran the old colored-tag process in prior seasons should read the current rules carefully before harvesting.

No multi-year flow comparison data or historical temperature benchmarks are available from our current gauge pull to precisely characterize where this season stands relative to average. The single gauge reading provides a useful snapshot, but a full seasonal trend would require a longer data window.