Paddlefish Season Opens Under New Rules as Yellowstone Flows Hold Steady

What's Biting

What's Next

With the Yellowstone tracking at 1,030 cfs at the USGS gauge 06043500 as of May 23, flows are in a typical late-May snowmelt range. If warm temperatures continue across the Absaroka and Beartooth ranges, runoff may tick upward through the weekend before stabilizing. Watch the gauge daily: a jump above 2,000 cfs historically pushes visibility down and makes wade fishing challenging on the main stem. Smaller tributaries and tailwater fisheries tend to hold more stable, fishable conditions during these fluctuations.

**Paddlefish**

The paddlefish season is open and running under MT FWP's new tagging protocol, per MT FWP Fishing News. The prime window for paddlefish on the lower Yellowstone and Missouri near Glendive typically runs through mid-June. Snag rigs, heavy weighted treble hooks fished below a sinker in deep, slow-current seams, are the standard approach. Mornings and evenings at known staging holes tend to produce the most consistent action as fish concentrate ahead of spawning migrations. Make sure your tag validation is complete at streamside before moving the fish.

**Trout**

Late May in Montana is transitional. On the main-stem Yellowstone, elevated flows push trout into softer seams along cutbanks and behind midstream boulders. Nymph rigs with a heavy anchor pattern, such as a stonefly or large hare's ear, with a trailing soft hackle or midge tend to be most effective when visibility is limited. As runoff settles and water clarity improves toward early June, look for caddis and pale morning dun hatches to trigger surface activity, particularly in the late-afternoon window from roughly 4 to 7 p.m. Spring-creek tributaries in the Paradise Valley corridor fish well even when the main Yellowstone is running high and off-color.

**Walleye and Smallmouth (Missouri River)**

On the Missouri, late May is a productive window as walleye finish their spawn and begin feeding aggressively in rocky channel edges and tailouts. Evening drifts with jig-and-minnow or bottom-bouncer rigs along current breaks are consistent producers at this time of year. Smallmouth bass are also active as water temperatures climb into the mid-50s to low-60s range, staging near rocky structure and responding well to tube jigs and crayfish imitations.

Context

Late May in Montana's Yellowstone and Missouri drainages is classically the peak of the spring runoff window. Main-stem rivers fed by the Absaroka, Beartooth, and Madison ranges typically reach their annual high-water mark somewhere between mid-May and mid-June, depending on snowpack depth and the pace of warming temperatures. At 1,030 cfs, the reading on USGS gauge 06043500 as of May 23 is on the moderate end of what the Yellowstone can carry at this point in the season. In heavy snowpack years the river can push multiples of that figure, dropping clarity to near zero and making wading dangerous. A reading in this range generally leaves drift anglers with workable visibility and allows experienced waders to find fishable pockets along the margins.

The paddlefish season on the lower Yellowstone has historically been one of Montana's most social fishing events, drawing large crowds to the stretch near Glendive and Sidney, where fish stage before spawning. MT FWP Fishing News notes that the shift from colored plastic tags to big-game-style validation tags for 2026 is a regulatory housekeeping update, not a conservation alarm. The population has remained stable enough to support a regulated harvest season. Anglers new to the fishery should download the current MT FWP regulations before the trip and confirm any daily quotas or access restrictions at the launch site.

No angler-intel feeds from tackle shops, charter operations, or regional fishing blogs within the Yellowstone-Missouri corridor were part of this reporting cycle, which limits the ability to compare this spring's conditions against prior years with on-the-water testimony. The picture assembled here is based on gauge data from USGS gauge 06043500 and official MT FWP announcements, supplemented by seasonal patterns typical for this latitude and drainage. First-hand reports from outfitters and shops in Livingston, Gardiner, Billings, and Miles City would sharpen the outlook considerably for future cycles.