Bozeman by far.... very dog friendly town and way better fishing nearby than Missoula in my opinion. better weather too

umm keep in mind that these are by Montana standards.. fishing in Missoula is great I just prefer the Bozeman area fishing...

If i was to live in Montana my top chices for places to live would be

1. Ennis
2. West Yellowstone
3 Dillon
4. Phillipsburg


People laugh about Butte but it's a pretty centrally located city and housing prices are really good there. particularly if you were a history buff that also liked do it yourself kind of work around the house.. Some of the old Victorians in up town are gorgeous , just in need of restoration and are cheap

I live in Bozeman, but grew up north of Missoula. The biggest difference is the weather. Bozeman has much sunnier winters, but the sun comes at a cost of cold... twenty or thirty below a couple of times each winter is pretty typical here. Missoula used to be famous for its smoggy winter inversions, but I think they shut down a few of the big polluters so it isn't quite as bad. However, it is this winter cloud cover that keeps Missoula a bit warmer.

Yellowstone is an easy day trip from Bozeman. OTOH, Missoula is close to the Flathead and Swan, which have a lot more variety of fishes.

I think it is easier to "escape" town here. Missoula goes on forever, especially if you are heading down the Bitterroot.

Hay Zeus Rob: West has winter 9 months of the year and it still snows the other three. BBBBRRRRRR

Long time no see Mark... Bridger Bowl ski area (16 miles from Bozeman) got 18" of snow today. back to the OP... You can expect snow days for another month. If you don't like winter, I mean really like winter, don't move to Montana. At least Bzn has the sun.

Around here fly fishing is really spotty from November through Feb because of ice on the rivers and wind that will blow water 20' onto the bank. Then May-July is mostly shot cause of run-off unless you want to fish tailwaters or lakes. That is 7 months of notsogreat... If you just want fishing, you are going to be dreaming about it for much of the year. I honestly get sick of trout too... I live here for the ecosystems that are still intact (and there is no place like home). Yo can get mauled by a grizzly on your lunch break. That's what MT is about. I'd have moved somewhere else if I wanted to fish every day.

Tailwaters of the west arent too shabby though, and lakes are just another field to cover. Id love to have prime fishing every day but it isnt realistic. Being able to catch 20 inch+ rainbows in the middle of winter even if it is below a damn beats winter steelhead. haha Im moving back to the yellowstone area because, like you said, no place like home. especially when its that area.

I dont know where there is prime fishing 365 days a year. Even in the most temperate places there is still seasonal flux of fish and wind that makes for off days or weeks.

Beautiful sunny day in Bozeman today with temps in the mid fifties. (Overcast in Missoula, 90% chance of rain.) The 8" of snow we got the other day is melting quick.

My wife wanted to go fish the Madison today so we checked the wind:
Norris Hill (Madison): 42 MPH.
Paradise Valley (Yellowstone): 30 MPH.

Good day to spring ski or otherwise enjoy the snow... fishing, notsomuch

True, but the closest is the Missouri 130 miles away. I guess you could count the Beartrap on the Madison, but it is a top-water release so it really isn't like a normal tailwater. Plus it isn't a good dry fly stream during the high water, but great for throwing crawdads and a nice walk.

rg

13:00 21 March 2012
Gary Cooper Bridge
Missouri River
Temp: 45 degrees
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny

Flow at Holter: 5240 cfs
Water Temp: 37 F

Miles from my house to the Blue Ribbon Section of the Mo: 31

So why am I at home doing my taxes instead of fly fishing?

Because there are large rainbows and browns schooled up in the soft water sipping gently on midges and bwo, pounding the occasional skwala. Whom would want to be fishing to those guys right now. Nobody else on the water but the migrating birds.
Sorry, I kind of got off base.
Why are you doing your taxes in the middle of the day when you have all night to do them?
Get out there Snowbear, conditions are prime, it's why you live in MT, right.

SnowBear, God invented night for things like doing taxes.

Snowbear,

If you go up there say hey to the walleye guys if they're around. Funny as h.ll seeing folks heading up at dusk carrying surf rods, lawn chairs and heavy duty headlamps; also saw a few working with switch rods right about the first bend at the top of the pasture. Heard of a few pushing 30" but I never saw anyone latch on.

Regards,
Scott

My best day ever was at the bottom end of the bear trap in June 40 = or- trout landed ( just the ones landed)in 2 hours all on big dry stonefly patterns smallest one was 18 inches got two browns back to back that were 24 inches! Now I am not saying that good dry fly on the Lower Madison is the norm but even with that just being one day of my life that part of the river will always be to me one of the best dry fly streams on the planet.

I caught a 12.5 pound walleye hen on a bugger up near Holter, but that was my biggest. And that was in the mid 1990s after some high water years.

I don't release Walleye. That particular hen had 3 small rainbows in her gut.

Trust me, you got extremely lucky if you got 40 fish on dries in 2 hours or even 40 fish in a day. And you are talking about another river if they were all over 18", sorry. The river has a decent mother's day caddis hatch, but even that can be spotty if the spring is cold. That is the bonus of living here though, you can't plan for the good days so you have to be close enough to head out on a moment's notice.

My wife went out yesterday anyway and said the wind was smashing down so hard on the river in some places it was spraying water ten feet in the air! When that happens you can get soaked even standing on shore. That should end in a week or two...

No actually I am talking about the Lower Madison. The first access below the Beartrap canyon. some friends had floated the beat trap the day before for fun and had mentioned seeing a few adult stoneflies. SO I went and checked it out. Visibility was poor so I started nymphing with a Bitch creek and got a couple. I noticed however that as it grew dark i was getting lots of hits as my nymph swung into shore.. I cam back the next morning armed with a dozen improved sofa pillows and proceeded to have the day I mentioned above. Most of the fish I hooked ran out into the river ( water was VERY high) and they came unbuttoned. I have no clue how many I hooked and lost but far more than the ones I landed.

I'll never have that good of fishing again and from what I understand stonefly hatches in that area are unusual but I can tell you this. If i ever hear a rumor of people seeing them there I am going to drop whatever I am doing, drive the 800 miles just to see. There are/were LOTS of very large trout in there.