When the bigger rivers are crowded in mid-summer and the water temperatures rise, head up to the Boulder River, a tumbling, freestone tributary of the Yellowstone that holds some impressive brown and rainbow trout. With its headwaters in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, the Boulder is a classic mountain river with rocky riffles, pocket water, and plenty of mid-stream rocks for trout to hold behind. The Boulder is an excellent river to wade, especially the six-mile stretch between Natural Bridge and Two-Mile Bridge, a catch-and-release section with eager rainbow and brown trout. If you come to the upper Boulder in the heat of summer, cast a dry and dropper combo — a size 12 stimulator, say, with a size 16 bead-head pheasant tail — and fish the banks, behind rocks, and along current seams. You can stop by The Sweetcast Angler in Big Timber for flies and the latest reports.

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