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| Bitterroot River Bracket |
Fly fishing with big dries is happening around Missoula right now. Some watch March Madness on TV, getting all worked up about their $20 office pool. Others witness March Madness live, on the rivers of western Montana.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
MARCH MADNESS: Missoula, Montana Style
Fly fishing with big dries is happening around Missoula right now. Some watch March Madness on TV, getting all worked up about their $20 office pool. Others witness March Madness live, on the rivers of western Montana.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Missoula, Montana Fly Fishing Report for 3/18/2012
The 2012 fishing season has finally arrived! It seems that our mild winter has been agreeable with the trout and, our fishing went from not much of anything to game on overnight.
On Wed. I got out with former guide and long time friend, Scott Timothy. We put in on the middle Bitterroot and the river was in great shape, clear with a decent flow. Scott was on fish right away with a dry/dropper rig and landed a couple nice bows righ across from the boat ramp. It wasn't long before Scott got his first dry fly eat on a Skwala, and then I landed my first Bitterroot trout of the year on a dry fly. We found a few rising fish just after lunch and I fooled a couple mid-size cuttbows on a blue-wing olive. Our fishing was solid all day with most of the fish coming on a dropper, but enough action on the dry to keep things interesting. Scott and I didn't fish too hard, it was just nice to be back on the water again with some decent weather as well.
Thur. was my first guide day of the year and I headed to the Osprey cabin on the lower Bitterroot to pick up 1/4 of the LaMosca club, Steve Duvall and his buddy Tom. I fished several years with Steve but this was to be my first float with Tom. Unfortunately Tom had to bail out and head back to NY, literally at the last minute. We had the boat in the water and I was rigging rods when Tom finally reached someone who could change his flight. We were lucky to get my shuttle driver to rush down and take Tom back to the cabin so he could make the flight. I'm glad it all worked out, but it was a shame that Tom missed the first really good dry fly day of the season. Steve had a couple dry fly eats right at the put-in and the action stayed steady all day. With stuck with a Swkala/dropper rig for most of our fishing and the ratio was probably 40/60, but there were a few spots where we ran a single dry and found fish. The trout are still holding in the slow water and virtually every little soft spot and back eddy we pulled into produced a fish or two. We caught some small fish, but our average was around 14", and we landed five trout that were 18" or better with the biggest at 19.5". One of the highlights of the day was a little foam spot that was surrounded by downed trees and branches. I told Steve to cast in there just for fun, knowing there was virtually no chance of landing a fish in that tangled mess. Steve came tight on a fish and I was hollering to try to horse him out of there and then I saw the fish on the surface. It was a big bow and I figured we were screwed, but Steve managed to keep him out of the wood and after making sure we wouldn't flip the boat I jammed it into a tight slot in the log jam. It was an impossible situation but we managed to land the 18.5" bow and keep from dying at the same time. The weather was perfect today, mostly cloudy mid-50's and calm. Steve caught a pile of fish and I look forward to seeing him and the rest of the boys later this fall.
Fri. was my first of two days with Ryan Jack. Ryan typically comes out in the summer with his Dad, but he's getting married in about a month so he contacted me to see if there was any spring fishing to be had. I told him about the Skwala hatch and he jumped on the opportunity. It rained most of Thur. night and I was dreading pulling up the streamflows on the computer Fri. morning. Sure enough, the Bitterroot was coming up hard at Darby. I really wanted to put Ryan on some good fishing, after all this would be his last trip as a single man and I didn't want it to be a dud. I honestly didn't know what to do, I thought about running over to the Missouri for good nymph fishing, floating the lower Root where the river wasn't rising as bad, but in the end I went with my gut and we headed back to the middle Bitterroot where the fishing and bug life has been the best. The river was definitely up, but I breathed a sight of relief when we hooked our first fish within sight of the boat ramp. The morning fishing was decent as we found fish in the best water on a dry/dropper rig. The weather improved after lunch and the fish turned on as well. Again, slow water, back eddies, and inside bends were all consistent producers. For the first time this year we found a couple spots where fish were actively eating Skwala dries and we switched over to a straight dry in those spots and tagged some nice fish. Ryan landed browns, bows, and cutts with five or six in the 18-19" range. We had a good number of dry fly eats, but the ol' dirt snake is still pretty hard to beat. The worm produced consistently in most all the spots we put it in the afternoon. The fishing slowed down around 5 and we managed to find a couple more fish in the last hour before we got off the river. We had a great day, and I was even more amazed when I got home and saw that the river was rising hard all day long. The Bitterroot is typically a cold mistress on a rising tide but we managed to beat the odds and put a bunch of nice fish in the boat.
Sat. dawned cold and wet and I wondered if the river was looking to get even with us today. The upper river had nearly doubled in volume over the last 24 hours and I figured we would be in for a challenging day. We went a little further upstream today to try to find the best water for the conditions. It was cold and raining at the put-in and I wasn't sure what would be tougher, finding fish or just staying warm. The river had lost quite a bit of clarity and was definitely running harder than yesterday. After fishing a couple spots with a dry/dropper set-up I knew we needed the nymph rig for today. We made the switch and a couple runs later Ryan was tight to a 18" cuttbow. Another cutt came a short while later and I was a little more optomistic about our chances. The conditions were much worse today, but at lunch we had more fish in the boat than yesterday. Ryan was seining the river and no fish was safe, he even managed to tag a whitefish and the ultra-selective sucker. Our biggest failure came at lunch when we couldn't manage to get a fire going. Not even the "special sauce" floatant could help us get a flame going in those cold and wet conditions. Fortunately the rain tapered off and the temp came up just enough to make things borderline comfortable. We drilled a bunch of nice fish in the run where we ate lunch and the fishing was consistently solid all afternoon. We focused on specific water types and there weren't many spots that didn't produce. The dry fly fishing never materialized but it was hard to argue with a bent rod most of the time. Again we saw a mix of fish with a 17" brown and several bows and cutts in the 17"-18" range, and late in the day Ryan boated the first 20" bow of the season. The river seems really healthy this year. The proof is two great days of fishing despite conditions that could have easily produced catches in the single digits. Ryan is always fun to fish with and I'm glad that the Skwala hatch treated him well. I look forward to seeing him later this summer with his Dad.
We've dried out a little and the forecast for the next few days is cool with temps in the 40's. The river has levelled off and is back on the drop. We should be back to dry fly fishing in a couple days and the higher flows have shuffled the fish and there should be some big trout holding in vulnerable lies over the next week. It's great being back on the water. There's nothing quite like watching big trout eat big dry flies after a long, cold winter!
Tight Lines!
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| Scott's Dry Fly Brownie |
The 2012 fishing season has finally arrived! It seems that our mild winter has been agreeable with the trout and, our fishing went from not much of anything to game on overnight.
On Wed. I got out with former guide and long time friend, Scott Timothy. We put in on the middle Bitterroot and the river was in great shape, clear with a decent flow. Scott was on fish right away with a dry/dropper rig and landed a couple nice bows righ across from the boat ramp. It wasn't long before Scott got his first dry fly eat on a Skwala, and then I landed my first Bitterroot trout of the year on a dry fly. We found a few rising fish just after lunch and I fooled a couple mid-size cuttbows on a blue-wing olive. Our fishing was solid all day with most of the fish coming on a dropper, but enough action on the dry to keep things interesting. Scott and I didn't fish too hard, it was just nice to be back on the water again with some decent weather as well.
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| Steve's 19.5" Bow |
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| Logjam Rainbow |
Thur. was my first guide day of the year and I headed to the Osprey cabin on the lower Bitterroot to pick up 1/4 of the LaMosca club, Steve Duvall and his buddy Tom. I fished several years with Steve but this was to be my first float with Tom. Unfortunately Tom had to bail out and head back to NY, literally at the last minute. We had the boat in the water and I was rigging rods when Tom finally reached someone who could change his flight. We were lucky to get my shuttle driver to rush down and take Tom back to the cabin so he could make the flight. I'm glad it all worked out, but it was a shame that Tom missed the first really good dry fly day of the season. Steve had a couple dry fly eats right at the put-in and the action stayed steady all day. With stuck with a Swkala/dropper rig for most of our fishing and the ratio was probably 40/60, but there were a few spots where we ran a single dry and found fish. The trout are still holding in the slow water and virtually every little soft spot and back eddy we pulled into produced a fish or two. We caught some small fish, but our average was around 14", and we landed five trout that were 18" or better with the biggest at 19.5". One of the highlights of the day was a little foam spot that was surrounded by downed trees and branches. I told Steve to cast in there just for fun, knowing there was virtually no chance of landing a fish in that tangled mess. Steve came tight on a fish and I was hollering to try to horse him out of there and then I saw the fish on the surface. It was a big bow and I figured we were screwed, but Steve managed to keep him out of the wood and after making sure we wouldn't flip the boat I jammed it into a tight slot in the log jam. It was an impossible situation but we managed to land the 18.5" bow and keep from dying at the same time. The weather was perfect today, mostly cloudy mid-50's and calm. Steve caught a pile of fish and I look forward to seeing him and the rest of the boys later this fall.
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| Rainbow on a Skwala Dry |
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| Ryan's 20" Bow |
Sat. dawned cold and wet and I wondered if the river was looking to get even with us today. The upper river had nearly doubled in volume over the last 24 hours and I figured we would be in for a challenging day. We went a little further upstream today to try to find the best water for the conditions. It was cold and raining at the put-in and I wasn't sure what would be tougher, finding fish or just staying warm. The river had lost quite a bit of clarity and was definitely running harder than yesterday. After fishing a couple spots with a dry/dropper set-up I knew we needed the nymph rig for today. We made the switch and a couple runs later Ryan was tight to a 18" cuttbow. Another cutt came a short while later and I was a little more optomistic about our chances. The conditions were much worse today, but at lunch we had more fish in the boat than yesterday. Ryan was seining the river and no fish was safe, he even managed to tag a whitefish and the ultra-selective sucker. Our biggest failure came at lunch when we couldn't manage to get a fire going. Not even the "special sauce" floatant could help us get a flame going in those cold and wet conditions. Fortunately the rain tapered off and the temp came up just enough to make things borderline comfortable. We drilled a bunch of nice fish in the run where we ate lunch and the fishing was consistently solid all afternoon. We focused on specific water types and there weren't many spots that didn't produce. The dry fly fishing never materialized but it was hard to argue with a bent rod most of the time. Again we saw a mix of fish with a 17" brown and several bows and cutts in the 17"-18" range, and late in the day Ryan boated the first 20" bow of the season. The river seems really healthy this year. The proof is two great days of fishing despite conditions that could have easily produced catches in the single digits. Ryan is always fun to fish with and I'm glad that the Skwala hatch treated him well. I look forward to seeing him later this summer with his Dad.
We've dried out a little and the forecast for the next few days is cool with temps in the 40's. The river has levelled off and is back on the drop. We should be back to dry fly fishing in a couple days and the higher flows have shuffled the fish and there should be some big trout holding in vulnerable lies over the next week. It's great being back on the water. There's nothing quite like watching big trout eat big dry flies after a long, cold winter!
Tight Lines!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Missouri Road Trip Video
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| Missouri on a sunny Feb. day |
Finally got all the footage put together from our great trip to the Missouri last month. This is my first attempt at video editing and the audio isn't quite right. You may have to crank the sound up on your computer.
Click here for video
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Storm's a Comin'
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| Storm clouds on the Root Our first batch of nice weather finally made it to western Montana. It was sunny and over 50 today with more mild weather on the way. It's enough to make a guy itch to go fishing if I didn't already know better. The spring Skwala hatch is the most anticipated event of the fishing season for those in the know. Along with it comes a heavy dose of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The Good is that it's the first and possibly the best big bug fishing of the year. There's not much better than watching big trout gobble dry flies after a long, cold winter and if you know the river, the hatch cycle, and the weather you can stay on solid fishing from mid-March all the way till the river blows in late April or May. The Bad is that this hatch has gained in popularity over the years and it's no secret anymore. The best fishing and heaviest pressure is on certain sections of the Bitterroot forcing anglers and guides to adjust their strategies. Instead of just fishing the best water at the best time of day you have to get creative with access and use a few other tricks to avoid the traffic. The Ugly is what is about to take place in the Bitterroot valley over the next 10 days or so. With the recent good weather every cabin fever afflicted angler within a couple hundred miles is headed to the river. Locals, guys from Washington, and MT plates from out East will all be spotted at access areas in the coming days. It plays out like this almost every year. Unfortunately, the fishing is just not that good yet. It's ugly (and a little funny) because it turns into a crowded river with anglers hoping against hope for a fish to eat their dry and it's just not going to happen, at least not very often. The downside is the increased pressure clues the fish into the fact that the game is on again. The upside is that a bunch of frustrated anglers Here's to the start of the of 2012 season. There are a few fish to find right now, but things should really get rolling in another 10 days or so.....till then I'm steering clear of the storm. |
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