One Fly

Last week I participated in Grizzly Hackle's 12th annual One Fly.  It's a fun event that Dan Shepherd has been putting on for guides and shop employees near the end of each season.  You are drawn for a teammate and a river section and then you must pick only one fly for the day.  If the fish aren't eating it, too bad.  If you break it off then you're out.  You are allowed to measure 8 fish for the day and of those the biggest 6 will count toward your score.  The points are weighted heavily toward the top so an 18" fish is worth considerably more than a 16".  My day started out with a bang when I tagged this guy on my second cast.

 

A 22" brownie right off the bat definitely put me in the game.  Unfortunately I broke my fly off 10 minutes later and my day was over early.  Still it was a great day on the water.  My teammate, Matt had a solid day and finished second, and my trout won big fish for the day.  After sitting in the rowers seat all year it was nice to get up in the bow for a while.

That's Fall Fishing

It happens this time of year.  Look around, it's all over on blogs, facebook, instagram....heck some guy might just walk up to you and show you pics on his iphone.  Big ones, really big ones are being caught on a daily basis in western Montana.  This class of fish is only vulnerable for a short window each season, mid-March to mid-April, June, and again in October.  Those aren't time periods for the fickle, but dedicated anglers are anything but fickle and they're usually the ones hoisting two feet of trout for a grip-n-grin.  Near the end of a long season it's fish like this that keep me in the game.   

Fishing Report for the week of 9/30/2012

Tue. I was out with Dick and Cindi Hayne for our end of the season celebration. The date didn't fall on the end of season this year, but it has become an annual event and is not to be missed. We floated the upper Bitterroot and Cindi started with a single dry and Dick had a hopper/dropper rig on. True to form, Cindi hooked a couple of dicklings (small fish) right out of the gate and then she proceeded to seine the river after that. Dick might have had a couple bumps on the dropper but with Cindi tagging fish in nearly every run it didn't take long to get Dick switched over to a dry too. The morning was mostly smaller fish, but there was a nice mix of cutts, bows, and browns and once we had a couple better fish come for the fly I knew it was time for lunch before the main hatch came off. Lunch on this day is pretty much an event in and of itself, and it grows more extravagent every year. Cindi always prepares lunch for the end of the season float and today we had an absolute feast. She even had menus printed up and there was everything from spinach salad to quiche to wild alaskan salmon and all the side dishes you could ask for. Did I mention the killer champagne and chocolate turtle cake for desert? It's also the longest lunch of the year, but worth every minute. After lunch I was ready for a food coma, but we set off to see if those trout were still looking up. It was a great afternoon of dry fly fishing. The wind kicked up a little and blew some of our bugs away but we were still able to find willing fish in most all of the places I thought they should be. Cindi was gunning most of them down out of the front seat with the best being a couple of 17" trout, one bow and one cutt. Dick pulled his weight out of the back too with a couple of nice browns and a 16" cutt. There were lots of filler fish too from 10-14" and it was just a beautiful day to be on the water. Dick and Cindi are truly great folks and I always look forward to spending time with them.

Wed. was day one with long time clients, Gregg Kimball, David Joyner, Steve Dunleavy and this year they also brought first timer, Larry. I had Gregg and Larry in my boat and I was joined by fellow guide, John Gould. Larry had a few hook-set hiccups early on but Gregg kept us busy with several smaller fish on the dropper before finally coming tight on a big rainbow. After a long fight we had the 19" bow in the net which turned out to be our best fish of the morning. Larry didn't take long to catch on and a couple runs later the guys doubled up on trout and then one of the huge old bull trout starting chasing the fish on the end of our line. He never grabbed one but it was still cool to watch. Tricos were going strong by the time we made it to Munchmore and Larry and Gregg took turns drilling fish in there. It's the best that hole has fished form me in a while and the guys hooked up on a pile of cutthroats. A lot of them were smaller fish but there were at least 8 that went 15+". After that we gave up the spot for Steve and David, and we found more rising fish further downstream. Gregg took another 4 nice cutts before we pulled in for lunch. The afternoon was a mixed bag of hoppers, droppers, and little ants. Larry did well with the dropper connecting with several more great cutts including an 18" brute, and he also hooked a monster brown that ran straight at the boat, jumped and then broke us off. Gregg found most of his fish on the hopper and a couple on the ant as well. He even hooked a bull trout on the hopper in some fast water. I thought for sure it was a big rainbow, but after an epic battle through shallow rocks and boulders it turned out to be a 23" bull trout. It was another great Blackfoot day. The guys caught their share of little trout and really good numbers of quality fish from 15-17" with a few bigger ones as well.

 

 

Thur. my original client had to cancel and I was fortunate that Matt Horn called and was looking to fish for a day. I've had Matt in my boat since the 90's and he can flat out fish, whether it's dries, nymphs, or streamers he's able to fish with whatever the situation calls for and today was mainly dedicated to streamer fishing up the Blackfoot. We met at 0 dark-thirty for a trip up the canyon. The day started well when Matt smacked the first bull trout of the day before I even had the boat completely ready. The streamer action was pretty decent considering the bright sunshine we had and it was long until Matt was into another bull trout about 17", similar to the first one. We worked the streamers hard and found that a fast retrieve got the most attention as there were a number of follows and bumps to go along with a few small cutts and a fat 17 incher. We made it to Munchmore early and after working it through with one streamer I changed the fly and on the next cast Matt experienced quite a memorable moment. He was working the fly and saw a big bull trout just slide over and inhale the bug. Matt stuck him hard, came tight and the fight was on. He was pretty jacked up with being able to see the fish eat the fly and then it came to the surface with big gill rattling head shakes. In all the commotion the fish got wrapped up funny and was a little difficult to land, but the hook held and Matt had his biggest Montana bull trout to the net at 27". That alone would've been enough to make the day a success, but then I blew his mind when we slid over to the foam in Munchmore and he fished tricos to non-stop eating trout. It was so good in there that I even landed two cutties while holding my sandwhich in one hand and the fly rod in the other. We spent a long time in there tormenting those fish and Matt landed a number of 16-17" cutts and a bunch of smaller ones too. After that we found some really nice fish still rising to tricos in the shelf rock and Matt had no problem sticking several more nice, thick cutts on a little dry fly. Then it was back to the streamer for the rest of the canyon with decent success. There were lots of follows, some bumps, and a handful of small to medium sized cutts and bows. With the streamer bite fading I switched Matt over to a hopper/ant combo and he proceeded to light up a bunch of nice fish on dries. It was mostly cutts again from 15-17", just healthy and thick and a great way to finish off an awesome day. We didn't fish a nymph all day and Matt ended up with a big bully, and a grand slam with bulls, bows, cutts, and one brown trout. I always love it when anglers who fish hard and well are rewarded for their efforts because it doesn't always work out that way.

 

 

Fri. I was out with Bitterroot valley regulars, Brian Bachman, Bob Dennis, and Bridger the trout dog. The guys live around Hamilton and were looking to get out of the smoke a little so we floated the lower Bitterroot. We started the day with a hopper/dropper rig and Bob had the hot hand out of the back of the boat. It was a mixed bag of trout and whitefish on the dropper, but Brian couldn't even buy a whitey in the front seat. He finally came alive though and stuck the two biggest dropper fish of the morning with one bow around 15" and the other at 17.5". They had a number of other smaller bows before the tricos started coming off. Once the hatch was going we switched over to a single small dry and took turns casting at risers. Brian didn't waste anytime as he connected on a hot bow with his first cast and then Bob hooked a big 18" bow when it was his shot. The next pod produced good fish for both Brian and Bob and then we set up on a couple of big fish eating tight to a root ball. Again, Brian's first cast connected and the fight was on. After a long battle our best fish of the day came to the net and this bow taped out at 18.5". The guys kept taking turns like that on good fish and they did amazingly well. Those trico fish are hard to feed and they're even harder to hook and land but we only broke off one fish that ran us under a log, and only missed a couple others. Everything else was solid hook-ups, wet nets and big smiles. We finally took a break for lunch and then rigged up with mahagonies for the afternoon. It was solid dry fly fishing even though we didn't see many bugs or actively rising fish. Bob picked off a lot of the best fish in the front seat, but Brian smacked a few too and he also hooked into the biggest fish of the day. It was big, brightly colored rainbow that ate super tight to a log and after a big jump it was running back for cover when it broke off. I was sorry to see the fish get away but I was glad that Brian took his chances with the tippet holding instead of just letting the fish run him into the timber. Not long after that Bob took our only cutthroat of the day in flat calm water and that fish was another fat one that went 17". There were a lot of fish today and a lot of bigger fish too. The weather was beautiful and the river treated us well. It's always a nice day on the water with Bob, Brian and Bridger.

 

 

Sat. was my last day with the Osprey cabin crew, David Joyner, Steve Dunleavy, and Gregg Kimball. They were a man down today so guide, John and I had just three anglers. We launched the boats right at the cabin on the lower Bitterroot so we could shoot at some trico fish that aren't used to being messed with that time of day. Right off the bat David hooked a really big fish that broke the fly off in short order. A few casts after that Gregg got a mid-sized bow on a trico before we slid down on two more toad trout that were sipping tricos. These fish took a few more casts but David finally fooled one and had it briefly hooked up before the fly popped out. Then we found a really big fish just barely sipping tricos tight to the bank in a quiet back eddy. It was Gregg's shot but after a few casts his fly hung up on an overhanging bush so David was in the game. It was a challenging drift but David got the fish to eat the fly a couple of times and we missed him. Usually you only get one chance at fish like this, but today he kept eating and the third time was a charm as David came tight with a good hook-set. The fish rolled up to the surface and when I saw how big it was I thought for sure we'd lose him to the bank side brush. Luckily the fish charged out into the main river and we were eventually able to get the net under him. It was a monster bow at 21.5" and David got him on a little bitty fly and 5x. Gregg was up next and after breaking off a big fish in a slough I put him on a seam with a couple of risers. The first fish was a scrappy 12" bow, but the next one had more meat on his bones and gave Gregg a good fight. It was a heavy 19.5" bow. The trico action pretty much dried up after that and we switched to a hopper/dropper rig. David smacked a mid-sized brown and a 17" bow on the dropper and Gregg had a big one just pound the hopper. After a couple of big jumps we landed another great 18" bow. The guys switched it up after lunch and I had David as a single for the afternoon. We fished a mahagony dry with mixed results. There wasn't much of a hatch in the afternoon so most of the fish we turned on the dry were smaller than the trico fish of the morning. We did find some big boys up eating at the mouth of a spring and David had several eat the fly but we never really connected. Then we decided to do a little pike fishing in a slow stretch of water. We worked our way down a long bank and had two follow the fly but wouldn't commit. We also saw a monster pike probably pushing 20 pounds but I couldn't ever get the boat in the right position to put a really good shot on that fish. As we neared the end of the pike run I saw an old friend rise in a sneaky little spot. I have had folks hook the fish twice earlier this year. Once it broke us off and once we were able to tow it out of the gnarled log jam mess that it lives in. I gave David the set-up with where to cast and what to do once the fish ate the fly and it all went according to script. The fish ate on cue and once David was tight, he got his rod tip in the water and hauled that trout upstream to safety. A short fight later and David had another Bitterroot giant in the net. This cuttbow hit the tape at 20.5" and after a couple pics we sent him back to his little hide-out. We kept at it with the dry fly and had a couple other big eats and a few decent trout to the boat. These guys are always a ton of fun to fish with and I look forward to their trip each year. Their cabin, the Osprey, is right on the banks of the Bitterroot and is available to rent most of the season. It's an awesome place to stay if anyone is looking for a good alternative to a hotel in town.

The past week gave up some great fishing which is to be expected in late Sept. It's hard to believe that it's October already. Our weather doesn't seem like fall yet and I think this is the first year I've made it all the way through Sept. without wearing waders. Change is in the air though, and a cold front is supposed to hit by mid-week. If we're lucky it will come with some rain and put an end to the smoke that's been around for over a month now. One thing is for sure, when it does arrive it will put an end to the already dying hopper fishing but it will ramp up our mayfly hatches. The coming weeks should be dry fly nirvana with mahagonies and blue-wings in the afternoons. I love my job.

Tight Lines,

Tony Reinhardt

They're Here!! Salmonflies in Missoula

One of the most anticipated hatches of the year has finally arrived.  Salmonflies are going strong on Rock Creek, just showed up on the West Fork and upper Bitterroot, and will pop on the Blackfoot in the next few days.  The hatch is one of the most awesome spectacles you will ever see, and if the stars align it can also be the best fishing of your life.  It's a dynamic time around Missoula right now, even though there are bugs around the fishing is far from easy.  You have to read the weather, streamflows, and other factors to put yourself in the right place at the right time.  Any of our rivers might be great with dries one day and dead on the surface the next.  The trout absolutely gorge on these bugs and the fishing reflects that.  Hit it the day after a binge and all the naturals in the world won't raise fish to the surface, a rain storm or cold front could stall the bugs and the fish for a day, or you everything could come together and your rod is bent with big trout all day.  I love this time of year.  We don't kill 'em every day, but the potential is always there and the biggest trout of the year will be caught on dries over the next couple weeks.  Pack the rain gear, the camera, and the 2x and get ready for some excitement. 

Fishing Report for week of 4/29/2012

Mon. was the first of two days with Jim Cote and Herb Depp over on the Missouri. Last week I fished with Jim on the Bitterroot for one of the last dry fly days of the Skwala season before local rivers started blowing out. I mentioned how good the Mo had been this spring and he was up for the road trip. It was an easy drive to Craig, and after getting the hotel rooms and a few flies we headed up toward the dam. There were a couple boats and some wade fisherman in the normal morning spots so we started sliding downstream. Jim hooked a decent fish in our first spot and Herb netted a rainbow in the second spot we drifted. We continued making our way downstream to a good inside riffle and the guys doubled up on nice rainbows there. I recycled that spot a few times and we hooked fish on each pass. As I was rowing back upstream I noticed a pod of fish sipping midges behind the boat. We rigged Herb up with a dry and a dropper and took some shots at those fish. The boat angle was bad so I rowed us further upstream and Herb fished to them again, but still no luck. After changing flies several times Jim finally asked me what would happen if he threw his indicator nymph rig at those fish? I told him they would probably scatter like the wind but since we were moving on he might as well make a few casts. He hooked a big bow on the first cast and we were all so suprised that the fish got off. A few casts later Jim was tied into another 19" rainbow and I think we hooked another 5 or 6 good sized fish out of that little spot. They simply wouldn't leave or go down despite strike indicators and split shot bouncing off their heads. That was to become a common theme today. We'd come to a spot where I usually catch them on shallow dry/dropper rigs and we wouldn't touch a thing on the short stuff, but as soon as we switched back to the nymph rig we would start catching fish again. Both guys landed several nice bows and a few good browns as well, but Jim did especially well today with a bunch of big rainbows in the 18-19" range and one that stretched the tape to 20". We pulled the boat out at Craig and were within walking distance to our rooms and a great dinner at Izaak's.

Day two is a day surrounded by rumor, speculation, and controversy. One thing is for certain, it will live on for some time to come. After a breakfast sandwhich and a cup of coffee we drove back up to the dam early so we could have our pick of the water. I rowed up to one of my favorite spots on the river and Herb hooked a trout on the first pass. After that it went quiet and I made several more passes and a couple of bug changes with no luck. I was a little concerned but we moved over to another little shelf and quickly boated three rainbows on a couple of passes before a gaggle of wade fisherman pushed us out of there. We made our down to the inside riffle from yesterday and doubled up on the first pass. Since no one else was around I was able to row all the way to the top today and we hooked at least two fish on each drift. Since the river is up a little from earlier this spring, this spot is a tough one to row back up and after the second pass I wasn't feeling quite right. On the third pass I felt like I was going to heave right in the boat, and on the fourth pass I had to stop the boat and take a walk. Without getting into the gory details, I'm sure some critter was able to enjoy a slightly used breakfast sandwhich on an island of the Missouri. After that I felt great! I jumped back in the boat and we made several more passes and landed nice healthly rainbows on each drift. Eventually I started feeling a second wave coming on and knew I needed easier water to row so we floated down to the next island. As I started rowing up that channel we could see dozens of big bows just laying on that shallow inside. We started fishing and it was a near instant double where Herb landed a 20" bow and Jim an 18". The first several drifts we hooked at least two fish and sometimes three or four on a single pass, and they were all 17+" rainbows. The predicament was that the fishing was absolutely awesome, but I was feeling like death. After the first few passes I had to go get rid of the last of the smoked bacon and english muffin, only this time it brought no relief. I was light-headed, could hardly talk, and barely able to row the boat. To their credit, the boys offered to bail out on the day and head back, but I wanted to stick it out for as long as I could. I did change my shuttle from Craig to Wolf Creek so we could get out of there in a hurry if need be. The fishing was just too good to leave. It was big fish after big fish with Jim tagging a bright 19.5" bow and Herb landing a giant 21" rainbow. We'd hook a couple nice fish, they'd ask if I was OK (the looks on their faces was that of a 10 year old just hoping to stay a little longer at the county fair), and we'd go do it again. At one point I was seriously debating asking Jim to row my boat to the take-out, but about that time we took a break so the guys could eat. Not long after lunch the fishing slowed to where we were only hooking one fish each drift and it started getting crowded with other boats so we looked for new water. Our next spot proved just about as good with a double right away and multiple hook-ups on each drift but the last one. That's when the wind really started to blow and since I still wasn't feeling much better we started making our way toward to take out. We still hooked fish in each of the last two spots we fished, but I was awfully glad to get my boat on the trailer and into the air-conditioned truck. The guys had wanted to fish till around 4 so they could make it to Hamilton at a reasonable hour, but I was only able to last until 2. In hindsight, it was actually a blessing because the wind blew 20-30 mph all afternoon which would have made for pretty miserable fishing conditions to finish out an otherwise great day. We made it back to Missoula and I hit the sack at 5:30 that night and didn't twitch until 9 the next morning.

Now here is the fun part; well, fun for Jim and Herb...not so much for me. I know I am going to catch sh#$ for years about this day. It's to be expected, I certainly would have a lot of fun with it if I was in their shoes. So, for the sake of full disclosure here are the facts of the trip. After dinner the first evening I had a night cap with Herb and then a few drinks with some other guides (sleeping, eating, fishing, and drinking are the only 4 activities available in Craig). I would rate the alcohol consumption as moderate to slightly above, but I was in bed by 12:30 and woke up feeling fine. Still doing good after breakfast and coffee, and the party in my stomach didn't start until 10:30. The effects of which lasted until Wed. evening. Some may claim the brown bottle flu as the culprit, others the salmonella special for breakfast, still others state the drinking water in Craig is akin to Tijuana, and a small faction assert divine intervention in getting us off the water before the guys found themselves bouncing split shot off one another in the 30 mph winds. Whatever the case may be, it's one hell of a story that won't soon be forgotten. Oh by the way, Jim and Herb caught a boatload of great fish, Herb described it as one of his best big fish days ever and I can't wait to go do it again........all but the puking part of course!

 

 

After a couple days of fishing early in the week I was stuck in Missoula catching up on things until Sun. when I took my Dad over to the Missouri. We were both busy this spring and didn't fish together once, so I wasn't going to let the chance slip away to get on the water with him for at least a day in the early season. We launched the boat at Craig hoping for some good dry fly fishing further down below the dam. Dad started with a nymph rig and it didn't take long to start catching fish. I think he hooked five rainbows out of one riffle in the morning and most of the other good water produced fish as well. I rowed up a little side channel looking for rising fish, but when we didn't find any I ended up tossing the indicator rig and landing three nice bows before switching to the streamer rod and tagging a fat 18" rainbow. The weather was perfect today, high 50's clouds and no wind and the fishing was very good. The only disappointment was the lack of dry fly fishing today. We had good bugs and clouds, but there weren't many fish up on the surface. It might have been the weekend traffic, but we did find three good pods of fish and managed to stick at least one fish on a dry out of each group. I caught a couple dry fly fish in the afternoon, but otherwise Dad did most of the fishing and he simply drilled them on nymphs. Most were rainbows in the 14-16" range, but we also had a number of fish from 17-19" and a handful of brown trout too. Fishing with my Dad is always a good time, but the perfect weather and easy fishing made today extra special.

Local Missoula rivers are all back on the decline after hitting record high flows for this time of year. If the weather stays mild we may get another shot at area trout before the real run-off sets in. Of course, the Missouri is fishing very well with nymphs, sporadic dries, and streamers and I plan to hit a few area lakes in the next week or so. There's still some great fishing to be had right now so long as you do your homework and are willing to travel a little.

 

Fishing Report for week of 4/15/2012

Dry fly cuttbow

After some pretty tough fishing last week, the Bitterroot roared back to life on Mon. It was the first of five days with long-time angler Bob Rembert and we picked a stretch on the middle Bitterroot. The water had been on the drop for the last few days and with the warm and mostly cloudy forecast I figured we would be in for some good fishing. We started the morning with a dry/dropper rig and Bob was picking off fish right above the put-in. We landed quite a few smaller (10-13") trout in the morning, but he also had a bright 17" bow. After landing three fish in a run, with a couple on the dry we decided to do an early lunch in anticipation of the dry fly fishing to come. After packing up, we switched over to a single skwala dry and the fish came absolutely unglued in the afternoon! It was literally non-stop action from 12:20 to 3:30. There were a pile of smaller fish on the hunt, but we were also seeing quality trout in spots too. At one point we landed at least 5 trout in three consecutive runs. There were a bunch of bugs around today with skwalas, march browns, and gray drakes all on the water. Some days that can make for tricky fishing where some fish are keyed in on drakes and others on the stonefly, but today we got virtually every rising fish to eat the skwala. We witnessed some pretty awesome dry fly takes today with fish absolutely crushing the dry. Later in the afternoon the fishing slowed from fever pitch to very good and our average fish got bigger as well. Bob landed a number of 18" class bows and cuttbows and a nice 17" brown to go along with an unreal amount of 12-16" trout. It was by far the best day of fishing I've seen this year and one of the best days of skwala fishing for numbers of trout that I've ever experienced! Spring fishing is always a bit of a gamble and today we hit the jackpot.

So after the best day of dry fly fishing so far this season, what did we do today? Went up the Blackfoot to streamer fish of course!?! The thing I like about Bob is he'd go fish a muddy irrigation ditch with me if I told him I thought it would be good. That willingness to take a chance has led to some epic fishing in the past, and it's also led to our fair share of ass kickings as well. It's part of the game and Bob has seen the upside often enough to know that the risk is worth the reward. We headed up to the canyon today with hopes of big fish on streamers. The big meat didn't produce much all morning. Bob had a handful of grabs and a chunky 17" cuttbow by the time we reached the Munchmore hole. The bright sun wasn't doing us any favors so we switched to a nymph rig and the results were immediate. Bob hooked over 8 in that run including a few fat 16-17" cuttbows. I focused on specific spots through the canyon and almost every run produced multiple fish. It was outstanding nymph fishing the rest of the day. We never got the big boys to eat the streamer, but we landed a ton of healthy 12-17" cutts and bows. The weather was perfect, warm with little wind and we had the entire river to ourselves. I'm sure the dry fly fishing was solid again today on the Bitterroot, but the Blackfoot was gorgeous, the fish were willing, and there wasn't another soul around.

Wed. Bob's long-time fishing buddy, Roger Austin, joined us for a day on the Bitterroot. After some warm weather the river was back on the rise so I picked a float on the lower river hoping to stay ahead of the push of water. Our morning was par for the course with most of the fish coming on a stonefly nymph dropper. We had a couple trout take a whack at the dry throughout the morning and then just before lunch we started to see a few bugs around. I stopped and switched the guys over to single dry flies. While I was still rigging Roger up, Bob stuck a nice big rainbow on the dry. Not long after that Roger coaxed a hefty brown out of a tight little hole in the bank. That fish wrapped around a bunch of tree limbs under water and I thought for sure we'd lose him but Roger managed to get the fish back out of the tangle and into the net. With the fish starting to look up I decided to stop and eat so we'd be ready when the bugs poured off in the afternoon. The only problem was that the bugs didn't pour off in the afternoon, in fact they pretty much disappeared completely. Distant clouds keep teasing us as well while we baked in the bright sun. We caught some fish in the afternoon and most everything that ate the fly was a good sized trout from 16-19", but it was tougher than we thought it would be. A combination of bright sun, rising water levels, boat traffic, and no bugs made the trout a little grumpy. We still had a great time on the water, I always enjoy having Roger in the boat, and there were some gorgeous fish today.

Midge Brownie!

After a great dinner with friends on Rock Creek with world class home made pizza by Mike Lombardi, Bob and I made the trip over the pass to the Missouri for two days of fishing. On Bob's spring trip we usually fish the Mo one day during the week, but with all the rivers in western Montana on the rise we decided to make an overnight trip out of it. We stopped in Helena to pick up provisions since we were renting an awesome cabin overlooking the river. After all the little stops we finally hit the middle river around noon. It was cloudy and relatively calm and we started fishing streamers. It didn't take long for Bob to hook three or four on the streamer rig and then we started to see some fish rising to midges. We switched over to a little midge cluster and the next couple hours was some of the best dry fly midge fishing I've ever seen. I found a little current seam with three or four fish rising. I thought they were mostly little fish, but when Bob came tight on the first one, a 17" bow I realized they were all good trout. Everytime Bob would hook a trout it seemed like two more would slide in to replace it and start feeding. I don't know how many fish we hooked on that current seam, but it was over 10 nice rainbows. It's hard to beat 16-20" bows on a size 18 dry and 5x tippet. We went from one current seam to the next picking off risers until we came to a calm part of the bank and I spotted a big fish feeding up under some overhanging willow branches. Degree of difficulty for this presentation was an 8 or 9. The fish was tucked up under the willows tight to the bank. There was only one gap in the branches to get the fly in close enough to the fish and then Bob had to feed at least 15 feet of slack into the drift to allow the fly to make it down to the feeding trout. After 20+ attempts everything came together and the fish ate the fly. Bob set the hook and a big brown erupted in a cartwheeling jump from under the willows. It was perfect. There are scores of great trout over the course of a season, but there's only a handful of special moments like that; big trout in a super tough spot on a tiny fly and light tippet. I won't forget that brown trout anytime soon. We continued catching fish on midges until the hatch petered out and the wind picked up. We switched back to streamers with reasonable success and then when the wind really started to howl we rowed for the take out.

Mo Rainbow

Fri. I really wanted to head back lower on the Missouri for streamer and midge fishing, but the weather was telling me to point my rig toward the dam. It was bright sun which typically means marginal streamer and dry fly fishing. A nymph rig on the upper river is fairly impervious to the weather and I knew Bob could stick a bunch of nice fish under the indicator today. Since we stayed the night we were able to get on the water early and row upstream to one of the best runs on the river. We stayed in that one spot for over two hours and hooked at least one fish on every pass that we made. Most were good sized bows from 16-20", but we also saw a few of the smaller 12-14" bows in the river. We finally cut loose from that run and started drifting downstream. Every spot that I thought should produce a fish, did produce and most runs Bob had several strikes. In one particular run I think we had five fish hooked, and the last was one of the hardest fighting rainbows I've seen. Bob's been around the block and knows how to play trout, but this fish just wouldn't give up. After a long battle we landed a gorgeous 20+" bow that was so thick Bob could hardly hold it. After lunch there was a traffic jam of boats so I opted for a little side channel that no one else had been down. It's funny how little decisions like that can make or break the day. We ended up finding a small shallow water spot where fish were midging and I didn't pick up the anchor for over 2.5 hours. The sun made the fish a little reluctant to rise, but we dropped a little zebra midge 4" below our dry and sight fished to big Mo rainbows. It was a blast watching the fish react to the fly, and it was amazing how many fish were stacked up in a small spot. I couldn't tell you how many fish we poked out of that spot, but there were 4 20" class rainbows with the biggest a 22" stud and many more in the 14-18" range. After that spectacle it was hard to go back to the indicator rig so we just cruised the river looking for some more midging fish. We finally found another bucket in a maze of side channels and Bob lit up a bunch of other big bows with a couple more approaching 20" and the rest from 17-19". When the fishing finally slowed down it was getting late and we cruised down to the boat ramp and back to Rock Creek. It was another great day on the Mo and an awesome week with one of my favorite anglers.

Snowy Mo Bow

Sun. I fished with Linda Hogg and Frank Heigel. We set out again for the Missouri since our local water is still a little out of shape. Linda hasn't fly fished much in the past and Frank hadn't tossed a fly in 15 years, but I knew the river would produce for us. The weather didn't help much though, after driving through snow over the pass the white stuff was still falling as we launched the boat. It made for tough conditions with bulky clothes and gloves on, and ice building up in the guides but Linda and Frank were troopers and persevered despite the elements. We hooked a bunch of nice fish today and brought some real nice rainbows to the net. Linda landed her first rainbow on the fly and Frank boated a couple great bows over 18". Both anglers fished really well today with good casts and few tangles, but the cold made it tough to feel the line after hooking up, and there were a number of fish that got away simply because it was hard to control the fly line with big gloves and numb hands. Toward the end of the float Frank hooked up on a big brown that stretched the tape near 20" and Linda boated her biggest bow of the day at 16". I had a blast fishing with these two today. A lot of folks would have had second thoughts considering the conditions, but Linda and Frank never complained and were rewarded with a bunch of nice fish. I look forward to fishing again with Linda later this summer and I hope Frank makes it out again soon.

Conditions locally are back on the verge of very good dry fly fishing again. The Bitterroot is clear and the bugs are out, but it is still flowing a little heavy. The weather looks good for this coming week and I expect to see fish on dries again soon.

MARCH MADNESS: Missoula, Montana Style

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.