Missoula Fly Fishing Report

Missoula Fishing Report 7/9

Fly Fishing Report Brought To You By Our Missoula Fly Fishing Guides And Fly Shop Staff.

Enjoy and Good Luck!

Bitterroot River

The Bitterroot river has been fishing good from top to bottom. Golden Stones, Yellow Sallies and PMD’s have been the bugs of choice. Dry fly fishing with Golend Stones on the upper stretches has been great. Morning Fishing with PMD dries has been good from the top stretches to the bottom. Cold water coming from the West fork is keeping the fishing steady all day long on the upper stretches, while the lower is getting a little warmer and slowing down in the afternoon hours. Not a bad idea to switch to the pike rig in the afternoon on the lower section as there’s been some big ones eating lately. We’ve been throwing mostly single dries, but the dropper game has been strong too.

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Blackfoot River

The Blackfoot river is fishing good on dries, droppers and streamers. Water temps are warming up in the afternoon, so get out early and go check out one of our great breweries in the afternoon! Fishing the late evening as it cools down is a decent choice with Caddis dries. Morning hatches consist of Sallies, PMD’s and Golden stones. We’ve been fishing mostly single dries up here as the dry fly fishing has been good enough not to have to toss on a dropper. Streamer fishing in the morning has been consistent and some nice fish are moving on them.
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Clark Fork River

The Clark Fork river has been fairly consistent early mornings and late evenings. There’s a mid day lull with the high sun and fishing slows down. Morning dry fly fishing with PMD’s and Golden stones will keep you in business, and Caddis and PED’s in the late evening. Dropper fishing has been consistent throughout the day. Late afternoon water temps are getting a little warm on the Clark Fork, so be quick on the landing and releasing of fish.
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Rock Creek

Rock Creek continues to fish great with cooler water than the bigger rivers. We’re still catching lots of fish on Golden Stones throughout the day and PMD and Yellow Sallies have been good as well. Streamer fishing is a great option this time of year on rock creek as well. Dropper fishing will keep you busy all day long but dry fly has been consistent enough to where you typically don’t need to go subsurface if you don’t want to.
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July Hatches

Click any photo below to find out more information on each individual hatch. Includes life cycle, best fly patterns, helpful tips and where to find these hatches in your Western Montana fly fishing adventure.

Missoula Fly Fishing Report

Missoula Fishing Report 7/2

Fly Fishing Report Brought To You By Our Missoula Fly Fishing Guides And Fly Shop Staff.

Enjoy and Good Luck!

Overview

Missoula rivers continue to drop and fishing good. The high sun during midday is making it a little tougher and it pays to fish mornings and evenings. Still a few salmonflies kicking around on a few streams, but the Golden Stones, Yellow Sallies and PMD’s will be your main focus with Green Drakes in the clouds.

Bitterroot River

The Bitterroot river had a recent event on the East Fork that made for murky conditions throughout the system from the confluence of the West and East fork on down. The river should be clearing up soon and coming back into play. The Golden Stones and PMD’s have been out in good numbers and dry fly fishing has been good. Focus on those two bugs in the sun and more Green Drake’s in the clouds. We’ve been mostly throwing single dries but have been fishing dries in the afternoon high sun lull. Streamer fishing has also been a good option.

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Blackfoot River

The Blackfoot river is a great option with the sunnier weather we’ve been seeing. Good numbers of Golden Stones, PMD’s, Green Drakes in the clouds and a few Salmonflies still around on the upper stretches , but not many. Dry fly fishing has been consistent in the morning and evenings. Midday has been a little slower and often takes a dropper to keep you in action. Streamer fishing has been great in the morning. Focus on dries or streamers in the morning and dry dropper rigs in during midday.
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Clark Fork River

The Clark Fork river has been fairly consistent as of late. Golden Stones, PMD’s, Yellow Sallies and Green drakes are all on the menu. The murky water that we talked about on the Bitterroot is causing some clarity issues on the Clark fork river below town. The PMD dry fly fishing has been great during the morning and switching to a Golden Stone/nymph dropper midday will keep you busy. Evening Caddis is starting to get good and streamer fishing in the morning has been productive.
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Rock Creek

Rock Creek is a great option and coming into good wading flows. Yelllow Sallies, Golden Stones and PMD’s are your best options and Green Drakes when the clouds roll in. Streamer fishing has been consistent. Fishing has been decent throughout the day like most of our tributaries. We’ve been throwing single dries mostly, but don’t hesitate to throw a nymph dropper on if fishing is slow.
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July Hatches

Click any photo below to find out more information on each individual hatch. Includes life cycle, best fly patterns, helpful tips and where to find these hatches in your Western Montana fly fishing adventure.

Missoula Fly Fishing Report

Missoula Fishing Report 6/20

Fly Fishing Report Brought To You By Our Missoula Fly Fishing Guides And Fly Shop Staff.

Enjoy and Good Luck!

Overview

Overall our rivers have been fishing decent for the most part. A few rainstorms passed and water fluctuated a bit and caused much of the Blackfoot to be unfishable for a few days here and there due to Monture creek pumping mud into the system. For the most part, fishing has been really good the last week or two. Salmon Flies, Golden Stones and Green Drakes have all been on the menu and should continue to produce for you for the next week or so at least.

Bitterroot River

The Bitterroot river is fishing decent, better on the upper stretches than the middle or lower but we are starting to see some good Green Drake and Golden Hatches throughout the system and Salmon Flies on the upper stretches. Have a handful of your favorite Green Drake patterns in the cloudy weather and some of your favorite Golden Stone patterns in the sunny weather. Nymphing has remained consistent and a great time to fish streamers on the Bitterroot. The Bitterroot river should improve over the next few weeks as we should start to see an increase in hatches throughout the system.

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Blackfoot River

The Blackfoot river is arguably your best option. The dry fly fishing has been really good over the last few weeks and should continue to see good dry fly action on Salmon, Goldens and Green Drakes for the following weeks. Monture creek has been pushing some mud into the system after heavy rain but the river has cleared up fairly quick after those rain events. Over the last couple weeks, only a couple days were unfishable below monture. Our days on the Blackfoot have been spent throwing Salmon dries in the sun and Green Drakes, nymphs or Streamers in the bad weather. Weather forecast is looking good and fishing should be great up here for the following weeks.
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Clark Fork River

The Clark Fork river is starting to come into play. From the top to the bottom, fishing is improving and hatches of Salmon Flies, Golden Stone, Green Drakes and few PMD’s are starting to show up. Clarity is still not great but starting to turn green and fish are beginning to eat the dry fly. Streamer fishing has also picked up on the Clark Fork and of course nymphing will keep you busy.
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Rock Creek

Rock Creek is of course the MVP for the month of June! Salmon Flies, Golden Stones and Green Drakes have been going strong and fishing has been great. Salmon Flies are starting to slow down and pushing to the upper reaches while the Golden Stones follow and the Green Drakes in the clouds have been producing well. Streamer fishing continues to be good with smaller streamers like Kreelex, Sculpzilla and single Dirty Hippie. Nymphing continues to be a numbers game. Expect More Golden Strones, Green Drakes and PMD’s in the coming weeks.
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Missoula June Summer Hatches

Click any photo below to find out more information on each individual hatch. Includes life cycle, best fly patterns, helpful tips and where to find these hatches in your Western Montana fly fishing adventure.

Missoula Fly Fishing Report

Missoula Fly Fishing Report 6/6

Fly Fishing Report Brought To You By Our Missoula Fly Fishing Guides And Fly Shop Staff.

Enjoy and Good Luck!

Overview

Our streams have been dropping steadily and clearing up. Fishing is really starting to pick up on the Blackfoot, Bitterroot, Rock Creek and the rest of our tributaries in western Montana. Salmon Flies have started to show up and we’ve had some good success on the big dry flies this week. The weather forecast is calling for warm weather which will help increase the amount of adult Salmon Flies hatching. If you want to fish the Salmon Fly hatch this year, your best bet will be the next few weeks.

Bitterroot River

The upper and middle Bitterroot river are fishing much better than the lower section. Water is still a bit high but running clear and fishing consistently. There’s still not a lot of bugs out on the middle and lower but nymphing and streamer fishing has been good. The upper sections are starting to see some Salmon Flies hatching and should just get better and better with the warmer weather on tap. Fishing bigger patterns like Super G, Henry’s Fork Salmon and Water Walkers are your best bet for dries on the upper section. Nymphing the middle and lower sections with bigger stonefly nymphs like TJ Hooker, Pat’s Rubber Leg, Double Bead Stone and trailing a smaller nymph behind will keep you busy. We’re expecting Golden Stones to start soon and that should help fishing improve on the whole river.

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Blackfoot River

The Blackfoot river has dropped a lot over the last few weeks and just like that, it’s fishing good! We have been on the upper and lower sections the last few days. Both have been fishing good but the lower is producing more fish on the Salmon dry, while the upper is more of a big nymph and streamer game. Streamer fishing has also been good on the lower but we’ve been throwing single Salmonfly dries and consistently catching fish on top. We’ve been fishing bigger Salmon flies and twitching here and there to get fish excited to eat. The Super G, Henry’s Fork Salmon, Double Stack and Fools Gold have been the most productive. Nymphing big Stonefly patterns on the inside seems has been great. Try nymphs like Tung Zirdle, Tung Found Your Bugger, TJ Hooker, Squatchy, Jig Pats, Yuk Bug and Bitch Creek. Lighter colored streamers like Tan Gonga, Kill Whitey, Dirty Hippie, Sparkle Minnows and Bangtails have been the most productive followed by most olive streamers.

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Clark Fork River

The Clark Fork river is still off color but slowly coming around. The Clark Fork is always the last to clear up this time of year, but with the rapidly dropping flows, it should start to fish well soon. We’ve had a few good reports in the upper sections while the lower is still a week or so away from producing good fishing. There are better options out there right now.

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Rock Creek

Rock Creek has really start to fish good over the last week. Adult Salmon Flies are on the lower and Middle sections with great dry fly fishing. Not a lot of big bugs on the upper yet but they move up that creek fast and we expect steady dry fly fishing river wide soon. If you’re after dry fly fishing, head to the lower half and grab a handful of big orange dries for good fishing. Patterns like the Super G, True, Double Stack and Water Walkers have produced the most fish. Nymphing bigger stonefly patterns like Double Bead Stone, Tungsten Pats, Squatchy and TJ Hookers will product numbers for you. Streamer fishing with smaller lighter colors has been great. The Salmon Fly hatch on Rock Creek will be gone before you know it, so get out there soon while they’re stilll out. Although the Goldens will follow shortly after, which can be just as good if not better than the Salmonfly hatch.
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Missoula June Summer Hatches

Click any photo below to find out more information on each individual hatch. Includes life cycle, best fly patterns, helpful tips and where to find these hatches in your Western Montana fly fishing adventure.

Missoula Fly Fishing Report

Missoula Fly Fishing Report 6/1

Fly Fishing Report Brought To You By Our Missoula Fly Fishing Guides And Fly Shop Staff.

Enjoy and Good Luck!

Overview

The general report on all the local rivers is they’re dropping, and dropping fairly hard right now. This is providing fishable water in the upper and middle stretches of the Blackfoot, Bitterroot, and Rock Creek, and the upper reaches of the Clark Fork as well as on the tributaries that opened last weekend. For simplicity, the further you get from Missoula, and the closer to the headwaters, the better the fishing will be. It’s almost all subsurface, and the fly has to be where the fish are. While the rivers are dropping, they’re nowhere near low, so where your fly is is a lot more important than what the fly is. Find the softer water, the places where trout can hold, and fish them carefully. You’ll have to search those places out, but the trout will be there. Some of the Missoula fly fishing guides are out fishing the mid to upper Bitterroot and Blackfoot with decent success.

If the rivers continue to drop at this rate, we may get an earlier Salmon Fly hatch than we’ve seen in the last couple of years. That will also translate into earlier Goldens as well. It will depend on water temp and flow, but with the trend right now, it might pay dividends to be ready earlier rather than later. We’re expecting fishing on the Blackfoot and Bitterroot to start producing good fishing in the next one to two.

Bitterroot River

The upper and middle Bitterroot river are fishable, with the visibility varying with the latest rain. Find the softer water, and get your flies deep for the best success. Don’t mess with dry/dropper, go indicator and a double nymph. Most anglers have been using a big point fly, like a Double Bead Stone, Jig Pat’s Rubberlegs or even a smaller Chicago Overcoat. As a dropper on the double nymph rig, an Hot Spot P-Tail Orange Jig, G Kes or Umpqua Jig Pheasant Tail.

The smaller fly has been doing the majority of the catching, while the larger fly gets the rig to the depth it needs to be. You can certainly run two smaller nymphs, but you’ll want some additional weight to get the flies to the zone.

The streamer fishing has been very good as well. Don’t be afraid to go big, and use a fly with a sizable head, like a Dungeon or a Boogie Man. A sinking Tip or a sinking leader will be very useful with those flies. If you’re using a floating line, lengthen your leader and work a Sculpzilla, Chicago Overcoat or a Kreelix to get the fly down quickly. Color hasn’t been critical, though darker flies have been working better. Again, it’s about where the fish are in the faster water. Make sure the fish has a chance to make a decision- find the softer water.

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Blackfoot River

The Blackfoot river is dropping very quickly, and there is visibility along the length, though the lower section hasn’t really rounded into shape as much as the upper. Give the lower section a day or so and it should be fishable subsurface. The middle and upper sections are fishing, though certainly not lights out. But Salmon Flies are coming and may be here before we expected if the future forecasts stay true.

It’s more important where your fly is in the water column than what your fly is. The double rig nymph with a large point fly and smaller dropper is working in the softer water along the bank and behind rocks and boulders. Think TJ Hooker or Double Bead Stone as point fly, with a Duracell Jig, Z-Stone Yellow Sally Jig or a simple Hare’s Ear Jig as a dropper. Some anglers have been running a double rig nymph with 2 larger bugs, both for the depth and working the Salmon Fly nymphs that are starting to move to the banks getting ready to hatch soon.

The steamer bite hasn’t really gotten started on the ‘Foot, but with the water dropping and clearing, we expect to see some good streamer fishing in the next couple of days. If you head to the Blackfoot, take your streamer rod and give it a run, but be ready to work the nymph if things are slow. Give it a bit of time, the bite is coming.


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Clark Fork River

If you plan to fish the Clark Fork river, you’re heading east as least as far as Drummond, and for better fishing keep driving till you find clearer water. Also note the Hog Hole and Pond Three opened on May 25, so if some still water angling for enormous fish is something of interest, drive all the way to Warm Springs with some scuds and balanced leeches. On the upper river, a double nymph game, with location being more important than pattern. Find the slower water, and get your flies there.

On the way upper sections, where the river gets small, the Euronymphers have been doing very well. They’re not wading, but are capable off getting to the holding water with the long rod. It might be worth the drive to find that water. Down lower, the double nymph with big and small gas been getting eats on both size nymphs.

The streamer fishing has been good enough to keep anglers satisfied, but it can and will get better. A Baby Gonga, Mini Dungeon or a Zoo Cougar on a sinking leader have been working in the darker colors. It’s not light’s out, but it’s worth tying a big fly on and ripping it through the holding water.

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Rock Creek

The top of Rock Creek has been fishing decently as the flows drop. The double nymph rig has been the most effective, with a heavy point fly like a Jig Girdle Bug, 20 Incher or a Black Double Bead Stone. Use a Hot Spot P-Tail Orange, Duracell or Black Blowtorch as the dropper. The bite has been about 50/50 up here between the big and little bug, so varying size is useful from both a fishing and a sinking standpoint. Salmon fly nymphs are starting to move and getting ready to hatch- the fish are recognizing bigger food forms.

Don’t miss the streamer opportunities either. Go a bit lower to the bigger water with a bit less visibility, and streamers are moving fish. Work the structure- fish are staying out of the faster currents. Bigger flies, to a point, are better. So is a bulky head, but make sure you can cast the fly on the line weight you’re using. Think of a Baby Gonga or a Mini-Dungeon- a good mix of size and bulk. A sinking tip or sinking leader will help in the deeper water, but much of the water is fishable with a long leader and front weighted fly, like a Sculpzilla or a Chicago Overcoat.
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Missoula June Summer Hatches

Click any photo below to find out more information on each individual hatch. Includes life cycle, best fly patterns, helpful tips and where to find these hatches in your Western Montana fly fishing adventure.

Missoula Fly Fishing Report

Missoula Fishing Report 5/9

Fly Fishing Report Brought To You By Our Missoula Fly Fishing Guides And Fly Shop Staff.

Enjoy and Good Luck!

Bitterroot River

The Bitterroot river is running high and off color with the warm weather we’ve been seeing lately. The upper stretches are your best bet but still not a great option. Side channels on the main stem can produce some fish during high off color water, but again, not a great option. Focus on inside seems and any kind of soft water along the edges. Nymphing and dead drifting streamers will be your best bet. At this rate it looks like early to mid June should be the start of decent fishing.

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Blackfoot River

The Blackfoot river much like the rest of our rivers is blown out and fishing is tough. Fishing slow inside seems and soft edges will produce some fish but keep your expectations low and be safe. Tributaries open on May 20th and those should offer some better conditions for fishing. At this rate we expect decent fishing to start early June on the Blackfoot. Get ready for an early Salmon Fly hatch this year.
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Clark Fork River

The Clark Fork river is off color and won’t be a good option for some time. With all of the main rivers dumping into the Clark Fork, it is always the first to get muddy and the last to clear up. The smaller tributaries will be much better options when the General fishing season starts on May 20th and all the smaller streams open. We’re expecting the Clark For to start fishing better around mid June. But that’s a guess and the weather will tell the true story.

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Rock Creek

Rock Creek is running high. If you are to pick one of our big streams to fish right now, this will be one of your best options as Rock Creek typically fishes better during high flows than the rest of our big streams. Still not a great option by any means, but you can get it done up here nymphing and streamer fishing. Focusing on inside seems, soft edges and side channels will be your best bet. We expect things to start turning around later this Month and into early June. For now, check out some of your favorite stilllwater fisheries or come into the shop and we can point you in the right directions to get on some fish until the rivers clear up.
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Spring Hatches

Click any photo below to find out more information on each individual hatch. Includes life cycle, best fly patterns, helpful tips and where to find these hatches in your Western Montana fly fishing adventure.