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 fly fishing has been hot over the last week, the skwala dry has been the name of the game, March browns and BWOs have been good in the cloudy weather. Anglers are having success with nymphs and streamers early morning, and then switching to the Skwala dry later in the morning and throughout the day. The river flow is on an upward trend, and with rain forecasted, we might see the bump in flows continue depending on how much moisture we receive over the next few days
Our favorite patterns are as follows:
Skwala – Gray/Olive Plan B, Water Walker, Rogue, Mill Creek and the True Skwala.
March Browns – Parachute Pheasant Tail, Brindlechute and the Carnage March Brown.
BWO – Tiltwing, Thorax, Parachute Hare’s Ear Olive and Film Critic.
Scroll to the bottom of this page for additional fly patterns and tips for each hatch
Blackfoot River
Fishing on the Blackfoot river is decent, particularly with streamers and nymphs, while the dry fly fishing is spotty at best. Effective strategies include fishing deep nymph rigs on inside seams and slowly retrieved streamers in deeper runs.
While the Blackfoot river may not be the best option for anglers at this point, the traffic is low and this is a great time of year to test out your streamer skills with some big fish being caught up here over the last few weeks.
Deep nymph rigs with stoneflies and worms are pretty hard to beat on the Blackfoot river now. For streamers, our favorites are the Double Fuego, Sparkle Minnow, Mongrel Meat and the Gonga.
Scroll to the bottom of this page for additional fly patterns and tips!
Clark Fork River
The Clark Fork river mirrors the Bitterroot in terms of hatches. The skwala’s have been out in the sun, while the BWO’s and March Brown dries have been good in the clouds.
Like the Bitterroot, the Clark Fork’s flows are creeping up as of this morning. The forecast is calling for a lot of moisture over the next 24 hours.
Our favorite patterns for the Skwala has been the Mill Creek Skwala, Gray/Olive Plan B and the True Skwala. The Parachute Pheasant Tail and Carnage March Brown has been our most effective March Brown Patterns. For BWO’s, try the Film Critit, Split Flag and the Thorax.
Scroll to the bottom of this page for additional fly patterns and tips!
Rock Creek
Rock Creek is in excellent fishing conditions. The Skwala adults have started to show up along with BWO’s and March Browns. The dry fly fishing in the morning has been a little slow, but by midday the dries have been effective. Nymphing and streamer fishing has been good in the morning while you wait for the dries to come into play.
Like the rest of the rivers, Rock creek is currently seeing a rising trend in water flows as of this morning and might continue its rise if the weather forecast holds true. Rock creek is one stream around missoula that still fishes decent in rising water.
Scroll to the bottom of this page for additional fly patterns and tips!
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.
