Brought To You By The Beef Stick Eating Brown Trout
Well it’s official, the first Skwala sighting appears and we can’t stay off the water now. To early? Yes. Good Fishing? No. Good beer and Company? You Know it.
Every year it happens to our crew, we start fishing hard in February with streamers and nymphs and by the time we see the first Skwala in March, we prematurely throw a single dry on. There’s always a few of us that go dry or die way to early. If you put a dry on your nymph rig, it might make you feel better but we all know that dropper is going to catch the majority of the fish and the dry will lull you to sleep just to be woken up by one big rainbow smashing the dry which you miss. Yes, a few fish will come up and smash the big bug but this is our way of pretending not to nymph.
What ever floats your boat right? Or in this scenario, what ever floats your nymph.
Many of you have been pretty excited coming into our Missoula fly shop after hearing that Skwala’s started too hatch. We’re excited too but I hate to tell you that the weather forecast doesn’t look pretty for Skwala adults. This upcoming weekend weather is looking a little chilly for the big bugs and even a few nights of single digits. So turn that energy into streamers, nymphs and your tying bench for the time being.
This time of year is when Missoula fly fishing guides start scouting the river for new changes in the streams from last fall, make sure their boat and gear is in working order, and buy a new cooler because the lunch from the last trip hasn’t been cleaned out since October.
Missoula Fly Shops are constantly getting shipments of flies in and stocking up for the anticipation for a good Skwala hatch. But after a lousy spring fishing season in Misssoula last year, there’s a lot less stocking to do this year.
For us at the Missoulian Angler Fly Shop, we’ve been dedicating a lot of our time in preparing for our first annual Skwala Fest. We’ve been constantly getting shipments in of donations from our vendors in the form of product to raffle off. At this point we are pretty sure we’ve annoyed just about everyone of our facebook followers with constant shout outs for the Skwala Fest. Don’t worry though, we are less then a month away from the event and then we’ll give you a rest until the second annual event.
March fly fishing in Missoula can be hit and miss with the weather and often fluctuating water but it is one of our favorite times of year on the river and in the shop. On the river big fish chase streamers and more often then not you will find yourself on a stretch of water all to yourself with some of your best friends. Being the largest fly selection and fly tying selection in Western Montana, most Missoula fly fishing guides shop at our fly shop and they are some of our favorite people. They’re patient demeanor means they can deal with Georges rants and bubbly attitude, they are excited for the upcoming season and they get just as excited about our new patterns for the season as us. Missoula fly shops get a little lonely in the winter and seeing familiar faces like the guides who often stop in the shop every day from June until October brings the life back into our shop.