Spring Fishing Season

The spring fishing season has finally arrived in Missoula!  Old Man Winter has relaxed his grip just enough to make fishing enjoyable again.  I am certain that we haven’t seen the end of winter yet, but we have strung together enough 40+ degree days to get things moving in the right direction.

The extra daylight and increasing water temperatures have spurred the mass migration of Skwala nymphs into the shallows.  The Bitterroot river is the focus of this early spring fishing season, but Rock Creek and the Clark Fork are coming to life as well.

Right now it is almost strictly a nymphing game on all of our rivers.  Two nymphs under an indicator in the slower, moderate depth water is the best tactic to find fish.  You may find the sporadic risers to midges on the Bitterroot or Clark Fork in the afternoons.  A small single dry can fool those picky eaters, but you are not going to cruise down the river with a big Skwala and crush them, at least not yet.

Another small storm is on tap for early in the weekend, but the forecast for next week is the kind that cabin fever sufferers dream about.  Temperatures in the 40’s and even low 50’s are on tap with partly cloudy skies.  Conditions can change quickly in the spring, and my guess is that next week will see the first solid dry fly fishing of the season with Skwalas.

It has been a long, cold winter in Missoula but there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.  The next two months will produce some of the best dry fly fishing of the season.  The boats have been cleaned, fly boxes organized, and we will be on the river daily starting next week.  The spring fishing season has begun!