Montana Fly Fishing
Monday I was out with long-time angler, Mark, and his wife Maryke. Mark saw my posts about carp fishing last year and so we scheduled a dedicated carp day month in advance. Of course, it has been sunny and hot for weeks which is perfect carp weather. Until yesterday when there was a good amount of rain and cooler temps with clouds on tap for today.
Definitely not ideal carp conditions but we decided to give it a go. Due to the conditions, we picked a stretch of upper Missouri (not where we usually trout fish). I had my fingers crossed that we would find fish up eating on the surface in the foam holes and seams.
Due to the clouds, our visibility was next to nothing as we spooked several fish that we couldn’t see until they were under the boat. The river is lower this year too so there weren’t as many foam holes. At that point, we were just trying to get lucky when I finally spotted a couple of fish up eating on the surface.
Mark stuck a hopper right into the foam, gave it a few twitches, and we were all a little surprised when he came tight to a big carp on the dry. It was a huge relief to get that fish in the net as the conditions were stacked against us. That was pretty much it for fish on the surface, but we did find success on a shallow hopper/dropper rig.
Fishing likely seams worked the best and Mark picked up the next fish on the dropper while I was looking downstream. Right after lunch, we had a flurry of activity. Mark hooked a good fish in a foam bucket that made a long run upstream and then he came tight on a faster seam. I saw silver and while when the fish flipped its tail at the surface and knew it wasn’t a carp.
It was a huge rainbow that made a big cartwheeling jump in the middle of the river before we chased it down. There aren’t many trout in that section of Missouri, but there are some really big ones. With the warm water, I didn’t want to take time to measure the fish, but it was thick and I would guess it at 23″. Another 20 yards down the bank and Mark hooked a carp on the hopper that came unbuttoned, and a handful of casts later he pinned another carp on the dropper that he boated.
It was fast and furious for a while and then the action tapered off as the character of the river changes toward the bottom of the float. The sloughs I wanted to fish were too low to get into, but Mark managed to fool one more carp on the last bank of the day. It turned out to be much better fishing than any of us thought with several big carp and an impressive bonus rainbow.
The weather was gorgeous with no smoke and comfortable temps. It’s always a fun day with Mark and Maryke and I look forward to seeing them next month in Missoula.
Montana Fly Fishing
Tuesday I fished with local angler, Jeff, on a stretch of the middle Bitterroot. I haven’t seen much boat traffic on the middle river over the last 10 days and since Jeff was solo today I wanted to take a shot to see if we could find some unpressured fish.
We launched early and it was barely light enough to see. The run at the put in had fish of all sizes crashing on the surface in the pre-dawn.
Jeff had one good fish slash at his dry before he hooked a couple on the dropper and landed our first rainbow of the day. With that kind of surface activity I wanted to try a nocturnal stone dry and Jeff did pick up a cutthroat under an overhanging bush, but there wasn’t much else looking up so we went back to the dry/dropper.
That produced mostly smallish rainbows and cuttbows until we changed the dropper. Then Jeff connected with a solid fish that went zipping around the run. That was a nice 15″ bow. From there it was back to mostly smaller guys as I switched flies a few times. In a faster run Jeff hooked up on one of those smaller trout and then a big brown came jumping out of the water chasing it.
The brown connected with his target and for a while Jeff had both fish on the end of his line. It was a great visual, but eventually the brown peeled the smaller fish off the fly and swam off with his meal. I changed back to a bigger dropper just before lunch and Jeff stuck a bright 17″ rainbow and one other solid fish along a rip rap bank.
In the afternoon we decided to fish a single hopper to see if we could bring them up. That started off a little slow, but improved for the rest of the day. The smaller guys were willing to move for the fly, and in the right spots we had some quality trout come up and give us a shot.
They proved a little tough to hook although Jeff did connect with a pair of nice cuttbows before the float was over. It was a decent day of fishing. Plenty of action from the smaller trout and enough better ones to keep it interesting. The temps were perfect and not much traffic on the water.
Montana Fly Fishing
Thursday I was out with long-time angler, David, and his friend Jeff for a half day. Jeff had never fly fished before so we picked a short stretch of the upper Bitterroot hoping for some action.
I went over the basics with Jeff and then started him off on a single dry while I rigged David up with a dry/dropper. Both set ups were working.
Jeff was getting eats on his dry fly as he worked on hook-set technique and David was sticking them on the dropper. He picked up a couple smaller cutts early and then had a solid cutthroat eat his big dry in fast water. Things only got better from there for David as he had a stellar morning.
He tangled with a healthy 16″ brown trout and little while later he came tight to a hard fighting cuttbow that was close to 18″.
Then he stuck an even bigger rainbow that came unbuttoned when it jumped toward the boat. All the while Jeff kept improving his casting and presentation. He was getting some really good drifts and fooled a number of fish on the dry, but the hook set proved tough to master. Eventually Jeff got dialed in.
He boated his first cutthroat on the dry and then I switched him to a dry/dropper as well. He finished off the float with several trout on the dropper and each one was a little bigger. It was a beautiful morning on the Bitterroot with hardly anyone else around. David had banner fishing and Jeff continued to improve and fished well for his first day ever
Montana Fly Fishing
Friday I capped off the week with Carolyn and Stan Parker who own River Run Outfitters in Branson, Missouri. I have fished with Carolyn a couple times when she was out for the Orvis Rendezvous in the spring, but this was the first trip for Stan to Missoula. We had a half day this morning and headed for a stretch of the lower Clark Fork.
We started off with a hopper/dropper rig and Stan didn’t waste much time as he picked up a smaller cutt on the big dry and then stuck a nice fish on the dropper that came unbuttoned. Carolyn connected with a healthy cuttbow on the dropper in the next run below that.
The bright sun didn’t help our dry fly prospects as almost all of the action the rest of the day was on the dropper. Fast water was the key and Carolyn came tight on two nice fish in the next fast stretch and boated another quality cuttbow.
Below that, she had her ‘River Runs Through It’ moment as she hooked up on a hot brown trout at the top of a rapid and had to play the fish down through the fast water and big waves. Both Stan and Carolyn hooked up in the next piece of pocket water and then we finished off the day with a bright rainbow for Stan right at the boat ramp.
It wasn’t easy fishing today but we did manage to find some nice trout. Carolyn has always been fun to fish with, and I’m glad she convinced Stan to come see this part of Montana.
Montana Fly Fishing
Big changes on the way. Next week we have highs in the 60’s to 70’s and rain in the forecast. It looks as though we might be about done with the dog days of summer and moving toward a fall fishing pattern. Time will tell, but I have a feeling that the fishing is set to improve in the next week or so.
Book Your Next Fishing Trip Today! – Click Here
Check out our Fishing Packages – Click Here
Tight Lines,
Tony Reinhardt
Montana Trout Outfitters
406-544-3516
