August Fly Fishing

Monday was another “dog day” with local angler, Herb. There are a few floats each year where Herb’s labs, Gracie and Molly, get to go for a boat ride. These are generally more casual fishing days and today was no exception.

We ventured up to the West Fork of the Bitterroot and Herb enjoyed his coffee, smoked a cigar, and let the dogs swim for the better part of the morning. The water is cold on the West Fork so we weren’t missing out on any great fishing early.

Once it started to warm up we started prospecting with a dry fly. I started Herb with a nocturnal stone pattern but the fish weren’t interested and it was hard to see so we changed to a pink hopper.

That solicited a couple slaps from small guys and a few looks so we tried a different hopper that yielded nothing at all. With some slower water coming up I tied on an ant pattern and the next bank yielded a colorful 15″ cutthroat and a second cutt on the dry.

It was good to see some signs of life and we pulled into the shade for lunch. The afternoon turned out to be better than I expected. The West Fork in the summer is often a lot of small trout, but Herb was moving good fish in most of the likely spots.

He had a decent number of 14-16″ cutts and cuttbows on the ant and several other fish in the 12-14″ range. The dogs are always more entertained when trout are coming to the net and they had a great time this afternoon with some solid dry fly fishing.

Molly and Gracie out swimming in the morning - August Fly Fishing — Molly and Gracie out swimming in the morning – August Fly Fishing

Herb hooked up to a good fish just before lunch - August Fly Fishing — Herb hooked up to a good fish just before lunch – August Fly Fishing

These two love their boat rides - August Fly Fishing — These two love their boat rides – August Fly Fishing

August Fly Fishing

Tuesday I was back on the water with Herb again. We left the dogs at home, and after yesterday’s fishing we went right back up to the same stretch of the West Fork. Herb started the float with his morning coffee and cigar, but it was warmer this morning so he first fly hit the water a little earlier.

The trout were not super active out of the gate and the first pattern only produced one in several runs. I switched to a different hopper and that fly started to get more looks.

It was a decent morning session with half a dozen or so trout on dries, the biggest maybe 14″ by the time we found some shade for lunch. For the afternoon I put the ant pattern on and trout were looking for it right out of the gate.

It was interesting today, Herb had more overall action but the fish averaged a little smaller. We only had one big fish come up for the dry, while most of the better fish were 12-14″ and there were plenty of smaller ones on the attack too.

We had some great visual eats on the dry and handful of trout that preferred both the hopper and the ant just after it sank on the drift. It was a good day of fishing with plenty of trout in the net and we had the boat on the trailer before the temps were too hot.

August Fly Fishing

Wednesday was the first of two days with local anglers, Jeff and Jim. After the last couple of days we went right back up the West Fork again. We started fishing dry/dropper from the launch and Jeff came tight on a heavy fish on his first or second cast.

It turned out to be a big 17″ male cuttbow on the dropper. Jim had a couple brief hook ups on some other droppers, but when Jeff connected on another big 16″ cutt I quickly changed Jim over and on our next pass in that run he tagged a big cutthroat too.

From there we had pretty good dropper fishing for most of the morning with a couple fish that even ate the big dry fly. When the dropper bite dried up we made the change to single dries. I put Jim on an ant pattern and Jeff on a hopper.

We fished 3 runs and each angler landed 2 fish before we stopped for an early lunch. We went with dries the rest of the day and had good activity. Jeff was up front in the afternoon with the ant while Jim was in back fishing a hopper.

The hopper received a little more action, but the ant produced bigger average fish. Jeff landed a couple more big 16+” cutts and toward the end of the float I had both guys on ant patterns. Jim found a couple of healthy, colorful cutts as we finished the day with a flurry of activity. The guys had 3 or 4 doubles and good action from start to finish today.

August Fly Fishing

Thursday was day two with Jim and Jeff, and we met super early for a day on the canyon of the Blackfoot. We started off with dry/dropper rigs and it was a little slow out of the gate. It took a couple of runs before Jeff connected with the first fish, a small bow.

Then Jim briefly hooked up in the next run. Munchmore produced a nice, big cutthroat for Jeff and then a mid sized cutty too. He certainly had the hot hand early as he continued to pick off trout behind Jim. But Jim made it count when he did come tight on his first fish. It was a big 17″ cutthroat that came out of a small bucket.

Once he got the skunk off he went on a roll with several fish in a row. The dropper bite continued to pick up as the morning progressed, and the beginning of the canyon produced some of our best action with a couple of doubles and decent fish in every run.

Jim picked off the last dropper fish in the final fast run of the canyon and then we switched over to single dries. He followed that up with a big cuttbow on an ant that bent his hook out on a hard run when it saw the boat. Just after that we stopped for lunch.

We started the afternoon with a couple of ants in cutthroat alley. The trout were not impressed on our first pass so I changed to flies to a couple different ant patterns and Jeff was tight to a fish in short order. Jim picked one up in the tailout and that trend continued.

The guys pounded 10-13″ cutts and cuttbows on ants in the next several runs. That has been the story on these hot days. Plenty of dry fly action after lunch, but the average size is a little smaller.

Although today Jeff picked up a nice 15″ red hot rainbow not far below cutthroat alley and then he finished the float with a 15″ cutt in our last run that shot upstream, got tangled in the anchor and we still somehow managed to land it.

It was a solid summer day on the Blackfoot and I had a bunch of fun with Jeff and Jim the past two days.

August Fly Fishing

We are certainly glad to see the triple digit temps from last week in the rearview mirror. A cold front has made it’s way to western Montana and we have temps in the low 80’s and a good chance of rain the next few days. This is just what we need to turn the corner on summer and prepare for some classic fall fishing.