Best Montana Fishing Guide

Best Montana Fishing Guide

Best Montana Fishing Guide – Monday was the first of 3 days on the Mo with long-time anglers, Jim and Randy. We fished the canyon under bright sun and nice temps today. The action was pretty solid from start to finish.

There were a lot of small to mid-sized rainbows and browns on the prowl today. There was no shortage of action, but with the bright sun we had to wade through a few of those smaller guys to find decent trout.

Randy did stick a stellar brown trout in the morning. It was a gorgeous specimen over 20″ and the biggest of the day. The good runs produced 4 or 5 hook ups each and we never knew if it would be a 10″ brown or 17″ rainbow.

Almost all of the action was on the deep nymph rig. We tried the short rig a few times but it only worked in one spot where we hooked 4 and landed 2. Jim was our second half player and had a strong afternoon with some great rainbows including a bright 18 fish just above mountain palace.

We finished up with a heartbreaker as Randy hooked up just above the ramp and the biggest rainbow of the day jumped. It was a hot fish and eventually broke off but at least she gave us a good look before leaving. It was a solid first day and should only get better with the cloud cover expected tomorrow.

Best Montana Fishing Guide

Tuesday I went up to Wolf Creek with Jim and Randy. It was cloudy with a cool north wind in the morning and the fishing was slow early. We had a couple whitefish and two small rainbows in the first several runs and I was a little concerned.

Then Randy connected with a nice jumping rainbow to get us going. The fishing improved from there as the bigger trout finally woke up. Jim went on a nice run with 3 or 4 rainbows in a row and then a double with Randy.

Then Randy picked up 3 massive rainbows in a row. To the point that his arm started cramping up from fighting big fish. We tucked out of the wind for lunch and the afternoon started fast as Jim picked up a big rainbow.

…and then Randy followed with a gorgeous brown trout. There were a few more bugs and we were able to fish a short nymph rig for most of the afternoon. There were some big ones that got away, but plenty of quality trout in the net today.

Best Montana Fishing Guide – Montana Trout Outfitters – Tony Reinhardt

Wednesday was my last day on the Mo for the spring so I took Randy and Jim up to the dam. We were the first boat in the water under bright sunny skies. I worked the first couple of runs each 2 or 3 times and we only had one brief hook-up.

The next spots weren’t much better until Randy finally connected with a nice rainbow. I hoped that would be the start of something but it really wasn’t. We had a couple break offs on big fish, but we floated under Wolf Creek with 4 trout in the net, and 3 of them were small guys.

It was tough, and I slowed down enough to let some other boats catch up and it didn’t look like anyone was really getting into them. We fished deep and heavy, short and light, and I changed up the bugs several times without much of a change.

When Randy finally connected with another decent fish it was time to break for lunch and hope the afternoon improved. The fishing in the afternoon improved some, but it was still spotty.

There was no pattern to what the fish were eating, and it was mostly smaller trout on the hunt. We didn’t see many of the big slab rainbows that the upper river is known for. Mostly 12-14″ silver bullets with a few that pushed 17″.

Jim tagged the best fish of the day near the end with a hard fighting 18″ rainbow. The guys had to work hard for their opportunities today. It was the toughest fishing I’ve had on the Mo this year, but Randy and Jim stayed positive all day and we did enjoy our time on the water. – Best Montana Fishing Guide

Best Montana Fishing Guide

Sunday was a blast from the past as I was on the water with an angler I haven’t fished with in a dozen years. Ron always hosts some big groups each June and this year he moved the trip over to MTO so I had Ron and local angler, Shane in my boat today.

The group split between the Blackfoot and Bitterroot, and with reports of some big fish on the Blackfoot we decided on the lower river today. It was flat out tough fishing today.

We started off nymphing and Shane connected with a cutthroat just a few runs downstream but that was little bit of false hope. By lunch Shane added a small rainbow and a 15″ bull trout to the tally while Ron had a couple whitefish.

The hardest part was the fact we had a bunch of bugs. In the afternoon there were salmonflies everywhere and I saw golden stones, green drakes, pmds, and caddis. Ron decided to fish a single dry but the the fish weren’t having it, and even the nymphing was terribly slow.

Shane managed another small bow and decent cutthroat with a couple other fish that got away. The fish we did catch were super fat and I’m guessing they had been gorging on salmon fly nymphs the past few days.

Bright sun and 95 degree heat didn’t help our cause either. We had fun, but the fishing was tough. Of all the boats in the group, one did decent on the Bitterroot and one on the upper Blackfoot while all the other boats had challenging fishing.

Hoping for cooler water and better fishing tomorrow.

Best Montana Fishing Guide

The rivers around Missoula are dropping and clearing. I am happy to be back home and look forward to some exciting fishing in western Montana the rest of June!

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Tight Lines,

Tony Reinhardt
Montana Trout Outfitters
406-544-3516