Bitterroot River Fishing 2022
Tuesday I was out with local anglers, Marcelo and Constance, for a day on the Bitterroot near Hamilton. Marcelo was committed to the single dry while Constance started the day with a dry/dropper rig.
Constance hooked a spunky little rainbow on the dropper in the first run and then a few runs later she had a good rainbow blast her big dry. Her hot streak continued with a really nice brown on the dropper just downstream.
There wasn’t much dry fly action early as Marcelo only had a couple of looks from fish on different golden stones. He finally connected with a couple of trout at the head of a rifle on a PMD.
It wasn’t long after that when we stopped for lunch and hoped more bugs would come in the afternoon. I walked the boat down into a side channel to start the second half and Marcelo picked up 3 fish on PMDs in there. The main river was still a little spotty though.
The dropper fishing wasn’t really happening for Constance so we changed everything up. I put Marcelo on a big mayfly and Constance on a PMD spinner and then we started to move some fish. Marcelo connected with two nice fish back to back and then Constance pulled three out of a group of risers.
We stayed dry the rest of the way and had decent action throughout the afternoon. It was mostly 12-14″ trout looking up although Marcelo did land a few 15+” rainbows in the afternoon. We had to work for our chances today but we had some action throughout and had the Bitterroot to ourselves.
Bitterroot River Fishing 2022
Wednesday I took local anglers, Sheila and Jeff, way down on the lower Clark Fork. We started the day with dry/dropper rigs and it didn’t take long for Sheila to connect with a rainbow on the dropper.
The dropper fishing was steady for Sheila in the front, and while Jeff got a couple on the dropper early he was getting some looks on his big dry fly. After a few runs, we had the flies dialed in with both anglers throwing the same setup. Sheila continued to stick a bunch of fish on the dropper and Jeff had a combo of trout on the dropper and a few on the dry fly. It was a solid morning and as we pulled into lunch some solid cloud cover was developing overhead.
Right out of the gate in the afternoon Sheila and Jeff stuck 3 big fish on the dropper with a couple of dry flies eat too. At that point, we switched over to single dry flies because they brought their 4 weights and wanted to fish them. The dry fly action was very good.
The average size on top was a little smaller with most of the trout 12-14″ but we had banks that produced 5 or 6 fish each and a couple of doubles. Later in the afternoon the bugs thinned out and the pace of the fishing slowed some, but there were some bigger fish looking up and that made it worth sticking with the single dry.
The last fish of the day came up for Jeff’s golden just above the takeout. It was a great day on the lower Clark with action from start to finish. Sheila and Jeff landed a pile of fish from 12-15″ and we had a handful of hard fighting 16-18″ trout in the net too.
Bitterroot River Fishing 2022
Friday I was back out with Sheila and Jeff. Today we picked a float on the upper Bitterroot. It was another gorgeous weather day as both anglers started with dry/dropper rigs. It didn’t take long for Sheila as she connected with a pair of big rainbows in the first few runs on the dropper.
She added a couple of mid-sized fish after that and then Jeff got in on the action with a nice rainbow out of a fastback eddy. The dropper fishing was respectable in the morning but it wasn’t red hot so I switched Sheila to a golden dry around 11:00 to see what would happen. After 3 good eats on top, it was time to get Jeff switched over too and we went single-dry the rest of the way.
We didn’t see a lot of bugs today, but the trout were looking up in the right type of water. We had steady action from a lot of 12-15 Cutts and cute bows on top and a handful of bigger fish. Jeff picked up a fat 18″ cute bow on a small dry while Sheila had a few 17″ specimens before coming tight to a big brown tight to the bank.
It was one of the most uniquely colored browns I have seen and stretched to 20″ on the tape. Sheila and Jeff are a ton of fun to fish with and I was glad to share 2 great days on the river with them this week.
Bitterroot River Fishing 2022
River flows are still above average for this time of year. Lots of afternoon thunderstorms caused water clarity issues on the Blackfoot, but fortunately, the Bitterroot and Clark Fork are fishing well. The weather is forecast to start drying out so all 3 rivers should be in play for the rest of the summer. This looks to be the best water year we have had in a while and it should provide quality flows and fishing for the rest of the season!
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Tight Lines,
Tony Reinhardt
Montana Trout Outfitters
406-544-3516
