Blackfoot River – Amazing Fishing

Monday was the first of 2 days with local anglers, Jeff and Jim.  The guys love the Blackfoot and dry fly fishing, so after seeing the report from last week they wanted to give it a shot today even though I thought maybe the best of the stonefly fishing was behind us on the Blackfoot.

The good news is we had the entire stretch to ourselves today and the weather in the morning was prefect with mild temps and partly cloudy skies.  The trout were grumpy early.

We had a few smaller fish slap at the fly as I made a few fly changes and Jim did connect with a smaller brown, but we only had one decent fish come take a look at the flies for most of the morning.

Then we downsized to an even smaller golden stone and the guys doubled up.  Jim had a small cutt while Jeff found a nice cutthroat on the dry.  While I was releasing those fish I thought I noticed another fish rise on the other side of the river.

We rowed over there and on his second cast Jim connected with a thick cutthroat on the dry.  He landed it while we were anchored and then threw a cast up above where that fish was and a solid cuttbow smashed his dry.

I thought the fishing was going to start rolling at that point as we had some great water coming up, but we had to work for them a little.  The guys poked a few more as a rain shower started on us.

When the rain stopped we took a quick break for lunch.  Immediately in the afternoon Jeff found a rainbow on the dry and then we had to wait out a thunderstorm with some small hail for 20 minutes.

Once it let up a little we started fishing again but there wasn’t a clear choice on the fly the fish wanted.  We had small guys come after everything.

Jim picked up a big cutthroat on a PMD dry, Jeff found a decent one on a green drake, but the mayflies never came off in numbers and it was a different golden stone that proved most consistent.

It was mostly smaller fish with the occasional decent trout in the mix.  We had one big brown take a swing at Jim’s fly but it didn’t stick.

Late in the day the PMDs finally came off but the trout didn’t seem to care.  I switched the guys up and Jeff fooled one little guy but we fished a couple long runs without any other looks and decided to call it a day.

The weather threw us a curveball today.  I wasn’t expecting the clouds and rain.  That put a damper on the stonefly activity and the clouds didn’t seem to motivate the fish.

We found a handful of quality trout and a bunch of smaller ones all on dry flies, and didn’t see another boat all day which was nice.

Blackfoot River – Amazing Fishing

Tuesday I was back out with Jim and Jeff, and I picked a long float on the lower Clark Fork.  There are still good flows down there and I had heard reports of PMD hatches and some rising fish.  It turned out to be less than expected.

It wasn’t that the fishing was slow because we had decent action through the day.  I was surprised that it was non-stop dinks almost the whole day.  6-10″ trout regardless of what we fished.  We started off with dry/dropper rigs and Jeff had a few strikes that he didn’t connect with early.

I changed Jim’s fly and he stuck two back to back and I realized  Jeff wasn’t hooking them on a bigger dropper because they were pretty small.  We kept at it all morning with different droppers but the result was the same, when we found fish they weren’t very big.

Right after lunch we doubled on another pair of dinks and then switched over to dry fly rods.  There wasn’t much hatching and the sun was out, but we needed a change.  Well, the little guys like the dries too, but the one bright spot was when Jim connected with a nice 15″ cuttbow.

Not long after that we went back to the dry/dropper rods for some faster water and we had a few good fish take a swing at the dry so we stopped and rigged up bigger golden stone dries.  There was a small window there where some better fish were eating and Jim tagged a few of those.

There were still plenty of dinks on the hunt too.  I kept switching flies all afternoon looking for something the adults wanted to eat.  We had a few other respectable trout take a swing at the dry, but it was a steady diet of dinks for the most part.

These are the kind of days that drive me crazy.  Afterward I’m always questioning if it was the flies we were fishing, the water, or just the day.

It’s pretty rare when you can only find small fish all day on any of our rivers this time of year.  Unfortunately for us, today was one of those days.

Blackfoot River – Amazing Fishing

Wednesday I fished with local angler Marcelo.  Bitterroot reports had been a little spotty last few days but we decided to give it a shot on the middle Bitterroot.  While we were gearing up at the put in there were a couple fish rising just above the boat and once Marcelo had a dry fly on he fooled both of those fish and stuck a decent rainbow.

It’s always fun to get one before you even pick up the anchor for the day.  The dry fly fishing was solid right out of the gate.  We fished a PMD pattern that Marcelo tied and the next slow bank produced a slow rise from a solid cuttbow.

A side channel just below that gave up a couple jumping rainbows.  It was a mix of rising fish and then others that we just brought up blind.  The best spot of the morning was a fast pinch with a bunch of boiling currents.

There were several rising fish in that run and the currents made it tough to get a good drift.  We sat on anchor and Marcelo picked off 6 nice cuttbows and rainbows on the dry.

That pace continued the rest of the morning with one more fat rainbow on the PMD before we pulled into the shade for lunch.  While we ate we watched a fish sporadically rise in the middle of the river, and after lunch it only took a couple casts for Marcelo to fool another cuttbow.

The PMD remained the best bug in the early afternoon, but we did throw a green drake cripple for a couple banks and had several fish absolutely hammer that fly.  We went back to the PMD after that and had an interesting 30 minutes or so.

The fish were still coming up for the bug, but Marcelo was missing him.  I thought he had too much line on the water or was late on the set for a few of them, but he poked a couple pretty well and they came unbuttoned after a head shake or two.

After the 8th or 9th fish he missed I asked him to check his hook, and sure enough the hook point had broken off and there was just the bend left.  We had a good laugh at that and then decided to try a small golden stone.

The trout were more than happy to oblige, and with a functional hook Marcelo was back to sticking some nice fish.  We found a couple mid-sized browns on the golden and then Marcelo stuck a big fish tight to the bank.

We knew right away it was a better class of fish and after a good fight he had a 20.5″ rainbow in the net.  Right after that we took a side channel and discovered a new tree had fallen across the channel.

Fortunately it was a fairly easy portage and on his next cast he stuck another big bow in the middle of a ton of downed tree limbs.  I told him not to give that fish an inch and he did a great job of muscling that fish through a pile of hazards and getting it into open water.

That turned out to be a bright 20″ rainbow.  From there it was smooth sailing and the fish were looking up in the likely spots.  Toward the end of the float Marcelo had caught enough fish and his wrist was sore enough that we called it a day and floated the last 1/2 mile to the takeout.

Blackfoot River – Amazing Fishing

Thursday I fished with long-time angler, Penny, and her friend Alex.  After the fishing yesterday we went right back to the middle Bitterroot.  We met a little earlier so we started off with dry/dropper rigs.

We had several strikes in the first run but just didn’t connect.  A couple spots down and Penny found a decent cuttbow on fast bank.  Then we slid into a little side channel and Penny came tight on a big, bright 20″ rainbow.

With that I switched Alex up to the same fly and we settle into a fast water, boulder run.  Alex immediately connected with a solid rainbow.  The ladies took turns in there and Penny made a few casts before she was bent on a nice fish.  We landed 4 in that spot before moving on.

After that we made the switch to the single dry fly rods and had some fish looking up in the next side channel.  Penny picked off a decent brown in a log jam back eddy and Alex tagged a nice rainbow at the bottom of that run.

Fish continued to look up until we pulled into some shade for lunch.  Our first spot of the afternoon was another side channel and while I was walking the boat down a tight spot in the river I noticed a fish rise in a jog jam right next to us.

I stopped to watch and there were three good fish all working nymphs and dries, but it was a really tough spot.  For starters, the boat was really close to these fish and I had to keep a hold of it so the boat wouldn’t make noise.

The other challenge was the casting angle and the number of big logs sticking out of the water.  It was a near impossible shot to make.  Penny made a few casts with the dry and no one was interested.

Then I rigged a short dry/dropper and that didn’t work either.  But the fish had not spooked yet and I asked Penny to take another shot with the dry fly.  On her next cast a big rainbow moved over and sucked the dry down.

I jumped in the boat and pushed out downstream of all the logs and Penny landed that fish.  It was awesome to sight fish them like that.  From there we stayed with the dry and continued to get eats in the likely places.

Alex had a big brown on briefly that charged upstream and broke her off.  She also tagged a couple nice fish that were sitting super tight to log jams in shallow water.

We had one double and a couple other near doubles and Alex capped us off with another hard fighting rainbow at a channel confluence.

It was steady action all day with quality fish from 12-20″ and a lot of 14-16″ cuttbows and rainbows.

Blackfoot River – Amazing Fishing

Friday was a unique opportunity for me.  Due to a series of events I was able to jump in the back seat of the boat and fish with Penny while we were guided by Jeff.  We floated a stretch of the middle Bitterroot and had a big weather change.

It was cool, cloudy, with the threat of rain so we dressed in layers.  Jeff started us out with dry/dropper rigs and I tagged a nice rainbow in the first run.  A decent cuttbow followed a couple spots later and then I found a rare brook trout at a creek mouth.

It was fair dropper fishing early and once Jeff switched Penny to the same fly she found a spunky rainbow.  With the clouds I was surprised we didn’t get a mayfly hatch, but we switched over to dries just to see if the fish were looking up.

Penny fished a golden stone while I tried a PMD pattern.  There were a few fish willing to go after that golden.  Penny missed a couple, but she connected with a few decent cuttbows and rainbows.

The PMD didn’t move much with only a couple small guys slapping at the fly so we decided to go back to the dry/dropper to finish off the day.  I hooked a heavy fish on the dropper in a good run and never got a good look at it.

It ran out midriver and then just came unbuttoned.  I stuck another rainbow after that and then Penny finished off the day with a quality rainbow in sight of the takeout.  Never know what to expect with big weather changes.

A lot of times clouds and cooler weather will really motivate the trout to feed, but today it was a little off.  We still put some nice ones in the net, had the river to ourselves, and got off a little early to avoid the worst of the rain.

Today was the first time in years that I have been able to fish in June.  It was fun to hold the fly rod and a little weird not to be saying “mend” all day.