Blackfoot River Fly Fishing
Thursday I was out with local angler, Jeff, who fished solo today. We met before dawn to head up to the canyon of the Blackfoot early. The dry/dropper fishing was nothing special in the first hour. Jeff had several smaller fish slapping at the big dry and tagged a cutthroat on the dropper.
He picked a couple more in Munchmore before we switched to a single dry. That took a while to get going as the bugs were delayed by the cooler temps this morning. For a while we switched between different dries and the dry/dropper rod and picked away at some smaller trout. Finally we had enough bugs to get the trout looking up, but it was a lot of small fish today.
All of the spots that have been producing nice 14-17″ cutts yielded tons of 6-12 inchers. There were a few decent trout in spots. Jeff picked up a couple respectable cutts at the mouth of the canyon, but we had some bad luck with most of the better fish coming unbuttoned before making it to the boat.
The best fish of the day was a riser that Jeff fooled with a good cast toward the bottom of the canyon. It was a big thick 18″ cutt that put up a good fight. We had a window from that point with some better fish through the end of the canyon and in cutthroat alley. After lunch we switched to a small black ant and Jeff found plenty of action.
It was just almost all from those smaller trout. There are definitely days with the big ones don’t want to play and today was an example of that. Action from small fish is better than no action at all, and Jeff and I enjoyed a summer day in the canyon.
Blackfoot River Fly Fishing
Monday I was back out with Bitterroot local, Herb. With the hot weather we decided the West Fork would be the best choice today. Much like the other day, the action was slow on dries early. It wasn’t completely dead though, and Herb had a few fish on top including a nice 16″ cutthroat before lunch.
It’s about that time when the cold West Fork finally warms up enough to get some trout looking up, and a small ant started producing right away. There were enough fish looking up for the ant to keep it interesting the rest of the afternoon.
There were plenty of little guys who would attack the fly right away, but some quality cutts and cuttbows rose for the dry too. It was a gorgeous day on the West Fork. Didn’t get too warm and there wasn’t much boat traffic either. Cruising downstream with Herb fishing a single dry is always a good time.
He landed a bunch of fish once things got going and a couple in the 17″ class as well. I’ll take that anytime in August.
Blackfoot River Fly Fishing
It was a very hot week around Missoula. Meeting early has been key and the Blackfoot is holding up well. Temps back in the 80’s starting Tuesday and that should help with the fishing.
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Tight Lines,
Tony Reinhardt
Montana Trout Outfitters
406-544-3516
