Mid-July Missoula Fishing
Monday was the first day this week with regular angler, Chris and his family and friends. We had 2 boats today. Friends Junior and Patsy were with guide, Logan, while I fished with Chris and his son, Sean.
We launched early on the Blackfoot and hoped to pull off a day of dry fly fishing. Chris picked up a couple of smaller fish early on a big dry and then Sean started to fool them on a smaller mayfly.
Our best spot in the morning was while we were anchored. Chris picked up two solid cutthroat almost right behind the boat while Sean boated a pair in the currents below a rock garden. We switched bugs often in the morning and had decent action.
It was mostly smaller fish looking up with a few better ones mixed in. After lunch it was more of the same as the bigger fish just didn’t want to rise. Finally I set Sean up with a dropper and he immediately hooked 3 or 4 fish in a nice run.
When he hooked 3 more in the next spot Chris finally relented and went to a dropper too. The rest of the float was fast action.
Chris scored on a big 20″ rainbow in fast pocket water and Sean had a fish nearly that big that eventually popped off in the rocks.
The guys doubled up a few times and we boated a bunch of quality 14-17″ rainbows and cutts on the dropper.
The dry fly fishing wasn’t what we hoped it would be, but the dropper action was very good.
Mid-July Missoula Fishing
Tuesday I was fortunate to hook up with Jim and Jane. Jim had already been out a few times this year, but it was the first float for Jane around Missoula of the season.
They were fresh off an overnight adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon so it made sense to give the upper Bitterroot a shot. Jane started off with a single dry while Jim had a dry/dropper rig in the back.
The dropper was best early with some smaller cutts and one quality specimen in the net. Then Jane came tight on the dry fly and landed her first fish of the day.
We had lots of PMD spinners on the river but I tried a few times to get them to eat some different mayfly patterns, and other than the little guys the fish just weren’t interested. Smaller golden stones and nocturnal stone patterns seemed to do best.
Just above Darby, Jane connected on a nice brown trout on the big dry. There were some other hard fighting 14-15″ cutts too, but the average fish was a little smaller today.
Jane stayed with the single dry all day while I switched Jim back and forth between a straight dry and dry/dropper rig.
The dropper helped to yield a few extra fish for the back of the boat.
The fishing was a little off for the upper Bitterroot, but we still had decent action and enjoyed the day on the river.
Mid-July Missoula Fishing
Wednesday I was back out with Chris’ crew for an early morning trip to the canyon of the Blackfoot. Kathy joined Chris in the back of my boat to help keep an eye on him while Junior was fishing solo with guide, Scott.
We started dry/dropper this morning and Chris boated a cutthroat in the first run of the day. That was a sign of things to come as just about every run held a decent cutthroat for Chris on the dropper.
A couple fish even ate the big dry early, but the dropper was most consistent. Just before and just after lunch we did some single dry fly fishing with good results. Fish were looking for a medium sized stonefly and Chris landed several on the dry.
Once the sun got higher that action dried up and we went back to the dropper. The dropper convinced a few other fish to play on our way to the take out before the heat set in. It was a gorgeous day in the canyon without much boat traffic.
The fishing was consistent and everyone had a stellar time on the water.
Mid-July Georgetown Lake Fishing
Thursday I fished with local angler, Bob. I had heard the damselfly hatch on Georgetown lake had been good and Bob jumped at the chance to head up there for the day. We were on the water early and there wasn’t much bug activity.
When a stripped damsel nymph didn’t produce we switched over to a small dry/dropper rig and casted toward the few rising fish we could find. The dropper worked as Bob hooked up on a big fish to start the day.
That fish came off before hitting the net, but we found a couple more volunteers in short order. When that spot dried up we ran around the corner to work a long shoreline.
Bob stuck a hot 16″ bow right away and we managed to fool a handful of others before we stopped for lunch. By then there were damsels in the air so we went back to where we started for the afternoon.
It was a lot of fun to watch trout come completely out of the water to try and grab damsels in the air. We switched to a single damsel dry fly and spent the rest of the day casting at rising fish.
In the lake the trout move around quite a bit so areas with 3 or 4 rising fish were best. We had all kinds of eats on the damsel, from delicate sips to fish that absolutely pounded the dry. The best was a big 18″ female.
Eventually, the action faded and it was time to hit the boat ramp. It’s always fun to mix in a little lake fishing, and it didn’t hurt that the high temp was only in the mid 80’s on Georgetown.
Mid-July Missoula Fishing
Friday was my last day this week with Chris, and today we were joined again by his son, Sean. We decided to take a shot at a trout/pike combo day on the lower Bitterroot.
We started with dry/dropper rigs and Sean was immediately drilled on the dry by a decent brown trout. Chris picked up a rainbow on the dry in the first run too to get us off to a good start.
I had to switch droppers a couple of times to find what they wanted, but eventually, Sean connected on a couple of other nice rainbows. Then he had a big 19″ cuttbow just sip his big dry in calm water.
That was a great sight to see. I kept hoping we would get a hatch, but the bugs never materialized so it was dry/dropper fishing all day. Sean had the hot hand as he stuck quality fish in many of the good runs.
Chris found some smaller fish and we were all surprised when he came tight in slow water and a big 18″ bow nearly jumped into the boat after the hook set. The pike fishing was marginal.
We didn’t have very good light to sight fish them, but Sean managed to hook up with a decent one that threw the fly after a few head shakes, and then he had another nice fish follow the fly all the way to the boat.
After that, we ended up in a channel with a big tree all the way across it. After some deliberation, we decided the quickest thing to do would be to portage the boat over a gravel bar. It wasn’t fun, but everyone pitched in and it was done and over with quickly.
For their efforts, both Sean and Chris were rewarded with big rainbows in the last mile of river. We didn’t boat a ton of fish today, but the trout we did find were mostly quality specimens as the guys landed 5 that were 18″ or better and others in the 14-16″ range.
It’s always fun fishing with this family and I look forward to their next trip.
Mid-July Missoula Fishing
It was another hot week in Montana with some hazy/smoky days. It looks like a little relief on the horizon with temps in the 80’s to low 90’s and a chance of rain early in the week. We are starting to see more hoppers on the banks and the spruce moth hatch could get going any day at this point. We look forward to getting back on the water again next week!
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Tight Lines,
Tony Reinhardt
Montana Trout Outfitters
406-544-3516
