Missoula Fall Fishing
Monday was my last day with Dan and Skip for the Grizzly Ride this year. After such a good day with Dan in the canyon yesterday we decided to take Skip up there today. We started with hopper/dropper rigs and Skip came tight to a thick cutthroat in the second run of the day.
He added a couple more in the next runs before Dan joined in with a small brown trout. The morning fishing was probably as active or more today although the average size was a little less than yesterday. Lots of 10-13″ cutts and rainbows on the bite early. Dan changed that we he stuck a big fish behind a rock. It was interesting for a bit as Skip had a rainbow on too and we had to keep the lines from crossing.
It all worked out as Skip landed a decent bow and then Dan netted an impressive 18+” cutthroat. The guys had a couple other doubles in the morning before we stopped for lunch. With no bugs we stayed with the hopper/dropper for a while after lunch. Both Skip and Dan each landed a nice fish in the first few spots and then it was time to change to a single dry.
Skip fished a small blue wing while Dan had a hopper. The blue wing was hard to see but it was the ticket early as Skip fooled a few nice cutts on the small mayfly. Then the hopper started to get some attention for Dan and I changed Skip to a black ant. From there, both flies were working well. Skip hooked up on a fat 17″ cutt that just sipped his ant for his best trout of the day.
Otherwise we had good action from 12-15″ cutts and cuttbows that were more than willing to eat the dry in the afternoon. We capped off the trip as Skip hooked one more big cutthroat right at the take out bridge. It was another great day with Dan and Skip and I look forward to seeing them again next fall.
Missoula Fall Fishing
Tuesday I had local anglers, Nancy and Martha, on the Bitterroot. They were prepping for their annual One Fly event and wanted to test the section they drew for the competition. The upper river is low but we gave it a shot and did a fair amount of experimenting with different flies through the day.
The first fish in the boat turned out to be the biggest trout of the day as Martha fooled an 18.5″ cutthroat in slow deep water. Nancy added a decent cutt in the next run downstream before we started playing around with fly patterns. Martha had good action in the morning on her bug while we tried several different flies for Nancy in the back. We didn’t discover any secret weapons during the morning session, but did have a handful of decent trout to the boat.
Bright sun and no bugs hatching resulted in a small foam fly working best. Nancy switched up to that in the afternoon and started moving some fish. One of the best eats of the day was in a slow, foamy back eddy and at the very end of the drift Nancy had 2 big fish come up for the fly simultaneously and the bigger of the 2 got the bug.
In the late afternoon it was quite the adventure at Sleeping Child diversion dam as the water was so low that I had to literally walk the boat down the dam and work it through the big rocks. From there the river is pretty skinny and we pretty much pushed off. By the end of the day we had 6 fish that were 15″ or better a handful that were 12-14″ and some small guys.
The goal wasn’t to catch every fish in the river today, it was to learn what might be the best flies for the ladies to use in the One Fly. I wish the ladies the best of luck and hope that the Bitterroot bumps back up when the irrigators stop for the season.
Missoula Fall Fishing
Wednesday I fished with local angler, Marcelo. There is a middle section of the Blackfoot I really like in the fall, but it is low and technical so I need a single angler and today was the day to make it happen. We met later and started off with a single hopper dry. It didn’t get any attention in the first few spots and then I saw a nice fish rise.
Marcelo covered that fish a couple times with the hopper and nothing, so I switched to an October caddis and a nice 15″ rainbow ate the bug on the first drift. That was a good start and we picked up a few other smaller fish on the caddis but didn’t move anything else of size. A couple other fly changes in the morning yielded only a couple more small guys before we stopped for lunch. That’s when the wind really started to blow. In the afternoon there was still no interest in any of the dries we tried so we finally switched to a streamer.
Marcelo fished a couple different streamer patterns through some great water and only had one grab. With the wind still howling we went back to a single dry and it remained tough. Then Marcelo had a small fish charge out after the fly while he was mending and that gave him an idea. He started twitching the dry a fair bit.
Next spot another fish came up on the bug. In the following run it became obvious when Marcelo came tight on 3 consecutive fish that were over 15″. The twitch was key and the day suddenly turned from really tough to good fishing just like that. From there, the likely spots were producing quality trout on the dry. Then at the tail of a long slow run Marcelo hooked a bright rainbow behind a a big rock. He was playing it for a few seconds when there was a huge swirl on his fish. A big bull trout was on the hunt and it grabbed Marcelo’s rainbow.
It held onto it for a while before the bow briefly got loose. The bull trout was having none of it and aggressively hammered the rainbow head first. At that point I couldn’t see the rainbow anymore, but Marcelo was definitely connected to the bull trout. By that time we were in the slow, shallow tailout and fortunately the fish didn’t make any big runs.
Marcelo played him well and it wasn’t long before he had a giant bull trout in the net with his dry fly in the corner of it’s mouth. It was an impressive specimen at over 32″. We snapped a couple quick pics and watched as he swam away. That fish was a day maker right there, but we still had a few runs left and Marcelo kept twitching his dry fly and raising nice trout, including a fat 19″ cuttbow near the end of the day.
Just goes to show that you never know what the day will bring. It was tough fishing for most of the day and the wind in the afternoon was horrible. There were so many pine needles floating in the river that it was hard to get a good drift. We easily could have quit early, but Marcelo stuck with it and was rewarded with some awesome fishing.
Missoula Fall Fishing
Thursday I had long-time anglers Gregg and Steve on the Clark Fork for a day of pike fishing. We have dabbled with pike here and there over the years on the Bitterroot but the guys wanted to focus on them for a day and there is a long stretch of the Clark that is perfect for that. It was cool in the morning and the first 2 spots were a bust.
I spotted 2 smaller pike but we didn’t have any follows or bites. Things started to happen in the third spot as Steve had a follow from a nice fish that wouldn’t close the deal and then he hooked the first pike of the day. As I was releasing that one Greg came tight on a fish and we had back to back pike to the boat.
As we worked our way out of that spot Steve picked up another fish, and right after that Greg called for a strike and got tight to a pike too. That proved interesting as his fly rod came apart while he was fighting the fish. It all worked out as we got the rod back together and the fish in the net. The next run produced a couple of exciting follows from a pair of big pike but they just wouldn’t eat the fly. Gregg and Steve doubled in the next slough before we stopped for lunch.
We had good sun today, but the wind was an issue at time and made it tough to sight fish. In the afternoon we fished a few main river spots that were productive. There were some exciting visual eats and the main river fish seemed a little bigger today. The water is low enough that the fish can really spread out right now and I wish we had more time to explore some of that water.
We finished up the day in our last big slough. Steve boated one more and we had a few other grabs before it was time to fire up the motor and head to the ramp. It was a solid day of pike fishing with good action once it warmed up. We saw some big fish today although they weren’t too aggressive. Still the guys landed some nice ones and look forward to doing it more in the future.
Missoula Fall Fishing
Friday we had a big group trip out and I was paired up with Jim and Maria. I fished with Jim nearly 15 years ago and this was my first day with Maria. We decided to focus on action for day one and went to the lower Blackfoot. Maria had fished a couple times but was still dialing in her fishing skills.
We started the day with hopper/dropper rigs and the second run produced a brief hook-up for Maria on the dry, but it became clear that the fish weren’t very active early. We fished some good water with nice drifts and nothing. Fly changes didn’t help either until it finally warmed up enough and the trout started to move.
From there it was Maria’s morning as she connected with fish in most of the likely spots. The majority were small cutts and rainbows but it was crazy that Jim couldn’t buy a strike in the back of the boat. I had him on the same flies and a bunch of other bugs but it didn’t seem to matter as the front of the boat was scooping all the opportunities. Jim finally stuck a couple and boated one, but Maria was the star of the show in the morning.
Right after lunch brought the best fish of the day as Maria hooked up on a big jumping rainbow in a deep trough. She did a good job fighting that fish and eventually boated a 17.5″ rainbow, her biggest ever. Maria continued to find fish the rest of the day but Jim had to work for his chances.
I put him on a hopper for a while and he picked off a decent cutthroat on top and had a couple other eats but the fish just weren’t really looking up. Back on the dropper he managed to mine up a handful of other fish while Maria was bent in most of the runs. Lots of action for Maria today. Mostly smaller rainbows and cutts, with one big bow and a few fish in the 14″ range as well. The weather was beautiful and we had a great float on the Blackfoot.
Missoula Fall Fishing
Saturday I fished with long-time angler, Mark, and his wife, Maryke. It’s become an annual tradition to fish together every September. I was hoping to go up the Blackfoot today, but they were calling for 40-50 mph winds so we picked a stretch of the upper Clark Fork that looked to be the least windy.
It was calm when we started and right away Mark hooked up on a nice cuttbow above the boat ramp. He added a smaller bow to the net before we started moving downstream. We made a few fly changes to stay away from the whitefish and Mark connected with another nice jumping rainbow on a slow bank. A cutthroat fell for the dropper just downstream and we pulled into lunch with a handful of trout.
I switched droppers again for the afternoon and the first spot produced a decent brown trout. Then the wind really started to kick up. In a couple spots it was so bad that it was nearly impossible to fish a hopper/dropper rig. At that point I grabbed the streamer rod just to be able to cover the water.
The trout didn’t really seem to be in the mood to chase a big meal as Mark fished several runs without a grab or follow and then he briefly hooked a solid fish that came out from a big rootball. After a couple streamer changes and no more action we went back to the dropper rod as the wind laid down just enough. That was still tough fishing although Mark did hook two and landed another nice rainbow off a rock bank.
Toward the end of the day the wind was really whipping again so we finished off on the streamer and came tight on one last fish that moved out from some overhanging brush. Based on the weather forecast I think we dodged the worst of the wind, but the fishing was tough overall.
Not sure if it was the wind or weather change but we only had a couple fish look at the hopper today and there wasn’t really a pattern to the dropper fishing. We still had a good time on the river though. Maryke collected a bunch of rocks, took some great pictures and Mark was able to see a new stretch of the Clark Fork.
Missoula Fall Fishing
Sunday was the first of 3 days with returning angler, Rick and his wife, Erin. Erin had not float fished for 20 years so we decided to focus on some action to get back in the groove on the lower Blackfoot. We fished hopper/dropper rigs today and it was slow early like the other morning. Erin picked up a small bow early and a few whitefish while I tried to find a second dropper that would work for Rick.
Since the fish weren’t that active we stopped for lunch while the weather was still nice. That lasted for about half of lunch when the first of several rain showers for the day started. We finished up and waited out the rain before starting again. The fishing started to improve some in the afternoon.
Plenty of action from the whitefish for Erin with a few rainbows sprinkled in while Rick picked up the occasional bow out of the back of the boat and had a nice chase from a bull trout at one point. He fished a dropper his son tied for a while and hooked one on that before we made another fly change.
Some of our best fishing was late in the day. Rick connected with a hot rainbow that darted all over the place before we netted that 16″ fish. He added a couple on the dry as well and then Erin came tight on the fish of the day. It was a big cutthroat in deep water and she did a great job playing that fish.
After a battle she was all smiles with a fat 17″ cutthroat in the boat. It was a good first day. Erin fished very well, we put trout in the net and endured all types of different weather today. I look forward to exploring some of the other options around Missoula with this pair in the coming days.
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