Missoula Fishing August 2026
Monday I was out with local angler, Martha, on the West Fork of the Bitterroot. Martha is a dry fly angler at heart so we met a little later to let things warm up. Even so, we started off the day with a dry/dropper rig and I was a little surprised when she had a couple fish come up for the dry on the first few casts.
Not long after that she connected with a little cutthroat on the dropper. The dropper wasn’t producing much so we switched to a different bug and that yielded one more fish but we were getting plenty of looks on the dry fly so we made the change to a single dry and didn’t look back.
It was mostly smaller fish in the early going but as things warmed up we started to move some better ones. Martha kept plenty busy with the dry fly and by late morning she started raising some quality fish. The best was a 16.5″ cutt that came up confidently for the dry.
It wasn’t long after that and we stopped for lunch because I expected the fishing to improve in the afternoon. For the second half we switched over to a smaller ant pattern. Fish were up on that bug immediately.
Again, there was plenty of action from the smaller trout, but the right kind of water produced good fish all afternoon. The bigger cutts were sitting super tight to structure or in the deeper, slower pools.
Some of those slower runs produced multiple eats from nice fish. In between those spots we had action from smaller and mid-sized fish that kept us on our toes.
By the end of the day Martha had boated 7 or 8 really nice cutts in the 17″ class and an absolute pile of cutts and browns from 6-14″ with one lone rainbow in the mix.
The weather was ideal, mostly clouds with temps in the 70’s to low 80’s and we didn’t see another boat all day. Any day on the water with Martha is a good day, but today was especially fun.
Missoula Fishing August 2026
Wednesday was the first of two days with local anglers, Jeff and Jim. These guys love the Blackfoot and fishing dry flies so we met early and headed up to the canyon section. I wasn’t expecting much early since it was still a little chilly and we didn’t move a fish in the first several runs.
Then there was some activity with some trout slapping at the fly and a little cutt that made it to the boat. A few runs later and Jim tagged a 12 inch cutt. Then it was back to little guys until we made it into the Munchmore hole.
There were a bunch of fish rising in the foam and I set up a short leash rig to go after them. The guys took turns and it didn’t take long to get hooked up in there. There were a few that came unbuttoned on us and one that ran across the pool and broke Jeff off, but we landed a handful of quality trout in there on tiny flies.
With that many fish rising in Munchmore I expected to find some fish looking up for tricos as we worked downstream toward the canyon but that was not the case. I had Jim on a trico and Jeff on a small ant and the ant proved to be the ticket.
I switched Jim over after a few fish and then both guys were into them. It was good action, but they were all small. All the rising fish I saw were small and all the fish up on our flies were small. I didn’t see any decent sized fish moving.
We fished a couple spots into the canyon and then pulled into the shade for lunch. I was hoping as it warmed up some better fish would start to eat. That didn’t really happen. We fished hoppers, ants, attractors, and even some dry/dropper stuff. Everything we fished worked.
But it all produced smaller fish. The highlight of the afternoon came on a slow bank at the bottom of the canyon when the only decent fish of the afternoon absolutely slammed Jim’s attractor dry.
He connected and put a nice 14-15″ cutthroat in the net. Otherwise we did not miss any good ones or even have any bigger ones come up an refuse the fly.
That was strange for the canyon stretch, but we did have an absolute pile of 6-10″ trout all over our flies for most of the day.
It was good action, the canyon is always a beautiful float, and there was very little traffic on the river today.
Missoula Fishing August 2026
It was great to get back on the Missoula area rivers and throw dry flies again. Fall is just around the corner, and with another cold front on the way our water temps should remain good and the fishing will continue to ramp up into September!
Tight Lines,
Tony Reinhardt
Montana Trout Outfitters
406-544-3516
Missoula Fishing August 2026
Thursday I headed to the upper Bitterroot with Jeff and Jim. We started off with dry/dropper rigs in the morning and Jeff briefly came tight to a fish in our second run. A couple spots after that and he connected with a solid fish.
After yesterday it was pretty awesome to see a 15″ cutthroat in the net. At that point I switched Jim over to the same bug and a few runs later and he was rewarded with a colored up 16″ cutt.
The dropper continued to produce for us for a while longer with a mix of smaller and decent trout. When that dried up we switched over to single dry flies. There were a few little ones slapping at the flies in the beginning, but then we hit a deep run near Darby and the guys doubled up.
We went back through there again and Jeff found another solid cutt on the big dry and Jim followed that up with a nice fish in the tailout. Just after that we found some shade for lunch. The afternoon started fast as the guys doubled again in the tailout of our first run with nice cutts.
The fishing continued at a steady pace the rest of the way. The trout weren’t looking up in all of the spots, but every 2 or 3 runs someone would stick a nice fish.
There were still plenty of little guys on the hunt, but there were enough bigger fish eating that it kept us on our toes.
The biggest fish of the day slammed Jim’s hopper. He stuck it and was tight for a while but then it just popped off for a reason we couldn’t figure out. That gave big fish honors to Jeff who fooled a 17″ cuttbow sitting tight to a log on an inside bend.
The guys finished strong as Jim tagged a decent fish 2 runs from the takeout and then we doubled up one more time on smaller cutts to finish off the day.
The Bitterroot provided solid action from start to finish today and it was nice to see some better trout in the net. We had two good weather days, very little other traffic, and plenty of trout eating dry flies. It was another fun trip with Jim and Jeff.