Montana Fishing Guide 2024
Tuesday was the first of 2 days with long time anglers, Bill and Joan. They have been coming the last several years in June to chase the salmonfly hatch, but we switched gears today. After a couple of cold, wet days and another cool, cloudy forecast for today I decided the lower Clark Fork would be our best option.
I started Joan with single dry fly and hedged my bets by putting a dry/dropper rig on Bill’s rod. In the first few minutes Joan had a fish eat her dry and she connected with a nice cuttbow at that bottom of that run. That was enough for me to switch Bill over to a single dry and we were off to the races from there.
This is one of the few occasions where I can’t give a blow by blow report because it was one of those magical days on the water where I honestly can’t remember all of the details. The morning was solid fishing with all of the spots that should have fish producing solid specimens. By lunch it was already a great day of fishing, and then it just went off the charts in the afternoon.
Bill and Joan had at least 10 doubles today and by 1:00-1:30 there were fish rising all over the river. One of the best doubles happened when the fishing really ramped up. Bill hooked up first in the front of the boat and then just as Joan’s fly started drifting into Bill’s fly line a big fish came up and ate her dry right off of Bill’s line. Joan’s fish was the best of the day at 21″ while Bill had a thick 18″ cuttbow.
It was sheer pandemonium in the afternoon with rising trout and bent rods everywhere. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, these giant green drakes started hatching. We had been fishing a size 10 mayfly all day, but we had to go even bigger to a size 8 to match the hatch! Nice fish starting crushing that huge fly and we couldn’t do anything but laugh.
Bill and Joan doubled one more time in the run above the takeout and then Joan tagged two more in our last run of the day. I don’t count fish so I couldn’t tell you for sure how many we caught, but I can tell you that it was one of the best days I’ve ever seen on the Clark Fork in 25+ years of guiding, and I’ve seen a lot of good days.
We landed an absolute pile of hard fighting 14-16″ rainbows, cuttbows, and cutthroat with a good number of fish in the 17-19″ range and one big 21 incher for Joan. That one is going to live in the memory bank for a while.
Montana Fishing Guide 2024
Wednesday I took Bill and Joan to the upper Blackfoot for our shot at Salmonflies. With the cold, wet weather the last few days I was expecting a slow morning and that is exactly what we had. No bugs around and a handful of dinks on dries with one decent cutthroat for Joan.
It was so slow that we even fished a dropper in a couple spots to no avail. We stopped for an early lunch to let it warm up some and that didn’t help much either. It was still small fish on dries and not many of those so I decided to push downstream to the confluence with the North Fork. Bill picked up a cutt in that spot and then the wind started to howl so we pushed further downstream toward the canyon to dodge the breeze. We finally started to see more bugs and the trout started to respond.
Joan got things going with 3 good cutts on a golden stone before I got the same bug on Bill’s rod and he connected too. Then we slid into a side channel and Bill stuck another cutthroat on the golden as we noticed a few other fish rising. It took a few fly changes to get dialed in, but green drakes started coming off and providing us with targets.
Bill picked up another one on a mayfly and then that same run produced a good double for Joan and Bill. We had a flurry of activity after that with 2 more doubles and some other solid singles. It was fun to watch those fish come up out of the trenches of the canyon to smash a big mayfly. Then the sun came back out and our action tapered off. I put Bill back on a golden stone and both he and Joan had a few more eats but I could tell that our window of opportunity was closing and we made our way to the take out. The salmonflies never materialized all day.
It was a tough morning and early afternoon, but when the bugs showed up we had some great action through the canyon. Bill and Joan are always fun to have in the boat and I’m glad we had two good days on the river this June.
Montana Fishing Guide 2024
Thursday I had local angler Paul out for a day on the upper West Fork fo the Bitterroot. We launched at the dam with no one around and started off with a single golden stone dry. The trout were not interested early on. I changed flies several times through the morning but we only had a handful of dinks willing to eat on top.
Finally, we started to move a couple decent trout so we decided to stop for lunch and let it warm up a little more and get some bugs on the water. There was a little bit of activity first thing in the afternoon and then a little lull again for 30 minutes or so. After that I started to see plenty of golden stones and yellow sallies around and those cutthroat started looking up.
From there we had really solid fishing for nice sized cutts in the 13-17″ range with one big, thick 18″ male. It was a lot of fun watching them come up in that crystal clear water for the dry. That window lasted until about 3:30 when it started to taper off again and the trout started getting smaller.
At that point we decided to pack it in and head for the take out. It was a gorgeous day up the West Fork with very little boat traffic. The morning was slow, but we had a nice window of opportunity in the afternoon and some great trout in the net.
Montana Fishing Guide 2024
Friday I had the chance to get on the water with my sister, DJ. I have been wanting to check out the middle Bitterroot and she had never floated it so we launched in the morning just north of Hamilton. We started fishing dry/dropper rigs and the whitefish were all over us in a couple of spots.
That proved good practice as DJ was ready when she came tight on a much harder fighting fish and put a bright 16″ rainbow in the net. The dropper produced a few more in the morning but I started seeing some fish rise here and there. We picked off a couple nice cutthroats with a PMD pattern and then fished a small golden stone for most of the afternoon.
It wasn’t red hot fishing, but the dry was moving quality trout in the right spots. We had a big brown that she hooked in skinny water. It gave us a couple awesome jumps before throwing the hook. The middle of the afternoon was the best with good action for rainbows and cutts in the 14-17″ range and a couple of mid-sized browns.
The wind picked up for the last hour which made it more challenging, but we still had 2 fish eat the dry in the last spot above the takeout. It was great getting on the water with my sister. She doesn’t get a chance to fly fish very often, but she is a fast study and did a terrific job today.
Montana Fishing Guide 2024
Sunday was the first day of group B with the Extravaganza. Boats went in every direction this morning as I was paired up with local anglers, Ron and Shane. We set off for the middle Bitterroot and had to adjust our float a little since it was a busy weekend. We started off by pulling into a big riffled shelf to look for risers.
I saw a good fish come up and put Ron to work with a PMD dry. He made a couple of casts and a solid 16″ cutt came up for his dry and the fight was on. He poked another one in that same spot and then we gave Shane a shot. There weren’t any other consistent risers so I put Shane on a dry dropper and he connected with a nice rainbow on the next inside.
The run below that produced a couple more for Shane on the dropper. Then it was time for the dry fly to shine. Ron had a nice hot streak after that with a few quality cuttbows and rainbows. The biggest was a 19-20″ cuttbow that we saw rise off a rootball. Ron fooled that fish on the first cast and had it nearly to the net before it came unbuttoned.
We found a big riser for Shane just downstream of that and the same thing happened. He hooked that fish and had it well under control when it just came off for some reason. Then we stopped for lunch in the shade and had a surprising guest. We went up on the bank to get in the shade and just as we started eating a bull moose came out at 40 yards and started eating willows.
That moose hung out with us all the way through lunch and couldn’t care less that we were there. Just as we finished up lunch the moose moved on as well. 25 years of guiding and I’ve never seen anything like that. The fish were still looking up in the early afternoon. Ron had a fish eat his dry and nearly jump in the boat after the hook set.
We picked up a couple more after that, but the dry fly action started to fade with the bright sun and heat. Eventually I switched Shane over to a dry/dropper rig to finish off the day. In the last mile he hooked two big fish that both came unbuttoned and picked up a smallish rainbow. It was a beautiful day on the Bitterroot. The morning provided the best fishing with most of it on dries and the guys took advantage of their opportunities in the afternoon.
Montana Fishing Guide 2024
Every stretch of every river is an option right now. That won’t last long as the rivers are dropping into summer flows fast. Golden stones, PMDs, yellow sallies, and green drakes are still on the menu. It’s hard to believe that we are already into the last week of June and I can’t wait to see what the rivers offer up.
Tight Lines,
Tony Reinhardt
Montana Trout Outfitters
406-544-3516
