Pike Fishing Missoula
Monday I was out with local angler Jim in pursuit of pike. We try to chase pike together at least once each year and with a sunny, hot forecast it seemed like the right day to give it a shot. We launched on the lower Bitterroot and started poking around in the sloughs and slow water.
We found some fish but they were not very interested in our flies. By the time we had lunch Jim had two pike try to eat the fly but the hook didn’t stick. That was well below average and we didn’t have a single fish follow the fly which is very unusual too.
Not long after lunch we had an exciting encounter with a black bear sow and her two cubs. As we floated down I could hear a bunch of branches snapping and looked up to see a tree shaking violently. It was the sow and her two cubs climbing all over the tree.
At first I thought they were trying to get away from something like another bear, but I think mama was just showing the cubs how to get around in the trees. Then they came down to the river for a quick dip before climbing some more trees. That was the highlight of the day for sure.
Jim kept fishing hard and he finally came tight on a smaller pike to get the skunk off the boat. That left us with the last spot of the day which is normally a good one. Jim had several follows in that spot but no eats until we switched to a much smaller fly.
First cast with the new fly produced a nice mid sized pike that ate the fly aggressively. We made another pass through that spot with the new fly but I think the pike were onto us at that point.
With the heat building we called it a day. It was some of the toughest pike fishing I have had, but we had the river to ourselves, saw the bears, and put a couple in the net.
Pike Fishing Missoula
Tuesday I had local anglers, Cindi and Sandra, for our first float of the season. With the hot and sunny weather we decided to just do a half day but Cindi still insisted on bringing an awesome lunch for us. We launched on the middle Bitterroot and started off fishing PMD dries.
There were a few fish looking up right away. Sandra tagged a feisty cuttbow on the edge of an eddy and then fooled a hot 16″ rainbow in slow water that put up a good fight. Sandra continued to pick off small to mid-sized cutts and cuttbows in the likely water and Cindi connected with a small bow in a riffle.
Right before lunch we had a run with several nice fish eating the dry, but the hook just didn’t stick. For the afternoon we switched to small golden stone patterns. The fishing definitely tightened up some and we didn’t get as many chances.
The highlight of the afternoon was an extremely close encounter with a cow moose. Cindi spotted it laying down at the edge of the river and we were in an extremely shallow side channel and floated 40 feet away from it. I’m glad she decided to stay put because she could have easily charged the boat in that skinny water.
Then Sandra found a couple more smaller ones and one solid cutthroat that ate a yellow sally. There were a couple more eats coming down the home stretch before we loaded the boat as the heat of the day set in. We caught up with some great stories, enjoyed the weather, and found a few fish to play with on dries.
Pike Fishing Missoula
Wednesday was another pike fishing day. I had Mark and Maryke for our annual pike fishing float. We launched early on the Clark Fork and motored downriver as ominous clouds hung over the Bitterroots.
The cloud cover made the pike a little harder to see, but they were eating the fly really well in the morning. The first spot produced the smallest pike of the day and a follow from a good sized fish. The next slough yielded 3 hook ups and 2 mid-sized pike in the net along with a number of follows.
The water level is surprising low for this time of year so we had to fish some different spots, but the next one gave up another 3 pike for Mark. We saw some big ones, but they would only follow. The mid-sized pike were more than happy to play and Mark’s rod was bent on a regular basis.
Then the sun came out so we could see a little better and Mark tagged another fish in our next spot. The last one before lunch is a normally good slough, but we didn’t see spook a fish, get a follow, or see anything in that spot. We drifted as we ate lunch and I could feel it warming up in the sun.
The afternoon was a little more spotty. A couple spots were empty, then I rowed way up a side channel to get into the mouth of slough and Mark came tight on a decent pike in that spot. One of the best spots in the afternoon was occupied with a boat throwing spinning rods so we finished up in some water that I don’t normally fish.
The first soft spot was blank and then we moved down into the bottom of a side channel. Mark was at the end of his retrieve and ready to make another cast with a pike appeared out of nowhere and devoured the fly. He stuck that one and we finished up with one more in the net.
We never could get any of the big fish to eat, but the mid-sized pike put up a good fight and they gave us plenty of action today.
Pike Fishing Missoula
Thursday I was back on the water with local angler, Jim, with a group of his family and friends for the holiday. We split up with two boats on each stretch and I headed to the upper Bitterroot with Jim and friend Todd.
Today was Todd’s first time fly fishing in over 10 years so we did a quick refresher after getting the boats in the water and then started off with single dry flies. The first few runs didn’t produce much so I changed out Jim’s fly and he picked up a nice cutthroat in a back eddy and Todd had his first strike of the day.
Jim fooled a couple more as we moved downstream and his fly was getting enough attention that I switched Todd over to the same bug. It wasn’t lights out fishing by any stretch but Jim was bending the rod on a fish here and there and Todd was getting some action and working on his hook set and line management.
We opted for an early lunch to see if we could get some more bugs moving in the afternoon. Not much of an improvement first thing in the afternoon. I tried a few different small Goldens and we had a fair amount of boat traffic to contend with too.
I went even smaller on the fly with a yellow sally pattern, we cleared most of the traffic, and the fishing picked up for the second half of the afternoon. Jim picked up a big 18″ cuttbow in fast water and started to raise at least one nice fish in most of the spots.
Todd put it all together too with several nice cutts in the afternoon. We even had a nice double on dries. The bright sun and warm temps didn’t help us, but the guys stuck with it and found some good fish. Kudos to Jim for getting everyone out on the river to kick off the holiday weekend.
Pike Fishing Missoula
Sunday I fished with Colton and his dad, Pat. Colton went to school with my son, Thomas, and I took the boys fishing a few times over the years as they were growing up. Colton graduated from the U of Montana this year and his graduation present was a day of guided fly fishing with his dad.
When I asked where he wanted to go, he didn’t hesitate. Landed of the Giants on the Missouri was his answer. We loaded up early and made the drive over the hill to chase some big rainbows. We started on the middle river and I couldn’t help but laugh on our first drift when Pat hooked up to one of the smaller rainbows I’ve seen at LOG. It was all of 9″ but full of fight.
After that we went up the scale quite a bit with a couple of big rainbows for Pat and a good one that got away on Colton. The middle river was steady action with 2-3 hook ups per pass and some hard fighting rainbows that were bending hooks and breaking us off.
After several runs in there with some quality fish in the net we went up high so the guys could see the whole river. There was only one other boat up there so I questioned how good it might be, but it was lights out on the upper river with some big fish eating.
We made the first few passes with smaller mayfly and caddis nymphs with several hook ups on each run. Then we took a break for lunch and I rigged up some bigger flies for the fast boulder water and that produced well too.
Pat had a great time up there with big rainbows on every drift. Colton was hooking plenty of fish, but he had some tough luck with fish shaking their heads and running under rocks on him. After a few runs in the fast water we started to work our way back downstream and hooked fish in every spot on our way back to the mid river.
We had several double hook ups at that point but had yet to land them both until the guys doubled up again and put a pair of hefty rainbows in the net.
After that we made one more drift and Pat connected at the top of that run with a hot fish and Colton landed one more slab at the bottom to finish the day. It was a great day on the water with fish in the net from start to finish.
