Trout Fishing Montana
Trout Fishing Montana – Tuesday I fished with local angler, Jim. Each year we try to connect for a day of streamer fishing on the Blackfoot in either May or June. The river conditions were ideal, but we did have to contend with bright sun all day.
Still, I’ll gamble on the Blackfoot any day in June and Jim got off to a fast start with a solid rainbow and nice brown trout early on. Then it got spotty. We switched up flies a bunch, picked up a couple mid-sized cutthroat and then for a while we had a bunch of smaller fish attacking our dropper fly.
The action was ok, but it didn’t seem like the big guys were on the hunt so we switched to a dry/dropper set up as there were salmonflies everywhere. I cycled through droppers without much luck and I was starting to think it would be one of those slow, sunny afternoons on the Blackfoot when a giant head came up for the dry fly.
Jim came tight and after a good fight he had a 21″ brown in the net on a dry. That fish came out of some shade and we spent the remainder of the day working all the shady spots hard.
Rock walls and back eddies were best as we had a good window of fishing in the afternoon.
Jim boated a couple other nice browns along with some fat cutthroat and rainbows. The streamer fishing didn’t pan out like I hoped, but we were able to capitalize on some dry fly action with big salmonflies.
Trout Fishing Montana
Thursday I had the long-time father/son duo of Marcelo and Nik. With the rivers dropping we decided to hit the upper end of Rock Creek before it gets too low. The guys love dry fly fishing and it was a single dry affair from start to finish.
We picked away at them early with a fish here and there including a big, colorful cutthroat for Marcelo. As the day progressed and we started to get bugs we would find pockets of activity and pick up 2 or 3 in one run and then go a couple spots without much.
We went through a bunch of different bugs, but it didn’t seem to matter, the fish that wanted to eat came up for just about anything we fished. Around Ghilles bridge the action picked up.
Nik scored on the biggest cutthroat of the day super tight to a bank. The best fishing of the day was the last hour with lots of bugs around and fish looking up in most of the likely spots.
Overall it was a solid day, but Marcelo and Nik have been fishing Rock Creek for many years and are fully aware of the potential Rock Creek has in June.
It was good fishing, but nowhere close to how good Rock Creek can be some days.
Trout Fishing Montana
Friday was the first of two days with Jim and Stan who have been coming to fish Missoula for nearly 20 years. It was another warm, sunny day as we launched on the middle Bitterroot.
The short version of events is the fishing was absolutely terrible. Jim stuck a decent rainbow on the dropper just below the ramp and then Stan connected with a nice brown a few runs below that and then we had a looooong dry spell.
Finally, Stan found a couple more in a side channel just before lunch. In the afternoon we threw everything at them but the kitchen sink. We nymphed, dry/dropper fished and I don’t know how many times I changed flies.
The end result was a couple more rainbows including a brightly colored 18″ bow for Jim. The whitefish were incredibly aggressive though.
The guys could hardly keep them off the line. They ate every fly we tried, but the trout were in hiding for the most part. I will be looking for redemption tomorrow, trout fishing in Montana.
Trout Fishing Montana
Saturday I took Jim and Stan to the upper Clark Fork on a stretch they have never floated. We just fished in spots early in the morning to make time and it was solid. Nice rainbows were eating both the big dry and dropper.
I was relieved to put some fish in the net today, and then once we got below the mouth of Rock Creek the fishing was just ridiculous. The guys picked multiple fish off of the first two banks and then we settled into a back eddy where we landed 10 including a couple doubles.
It was such a stunning change from yesterday, but every fishy looking piece of water was producing today. The dry/dropper rig was our mainstay with most of the fish coming on the dropper, but some of the bigger ones were eating the dry.
I even put Jim on a single dry for a little while and he whacked several on the surface. A bunch of doubles today and a good mix of rainbows, browns and cutts. Most of the trout were 13-16″ with a handful of bigger 17-18″ specimens.
Jim capped off the day with one final dry fly eating rainbow as we pulled into the take out. The guys caught an absolute pile of nice trout today and it was great to finish up the trip on a high note with them.
Trout Fishing Montana
Sunday was the first of two days with Bill and Joan, We have fished together for years, but last year was the first crack at Salmonflies on the Blackfoot and they were hooked. The weather I have been waiting for finally arrived with solid cloud cover and some rain in the morning.
We met a little later to avoid the rain and weekend boat traffic and launched on the Blackfoot with no one else around. The mission today was to push big single dry flies. The action in the morning was less than stellar.
Lots of good water and great drifts but we only had one decent cutthroat and a few smaller fish by lunch. The afternoon started slow too, to the point that I put droppers on for a couple runs just to make sure we weren’t missing a good nymph bite.
The droppers didn’t work, but then Bill had his dry fly hammered by a slab of a rainbow that put up an impressive fight. That was enough to go back to single dries and just downstream we saw a fish crush a natural and then it hammered Bill’s fly.
Back to back big rainbows was a great way to start the afternoon. The next hour and half was fast action for some big fish. Joan hooked a decent cutt that came unbuttoned and then on her next cast a huge brown smashed the big dry.
It was an exciting fight in fast water before it came to the net and Joan had a stunning 22″ brown on a dry. Below that we found another rising fish that turned out to be an 18″ bull trout that ate a salmon fly.
From there the fishing remained solid. It was a lot of mid-sized and smaller cutts and rainbows on the dry although we did stick one more big brown that got away on us. We finished up the day with Bill fishing a green drake and Joan on the salmon fly.
We had a flurry of activity in the last mile with a few other big, fat fish on dries before hitting the takeout. There’s nothing quite like fishing big size 4 dry flies in June! – Trout Fishing Montana.
Trout Fishing Montana
The rivers are dropping and clearing with new options coming on-line each day. We should see the dry fly bite pick up on the Bitterroot and the lower Clark Fork will be a good option too. We never know what will happen for sure in June, but there are always some of the very best days of the season this month. Book your trip!
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Tight Lines,
Tony Reinhardt
Montana Trout Outfitters
406-544-3516
