Bitterroot River Fly Fishing (sort of)

Bitterroot River today!

The Bitterroot River fished fairly well today. The dry fly fishing was non-existent and we had to get  a little dirty to get 'em.  So it goes...
   Bug life was surprisingly abundant, with capnia, midges and even a traveling sedge making an appearance. Our best fly was three feet below all of these insects. You gotta do what you gotta do, right?  I would say that any sort of real dry fly fishing is about 10 days out. I would be very skeptical of any stories to the contrary.
   After catching 10,000 whitefish, we managed to dig out at least a half dozen nice trout. It may have been more. It's hard to tell when you are nearly hypothermic, but really the point is that we went fishing.

 
   The weather is supposed very mild this weekend with temps in the low 60's on saturday. With weather like that the adult skwalas will be out very soon.    Predator  


www.flyfishmissoula.com

Montana Fly Fishing - Filming with Joe Rossi and Jana Waller

Filming and episode of Joe's Wildside Adventures in western Montana

The fly fishing was awesome and we really had a ball with Joe.  Our thanks to Jana Waller and Jim Kinsey from SkullboundTV. You can find Wildside Adventures and Skullbound on the Sportsman's Channel.    Enjoy!       Oh yeah, we're gonna hit the Bitterroot on wednesday. Stay tuned fer da report.  

 

www.flyfishmissoula.com

Montana Fly FIshing in February. #8 Dries!!! 2/20

 The Missouri River was great again from the dam down to Craig, Montana.   Even I managed to get a day on the water with one of our guides and the fishing was epic.  Taking turns on the oars, we landed about three dozen trout in the 6 hours that we fish.  We nymphed for about 15 minutes and then switch to a dry/dropper. A few fish came to a smaller streamer as well.  One brown trout absolutely crushed a foam skwala dry. This has got to be the first trout caught on a skwala this year! I think he was a bit dim. To top it all off, we were the ONLY boat on that stretch. Rare.  But the wind kept most of the other clowns home watching daytime soaps. Guided trips start in a week and I can't wait to get in the boat again.




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Montana Dry Fly Fishing is NOW!

Montana is not necessarily know for its February fly fishing. Missoula tends to be milder than much of the rest of the state and that means rising trout! One of our guides was wade-fishing the Clark Fork yesterday and caught several prime rainbows on top. What a treat to be catching fish on dry flies this early. What most folks don't know is that this happens right about now, every year. It's awesome to see the Clark Fork River getting back to the insane fly fishing river that it was prior to the removal of Milltown Dam. Rainbow and Cutthroat trout recruitment seems to be very good, resulting in an improving fishery. It's still my favorite. So what's next on the CF? Skwalas are about 5-6 weeks out, the midging should continue through Feb. and March and a little bugger action should begin any day. As for me, I'm off to the Missouri on friday for a little itch-scratchin'. I can't wait to start throwing the big dries around in March. Predator      www.flyfishmissoula.com

Fishing on the Bitterroot River was SWEET today!

Fly Fishing in February can be a tricky proposition. Dry fly fishing in the Missoula area seems a long way off. Often one is left to fly fish the ugly way; with a nymph. Today was different. The sun was out this morning and you could tell that it was going to be a great day to fish in Montana. The clouds rolled in after the weather had warmed and the trout were very responsive. We took several healthy rainbow underwater (the ugly way) and took a few more on the surface. The risers were sporadic to say the least, but they rose to our offerings quite nicely. The Bitterroot is a great river when one is one foot. Guides forget that the best way to fish a river is on foot. Things go by so nice and slow when you're just "hangin' out" on the bank, waiting on a fish. We flipped a few rocks and found but one skwala nymph. He looked really cold. Predator       www.flyfishmissoula.com

Welcome to the New RFO Site

Missoula fly fishing has begun! We will begin our guided trips in the next couple of weeks and the excitement is palpable. In the meantime, we will be putting the finishing touches on the new website. I must give huge credit to Blue Mountain Web Design for another outstanding job. Thank you! The Missouri was very good this week with the mild temps. Loads of risers up on midges and the sub-surface fishing was great on the good old rainbow czech, purple zebra and a smaller amex. The Bitterroot has been coming to life too. P.T.s, SJ worm and some smaller midge stuff has been effective. The water has come up just a bit so it shouldn't be long before the skwala nymphs begin moving to the shallows. IT'S ALMOST TIME! So have a peek at the new site. We think it's pretty cool. Stay tuned to this blog for the straight poop on fishing conditions , as well as hilarious stories about our days on the Montana waterways. Never a dull moment. Predator