Great spring fishing is here in western Montana, and this weekend is your time! Our rivers are dropping, clearing, and putting smiles faces. With cold nights and warm days, the fish are willing to move and are taking dries all across the map. If you want to hold a prehistoric beast of a fish the streamer game on the Blackfoot is happening, and the nymph rig is working in all the right places. Rock Creek is in awesome shape and anglers that have hit it right have found risers willing all day. It is all playing here though, with the nymph rig pulling in numbers while the dry fly has been better as the day goes on. The Creek is busy this time of year, so choose your spot and don’t be too upset if another angler comes along and nudges in. Move to a new spot, and you’ll find more river. It’s all good.
The Bitterroot is seeing the majority of the traffic, but that’s with good reason as the bugs and fish are all in line for tossing your favorite spring bugs. Fish are seeing a lot of those “I Had All Winter To Think About Skwalas And Tie This Pattern” flies. Every variety of skwala pattern is getting dunked these days, so choose your weapon wisely to find the fish. Darker patterns? Thinner patterns? Find the one that works and stick with it. This is a popular time of year down there, so don’t be a mess at the boat ramp, and give the wade anglers a wide berth and enjoy the weekend. Stay safe and stay dry.
The Clark Fork above town sure looks great, and could be your ticket to solitude with a boat if you’re willing to take a chance. The fishing is getting better and better everywhere you look, and even the Lower Clark Fork could see a boat or two this weekend getting into fish. This is a great time to dial in that streamer cast and find some willing takers, but the dry fly fishing could be there in pockets, and if you stick with it and look to the backwaters, there are bugs about and fish eating.
