Tag Archives: fly fishing

Bitterroot River

Bitterroot March Brown Hatch

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bitterroot river guidesOur spring mayflies have finally started showing themselves on the Bitterroot.  After almost a month of focusing on the Skwala stonefly, the March Browns are coming on with a vengeance on certain days and sections of the river.  These bugs can be picky to their preferred weather, leaning towards humid broken skied days.  Unlike Baetis which thrive with torturous weather, March Browns like a little sunshine mixed with some clouds; too much rain will cancel the deal as it did on our Friday float trip.

bitterroot river guidesFortunately, we took advantage of the hatch all day Thursday, and then Friday from its inception at around two o’clock, and saw epic fishing until a heavy cold rainstorm wiped the bugs out around 3:30.  While waiting for the mayflies, we fished Skwala patterns to likely holds and found many good fish looking for our bugs.  As I glanced towards a likely chop seam, I saw multiple good trout fully expose their red banded sides as they rose steadily, indicating they were onto a mayfly hatch. Right away we dumped the Skwala, tipped down to 4X, and started throwing small brown quill patterns to this pod of at least a dozen fish.  They ate them, well!

bitterroot river guidesSo be on the lookout for mayflies for the rest of this month, usually starting around 2:00.  No need to get on the river before noon, unless you like your bobbers and droppers…. no thanks.  There are some situations where one could run a nymph through a run, but the patient fisherman will find enough action on top in the afternoon to put a smile on anyone’s face.  So take advantage of the dry fly while you still can, before runoff restarts the clock on our way to summer.

Bitterroot River

2015 Bitterroot Skwala Hatch

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bitterroot skwala hatch 003I figured we’re still early, and we are, but a mid morning phone call today sure led to some fine dry fly fishing on the home river.  Skwala: The Bitterroot’s Big Deal.  Which they really are, even if it brings a bit of pressure to our sleepy little river; get out there and throw a line and put your smile on.  The rest of the state is still dealing with winter, at least its departure, while the Bitterroot Valley is gorgeous and temperate as ever: snowcapped peaks protecting a low altitude, Pacific sided drainage.

bitterroot skwala hatch 2015So we slid the boat in around the crack of noon, or even one o’clock, to see if we could find a few fish looking up.  Sure enough, our second run drew a fine rainbow to the dry, then the next, and the next, and then they were sipping mayflies…. Pretty damn impressive to say the least.  The true Bitterroot Skwala hatch is still weeks away in my opinion, but the fish certainly know what’s coming.  I witnessed Baetis mayflies and midges today, but no mature adult Skwala moving about.

bitterroot skwala hatch 009So watch your weather for those good warm days in the near future, there should be some fine fishing to be had out there.  The weekend is looking beautiful, so I’d bet there will be plenty of other folks out there chasing the hatch.  My advice: take it easy, put in good ‘ol Bitterroot fashion around noonish, and fish the nice likely runs with medium speed and a wee bit of chop.  Look for your best fishing from two to four, and savor throwing a dry fly once again!

bitterroot skwala hatch 2015Our boats are spruced up, lines are greased, waders patched, and the coolers are packed!  Contact Jed or Chris if any of you are feeling the itch for a guided Skwala float.  We offer discounted rates for the early season, $350, and focus on the midday Skwala and mayfly hatches.  Our meet time is noon, earlier if we need to work out some winter kinks in the casting, and we fish until the day is wrapped up, usually around six o’clockish.  We’d love to have you out with us once again to start our 2015 Bitterroot fly fishing season; see you on the water.   JF #8392

Bighorn

Bighorn River Winter Trip

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bighorn river fly fishing bitterroot river guidesCottonwood Camp here we come!  It’s been a long winter in the mountains of Montana, and those of us on the West side of the state have certainly seen our fair share of it.   With the first signs of the season’s thaw, a great crew of friends gather together on the Bighorn River in South Central Montana for our annual getaway.

bitterroot river guides on the bighornWe showed up on a Wednesday eve and planned to fish til Sunday morning, weather permitting.  Our temperatures were great the first two days, allowing for purple sequined sparkle shirts and big straw hats, and also providing easy fishing conditions.  The whole crew, seven of us total, found great easy fishing throughout the 3 to B stretch, even scoring Crow beach all to ourselves for a two hour throwdown.

DSum on the HornAs our trip drew down to the last couple days, the weather made a serious turn for the worse, with cold storms blowing in from the North.  Frozen guides were inevitable, stalling your casts every few minutes or so and forcing you to clean the ice off the entire length of the rod.  The fishing remained steady, so at least we stayed enthused through the punishment; and what the hell, we didn’t drive 400 miles to paint, as my brother John put it.

bighorn river in februaryOur last day about froze us out, but we hung in there.  Midday bonfires eased the 22 degree average we were putting up with; find your run, get a serious blaze on, and rotate between fishing and thawing.  As long as the fish kept taking our bugs we’d stay, knowing that the other alternative was to keep on chugging down the river into the bitter North, unprotected in the boats.  We finally beached at the Bighorn access one last time, and partied down one last evening at Cottonwood.  An early start sent us rolling back to western Montana, 400 miles to go and one degree Fahrenheit on the windshield.  Till next year my friends.

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Salmon River

Salmon River Steelhead

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winter steelheadThe clients are essentially gone for the year; snow has set in hard in the high country; the elk have bugled, mated, and survived the long hunting season; and us fishing guides are finally released into the wild once again to pursue the almighty of Salmonids, Steelhead.  We don’t guide Steelhead trips, though we’re sure starting to think hard about it, because I am licensed as a Montana Outfitter only, confining our commercial operations to this great state alone.  But lo, a mere two hours from Hamilton south over Lost Trail Pass, lies the longest run of Steelhead in the United States of ‘Merica on the Salmon River in Idaho.

salmon river idaho steelheadWith 900 miles to cover from the Pacific ocean to their upper spawning grounds in Stanley, these fish don’t really get into our stretch of water until November and even December.  You think a cool day in June can suck, just wait till you start wading hip deep for hours at a time in January water temps and the Salmon River fog icing your eyebrows.  Utter punishment at times.  But the tug is the drug, and at some point in that long swing of the line a fish grabs hold and it’s all worth it.

winter steelheadSo while winter grips the valley as we await another great trout season coming up in March, we guides are still packing fly rods on the dashboards and tackle bags close at hand.  A string of good weather will get us twitching, and not long after that a phone call sets the madness in motion: 5 am on the road.  Two hours and a hundred close calls with elk crossing highway 93, we’re back on the water with the excitement of a summer’s day of guiding…  Except now we have 9 weights, thirty plus inch fish, and we’re doing all the fishing!

Bitterroot River

Musty and the Rangers

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bitterroot river fishing guidesI’ve never been to the Rangers AC in Milltown, New Jersey, but if they have remotely as much fun at their club as they have on the river, sign me up.  These fine gents have fished with Bitterroot River Guides for many years now, bringing different faces and personalities but one remains the same, Musty.  And Ernie, can’t forget him.  Big Musty anchors these guys into some semblance of order; arranging the guiding, hotels, and travel plans.  I think some of them would still be sitting in the Sawmill bar in Darby without him.

bitterroot river fishing guidesFishing-wise this was a banner year with the Rangers.  We spent three days on the Bitterroot searching out the finest water our river has to offer right now, as well as teaching these guys some new techniques for sticking big fish.  Versatile fishermen, our NJ crew got the job done every day of the trip, whether we were way up the West Fork or down on the lower main river.  Water levels are still up and cruising along, making for tricky casts and quick mending, but the big flows also keep the big trout moving around the system and feeding heavily.

bitterroot river fishing guidesTaking time to enjoy the finer points of a Montana summer on the river, our crew grilled out every day for lunch to slow the pace of things and sip a few cold ones.  Cocktail hour starts early with these guys, and their fishing actually improves considerably throughout the day: we’re dealing with professionals here!  But alas, three days go by too quickly, and we’ve already said our goodbyes.  Musty and the gang have moved on to the Madison river, and then on to the mecca of Craig on the big Missouri for a few more days.  I hope they stick some great fish on the rest of their journey, and until next time Chris and I will miss the onslaught of the Rangers AC in Montana.

bitterroot river fishing guides

Bitterroot River

Fishing the Bitterroot

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There is some great fishing on the Bitterroot River right now.  We’ve been latching into solid cutthroats and a few browns here and there, with the fish still stacked from their Salmon fly binge of the previous month.  Drys have been working right out of the gate, with other methods of fly fishing also working just fine, that is if you want to stare at a bobber all day.  No thanks.  I actually haven’t put a bobber on the line in weeks, keeping with simple one fly riggings that are simple to cast and very effective.  Find the right bug, find the right spots on the river, and there are hungry trout ready to be caught!

 

Bitterroot River

Day Three

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bitterroot river guidesLast blog I wrote preceded our actual fishing, so I figured I’d wrap up our three day trip with Jack and the guys with one last post.  As anticipated, we saw some pretty amazing fishing out there on the Bitterroot river.  With Salmonflies still in the picture, our hookups were many and hard pulling, the fish stuffed from the big bugs and at least 20 percent heavier than normal.  Soon enough the dry bite came around and we enjoyed consistent action on top for most of the day.

bitterroot river guidesWe topped it all off with some fine burger grilling at lunchtime and apple pie and ice cream we managed to keep frozen deep in our coolers.  So, good fishing seems pretty much everywhere right now if you know what to look for.  I’ll be guiding the Big Hole Monday through Saturday of this week looking for those buttery browns, so tight lines and stay tuned.

Bitterroot River

Big Bugs on the Bitterroot

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bitterroot river fly fishing guides hamilton montanaMaybe it’s a bit early to write this one, we still have one day left to guide this group, but we’ve had some pretty solid fishing in the two out of three days with these fine natured chaps.  As the title of this blog goes, we’re chasing the big bugs on the Bitterroot and having great success at finding them.  Our first day found us way up the river system, looking for smaller fast flowing water that is so conducive for salmon flies.

bitterroot river fly fishing guides hamilton montanaTrying a few anticipated patterns for the day, we laid into quite a few trout right off the bat, letting us know our bug choices were right on the money.  No need to change a sure thing, we stuck with pretty much one setup throughout the day and put the hammer down on many gluttonous fish, their bellies gorged from all the bugs they’re inhaling.  There is nothing like fishing size four dries in heavy water with fish leaping to take the fly near the overhanging willows.

Today our group toured some lower water just to see what’s up out there and escape the salmon fly fever.  Solid fishermen, these guys are versatile enough to make it work with a variety of rigs, which is what we needed today.  With nothing really taking the top spot on rigging, we caught fish on dries, streamers, back drags, swings, and full on bobbered up.  After exhausting every conceivable rig, my boat finally said to hell with it, and we dropped “riffle bombs”, Jack’s terminology for a heavy stonefly nymph and worm.  And guess what, it worked like a charm!

Tomorrow is our last day with this great bunch of guys; hopefully we can show them some fine fishing.  Our plans for the third day have altered a bit from the original: instead of heading even lower down the system, we’re thinking that first day up river maybe wasn’t such a bad idea after all.  Not wanting to jinx the fish karma, we’ve settled on an original float a little in between the other two days’ floats, and with some fine casts and blood, sweat, and tears on the oars I think we’ll see some amazing fishing in the morning.

Bitterroot River

Hunting Bitterroot Brown Trout

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covershotWell, while I was out on a guided float chasing Skwalas and mayflies, my guides were up to no good, as you can clearly see, chasing big Bitterroot brown trout, and definitely not using dry flies.  Trout eat a little of everything, mostly aquatic insects, as they forage throughout the day in rhythm with the daily bug cycles.  When the hatch at hand gets going, large numbers of fish feed throughout the river to take advantage of the increase in bug activity.

bitterroot brownThen there’s these guys.  Hatch be damned.  Browns like this rarely fall for your ordinary insect imitations, their feeding patterns are impulsive, and their foraging is more like hunting and killing.  These are the predators of our peaceful little rainbow/cutthroat stream: no little trout is ever really safe.  That’s why we protect our beloved little dinks by targeting these bruisers with the only thing they consistently hammer.  Streamers.  Heavy, colorful, flashy minnow imitations with big ass googly eyes fished on a clear sink tipped seven weight.  Oh Yeah.

brochureshotStreamer chucking is not for the faint of heart, and many can’t handle it.  Heavy stiff rods and weighted lines wear a person out, especially if one’s cast is inefficient, so we guides use caution when introducing our anglers into this realm:  short periods keep our guests from getting frustrated and beat down.  Now when it’s a crew like these two river monkeys in the photo, there’s no holds barred.  Ten miles of swollen off color river, a half rack of Coors, and hundreds of heavy casts went into that one brown trout.  Every cast has the promise of another leviathan: it may be the first deep log jam at daybreak, it may be somewhere on mile seven, or it may not happen at all.  Keep hucking.

Bitterroot River

Making it Play

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Chris_Rockhold_photo_22-30The river’s up and showing the signs of what 170% of snowpack looks like around here: the usual lazy runs and obvious holes are cooking along with at least double last years flows, making for tricky fishing and oaring to get the job done.  Two days of guiding recently put us hard at it, searching the inside turns and back eddies for soft water, looking for risers in protected channels.  With the first good March Brown hatch I’ve witnessed this year on the Bitterroot, we finally found fish consistently rising in back channels and mellow inside corners on the local hatch.  With Skwalas and Nemouras popping at the same time period, mid afternoon, some areas fished pretty hot on the dry, whichever we fished.  When the dries died out and the rain started falling,  we made her play as best as possible. Big stonefly nymphs on a deep drop proved the most reliable bobber setup.  Many miles of river were just too fast to get a decent drift, but with some good casting and elbow grease at the oars, there were plenty of hungry fish to feed if you know what to look for.