Late March Fly Fishing Report

Typical spring weather roller-coaster  as of late. Warm, cold, rain, snow, sun… It looks like a fairly stable/normal-ish spring temps forecast for the next week. The rivers jumped up quite a bit with the warm weather and rain last week but the cold nights and snow in the high country have turned them back down in a hurry.

We spent a couple days on the Bitterroot last week and had some decent fishing. A few nice fish came to skwala patterns but mostly we plucked them on deep droppers. We didn’t employ any bobbers and caught plenty of fish even with the river on the rise. It’s dropping now and should start to produce more consistently on top as we head into April.

The lower Clark Fork also was starting to come to life just before the last bump in flows. It’s on the drop now and should continue to be a decent option with nymphs and some dry fly fishing on the right days.

Bigfork Bay/ lower Swan River is still low. A few fish are being caught but not many yet. It is the time of year when they start to show up and you might bump into a big one. Once we get some water moving through and it warms a little it should improve.

The Flathead River Forks jumped a bunch last week but have turned back down. The SF HH dam is jumping the flows around as well. Once it flattens out it should continue to provide a decent local option.