Bigfork Montana Fly Fishing Report – October

We’ve had a roller-coaster of a fall so far with some unusual weather. Monsoonal rain events, winter storms, high winds, and cold temps have been making fishing/guiding a bit of a challenge for the last month or so. Now that our weather has somewhat normalized the fish have been cooperating decently. We would like see some Indian summer days with sunny nice weather and big cutties eating October caddis but we’ll take the rainy cloudy BWO days too.

It’s been cold in the mornings. The forecast is calling for more cold nights down into the low 20s so the mornings will be a bust unless you throw some streamers, deep droppers, or nymph. Your best bet is to go late and skip the morning until we see some night time temps above freezing.

The Flathead, Swan, Clark Fork, Missouri, & Blackfoot are all fishing well in the afternoons. BWO & mohagany mayflies, and october caddis patterns are the go-to right now for the freestones.

Dry Fly Patterns

Moosetail Chutes
Harrops Crips in Moho & BWO
Purple Haze chute
Orange Elk hair caddis #8
Orange Chubbies
Orange Micro Chubs
Orange Foam Run Caddis
Orange Stimi #10

Nymph Patterns

Tung Jig P-tails
Pat’s Rubbers Orange/Brn
Mini Tung Pat’s(sorry were out)
SJWs Pink & Red
Tung Jig Prince
Tung Jig Soft Spot
Tung Jig Hairs Ear
Tung Brown Stone