Guided fishing trips near Glacier National Park – Bigfork, Kalispell, Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Lakeside, Hungry Horse

The Flathead, Clark Fork, and Blackfoot Rivers are all out of shape. Cool temps have returned so things could level off and be back in shape soon. We don’t have much snow in the hills this year so peak flows are not going to get very big. Once the rivers drop and clear a bit we should be good to go. You can keep tabs on river levels on our Flows Page here. The Thompson River has leveled off and should have Salmon flies on it very soon for a great wade fishing option. Flows out of Hungry Horse are also being held back a bit so there is some clear water to fish there. Late evening caddis can provide some dry fly fishing on warm afternoons.

Lake Fishing Kalispell MT

There are tons of Lakes to hit while you wait. Small mouth are starting to hang on the beds and should get aggressive soon on Flathead Lake, Echo Lake, and Horse Shoe Lake.  Rubber legged buggers, clouser minnows, and crawdad variations will work. We have a pile of bass flies in the shop.

The low elevation trout lakes are all a good option right now also. Balanced leeches, chironimids, haresears soft hackles, PT Soft hackles, perdigons etc are all you need. There are sooo many lakes around here to explore. Go poke around and find a new lake. Start Shallow and adjust your depth a couple ft every 15mins or so until you max out. Give us a call if you need some ideas.

Pike Fishing Kalispell MT

Pike are fun to chase this time of year too. The sloughs are starting to back up as they fill the lake so pike will start to lay up shallow. Standard pike flies will work but try some smaller drab patterns if they aren’t committing to the big bright flies. We have a bunch of pike flies as well. Or put a chunk of hot dog on and teach’m a lesson.

Bigfork Whitewater Fest is next weekend. We’ll have some NRS rafts on display to check out. See you soon…