Fly Fishing Bigfork Montana – River Report

This young fella caught a bunch of cutties on big dry flies on the Flathead yesterday.

General Outlook.  Summertime dry fly fishing is in full swing. Break out your Winston IM6 4wt and  bend it to the cork.

Blackfoot River: The Blackfoot is fishing well top to bottom. Get out early to beat the heat and traffic and you should have good dry fly fishing throughout the day. Mid sized foam attractors are still producing good numbers of strikes. A sallie, caddis, pmd cripple, ant, or spruce moth off the back will pick up fish too. If things slow down mid day, hang a p-tail, prince or whatever midsized beadhead attractor off your dry. Look to mid river holding water and faster runs in the heat of the day.
Bugs / Fly Patterns: pmds, sallies, caddis, goldens, hoppers, ants, spruce moths / willies ants, chubbies, fuzzy wuzzies, fat franks, cripples, paracaddis, batman nymphs, MT princes, C-johns, para sallies, 20 inchers, PRL,

Lower Clark Fork River: Good dry fly fishing with foam attractors all day long. Evening caddis has a bunch of fish up and standard elk hairs, cdc, and paracaddis patterns work well. Some movement on your big dry helps elicit strikes on the slower banks.
Bugs / Fly Patterns: pmds, caddis, sallies, goldens, hoppers, ants, / willies ant, chubbies, fuzzy wuzzies, fat franks, cripples, paracaddis, batman nymphs, MT princes, C-johns, para sallies, 20 inchers, PRL,

Flathead River: Fishing great throughout the entire drainage. Mid sized attractor patterns are all you really need. If you find rising fish feed them foam. If they snub you put on a pmd cripple, little yellow sallie, or small caddis pattern and that should take care of them. Ants and hoppers are working well too. The fish are in all types of holding water now.
Bugs / Fly Patterns: pmds, sallies, goldens, hoppers, ants, caddis / willies ant, chubbies, fuzzy wuzzies, fat franks.

Swan River: The dry fly is starting to produce some fish up the Swan. The last couple hours in the day is a good time to hunt the big one on a dry fly. stonefly nymphs and SJWs are still getting some nice fish. Buggers are a good bet in some of the bigger holes.�
Bugs / Fly Patterns: willies ant, chubbies, fuzzy wuzzies, fat franks, Big black / olive / white streamers, PRLs in golden/salmon/black/brown, prince nymphs, SJWs in all flavors, tungsten 20 inchers, DB poxy rubberleg stones.