Cooler Temps

Bigfork, Whitefish, Kalispell Fishing Guides

We’ve had a nice streak of cool weather the past several days. While it’s going to be short lived, the cool down is a nice break from the 95+ we had for most of July. Water temps have all plummeted and will offer a brief window of favorable conditions for our rivers south of town. Keep an eye on the temps graphs as it wont last long. The Flathead remains cool and well under the threshold of hoot owl restrictions for now. The long-term forecast is calling for temps more in the normal 80s range after this next hot spell – much nicer than 95+.

Flathead River Fishing Report

Our fishing the past week has seen an uptick. Mostly good reports from the river with dry flies producing pretty good action. It’s not easy out there… However, Decent drifts through the right water will find fish willing to eat the dry. We are mostly fishing terrestrials at his point. Hoppers, ants, beetles, spruce moths, crane flies etc. Small caddis and mayfly patterns are also still working. If you feel the need to throw the dropper go a little smaller and shorten it up for better action. Despite the fish being a bit challenging they are still high in the water column so the deep dropper hasn’t been the answer.

By the 3rd week in Aug we should start to see some night time temps dipping into the 40s as the days get shorter. The hecuba(fall drake) starts to show about the same time and the fishing will usually starts to shift. For now, we will march on with the early morning program as things are not likely going to change much for the next few weeks.