Traffic

Boat ramp traffic jam…

Everyone is look’n for the dry fly bite right now. It’s happening, but it’s not really consistent anywhere yet. The middle Bitterroot River is your surest bet for good dry fly fishing ramp to ramp, but even there it’s an afternoon window. Also, everyone and their brother, cousin, uncle, and nephew from Jersey Shore to Seattle have heard about it and will be there…The Clark Fork River, both upper and lower, are worth the gamble if for no other reason than to avoid the hoards of skwala crazed foolios mid Root. We are as guilty as the rest, we will be there a little bit in the spring scouting new channels and floating a few folks who enjoy that section of river. But generally, friends don’t let friends fish the Root on their day off. Our freestone fishing should continue to improve as flows drop and water temps rise. As of now it looks like the rivers are on a slight rise.

The Missouri is fishing well, but we don’t need to tell you that because you already know, and it’s pretty much always good in the spring. Same old bugs(except with UV dub now), same old in-out nymphing, same old spots…The dry fly fishing should improve. Some fish ate the skwala last week and nada this week. A few midging fish here and there when the wind isn’t dragging you down river. The streamer bite is pretty good too.

Locally, the river fishing is a bit limited. The Flathead is still huge for this time of year and both the Middle and North Forks are on the rise. You could probably dig a few out of the lower Swan…

The weather for western Montana is not looking good for dropping flows. 60ish daytime highs and lows above freezing will likely keep the flows up. We could use some nights in the 20’s to save some of our water and get the rivers back to a more manageable level. Hopefully soon.

The shop remodel is taking a bit longer than we had anticipated. We are off guiding a bunch but we are hoping to be back open mid April. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Bow

A nice bow that came up for a midge cluster.

 

 

Jason Lanier
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