We’ve had a good run of dry fly fishing so far this spring. Stable and slightly higher than normal flows set the stage for some big fish to eat foam flies. Recent moisture has bumped the rivers a bunch but they appear to have crested and are starting to drop. We’re hoping for continued dry fly fishing before run-off starts sometime in the near future but things have been a little shaky the last several days. Sure, you can still go catch some fish but it’s not going to be as easy.

We have been spending most our time on the Bitterroot and it has been handling the up-tick in flows pretty well. If you’re looking for a local option, the Lower Swan and Bigfork Bay are starting to fish. There are a few BWOs starting to pop around town and there should be a few good fish willing to eat stonefly nymphs or buggers. With both Forks on the rise and the ramping flows out of Hungry Horse the Flathead won’t likely be a great option unless it drops a bit. It’s unfortunate because the dry fly fishing was heating up and the nymphing has been consistent to boot. Hopefully we’ll get another window out there before it goes out of the banks. Watch the graphs on all our rivers, if flows drop a bit we should have some great fishing before run-off.

It looks like some really nice weather at the end of the week with temp reaching the 60’s. Is spring finally going to come?

Jason Lanier
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