Winter Blast

Dry fly fishing on the Bitterroot.

Our first dose of winter has arrived. It melted already but the air temps have been below normal for the last few days. It looks like it will warm up a touch and the night time temps will get back above freezing. As fall progresses and the weather gets colder, the window for good surface action will move to the warmest part of the day – late in the afternoon. Dropper fishing and nymphing in the am will get you fish before the BWOs and mahoganies show late in the day.

A bunch of moisture came through most of our drainages a few days ago but everything is on the drop. The Flathead nearly doubled. It is still going to be a few days before she is back to normal. All of our rivers have seen a big drop in water temps so things might be tough for a couple days until the fish acclimate and temps increase a bit.

We have been spending most of our time on the Clark Fork, Blackfoot and Bitterroot the last couple weeks. The dry fly fishing has been good. Mohaganies and blue winged olive mayflies in the afternoons have fish on the prowl for well presented mayfly patterns. Plenty of dry fly fishing still to be done on our freestones before the bobber days of winter arrive.

Dry fly patterns of the week

Moosetail parachute, Rocky Mtn Mint, Purple Haze Chute, Pheasant tail cripple, BWO DOA Cripple, Harraops Last Chance Cripple BWO/MOHO, Micro orange Chubby, #10 Orange Elk Hair caddis