Wintery Springish Dryflyesque

The weather as of late has been true to form for Montana Spring. Snow, rain, wind, sun and everything in between. Despite the cold wintery weather, the spring dry fly fishing is here. The Bitterroot is always the headliner of the spring show but the Misssouri and ClarkFork are rearing their heads. With the warmer weather in the forecast, both the Mo and C-Fork should offer some solid dry fly fishing as a good alternative to the Root if you’re looking for some solitude.

A little traffic at the boat ramp.

We spent the last week on the Missouri. We nymphed, we streamer fished, we dry fly fished. The streamer bite was lousy, the nymphing was excellent, and the dry fly bite had a few moments. The BWOs popped off on the one cloudy calm day we had on the lower river. The wind was problematic most days. Midges are also providing heads to target if you look. Warmer water and weather will help. Lots of nymphs will work but one of Ninch’s shrimps( scud or sow bug) with a midge or LGM (Little Green Machine) off the back is a good bet. Throw it in the middle…

The Flathead is also in great shape. Stable flows and sunny warm weather should provide good fishing over the weekend. Like all our rivers, look for BWOs, March browns, Skwalas, midges, and some smaller dark stones to be possible players in the line-up of hatches. Small dark stimulators, rogue skwalas, baby chubbies, purple haze, Pheasant tail cripples, and a couple midge patterns should be in your box if you want to have all your bases covered.

We have some new Missouri bugs, streamers, Flathead jiggy nymphs, and skwalas in the shop, and we plan to be open this Satuday. We also have a ton of Simms and Patagonia on sale for 45% off. Stop on by if you’re swinging through town.