May 14, 2011
After a fantastic winter/spring steelhead season and 10 days on the Mayan Peninsula chasing Permit and bonefish I am ready for the summer of trout fishing to begin. Although my first outing in Montana will not be till June I can hardly wait to cast a Salmonfly at a big brown trout. With winter snowpack still over 100 % I feel we will be doing that at moc 10, covering 30 miles a day with ease. This will be lucky season number 7 in Twin bridges and they just keep getting better, I look forward to the usual golden stone hatch on the Big Hole and hoppers with summer stones on the Jefferson. I am sure there will be plenty of Beaverhead days mixed in there with winter survival rate was as high as it can get , last season was a crushfest on the dry dropper or pogo rig and I expect nothing short of that again.
Drop on by the Stonefly Inn and see Rooster and the whole bunch we will be the ones drinking beer and telling lies "with all the fish slime still on our waders"....
September 2010
The trout fishing has been on the fall side of angling, the calendar says end of August but feels like end of Sept we been in waders for four days now and the nonexistant Montana hoppers are definutly just a dream.
Heading for Washington with the sense of steelhead in the very near future, I will be back home on the 7th and begin guiding Steelhead on the 10th down on the Klickitat, awaiting the opening of the upper Columbia tribs. The seasonal change is underway come get your Steely fix.
Montana trout fishing,
8-7-2010 Hoppers in SW Montana?
The summer rains and cooler temps are dragging on into August, daily thunderstorms that killed the hopper stuff last year are here before the hoppers ever started. The next week will really tell if we will get many of them or not.
The Big Hole has nice flows and some dry fly action up in the Melrose Valley and higher, the lower Big Hole River fished well two days ago on Nymphs in the sun and some dry action after the clouds settled in, the trick is to get the the get out BEFORE the nuclear rain and wind arrives in late afternoon.
The big story in SW Montana is the Beaverhead River, it has been on fire with PMD's, Sally's and Caddis. The dry dropper game is as good as it gets and a pogo rig will keep the rod bent all day. It is fishing like before the drought just smaller fish than before, lots of 12-19 inchers with a few over twenty on average. Flows are in the 800-900 range and the trout are happy!
The Jefferson River has been a non issue this season and pretty dead for the last week.
Clark Canyon reservoir has great reports and low pressure, chironomid fishing the usual areas and even some good carp fishing has been had.
7-4-10
Happy 4th of July. All the rivers in the Twin Bridges area are on the drop and fishing well, with double the normal flow we are looking at the best water year most of us have ever seen or heard of. With that will come fantastic July and August fishing, I can only imagine how the hopper season will turn out. Goldens stones are off to a great start with good dry action on any cloudy day and the AM nymping has been nothing short of epic.
The Salmon fly are rolling on the Madison and so are the boat parades.
Beaverhead is huge but fishig well with streamers or LOTS of COWBELL!
Big Hole Salmon Fly with the Alabama Boys!
6-14-10, Tyler and Emily, on a trip all the way from Main, are landing right in the beginning of Salmon Fly, nymphing on the move is getting good, up to 40 plus day now !
Tomorrow we will be throwing dries!
6-8-2010
Thanks Headhunters fly shop, made recent transition to the mighty MO a breeze.
Worming is NOT my favorite but gets the job done!
6-2-10
First dry fly brown trout of 2010 season size 16 elk hair caddis on a pod of risers...
5-18-2010
Another summer season is fast aproaching, I expect to head for The Stonefly Inn and Twin Bridges on the 30th. My first day on the sticks will be June 5 on the Missouri river, Rooster and I have a three day gig with clients there in a rental house. I perfected my crazy summer tan wile in Mexico chasing Permit last week, so that summer ritual is off the to do list, looking forward to big browns clobbering Salmon fly's on the Big Hole and doing my best to ack like a cowboy wile roaming the range. I often forget the intence beaty of Montana while away chasing the other finned creatures on my list.
Gearing up and getting excited for another great season of trout fishing on SW Montana's legendary rivers.
Come see what it's all about, June dates available.
Iron Man turns on 9-7-09
The best dry fly trout fishing for me in Montana is the Iron Man, long and tough, a real shooters game no place for the amateur angler buy any means. It has been five years since my introduction to this run and today it is my favorite even with increased pressure and tough summer weather conditions. The timing was a bit late for this season but better late than never.Many days have been launching at 8 and fishing till 7 with a few MENTAL breaks in between. Without doubt this is the most challenging run in my arsenal.
Good Luck Bonnie and Steve great to have you two out and fishing with me it is memorable!
Hoppers in the sun 8-21-09
Summer finally arrives with steady 80 to 90 degree weather dropping rivers and angry trout. The Big Hole and Jefferson are fishing well into the late afternoon with terrestrials from stones to ants and a few spruce mothes thrown in there. Two weeks without a bobber and counting!!!!
Mark Wiley, from Arkansas hopper fishing, great day landed 30 or more. This fish broke my 5 wt fist time ever broke a rod on a fish with no explanation. Chugging a Chernobyl what a concept.
Montana Fly Fishing reports 8-19-09
Wow the month is flying along, crazy weather storms and highs of fifty degrees on occasion 2 inches of rain last week in a day doubled the river flows and created some tough fishing for a day or two.As soon as the drop came fishing was a good as it gets on all rivers in the area.
Mr. Canasty aka Can -o- nasty and Steve Honnen came over from Seattle with some friends to fish the Jefferson for big browns on hoppers. They seen one of the best hopper days of the season and one of the worst 60 degrees and rain does not fish well with a hopper!
Either way good fishing wa had by both groupes for five continouse days.
Steve Honnen streamer man on the Beav note the jacket in mid August!
Fly Fishing Montana reports 8-4-09
Great weather, good fishing and hoppers on Parade. At this time nearly anything hopper looking will get the fish. So many its like fishing a Squalla hatch but bigger bugs.Chris Luttinen, and his Father on a day dry fly fishing. Chris is a freshman in the Seattle area and an accomplished pitcher in a local league, age 14 with a nasty splitter, look out Kent Bulldogs.
Chris with a twenty inch Brown, smoken em out front.
Letting one by for dad, the vacuum was off for second.
Fly Fishing Montana 8-3-09
The hopper fishing is as good as it gets, 11-4 in the day provides more opportunity than should be allowed by law. By 4-4:30 the water gets a little too warm and the fish rise so slow we have a little patience issue, many of the larger fish are down till the cool off but plenty of action right through till evening caddis.Chuck and Bill had the dry fly day of a lifetime, many doubles and plenty in the 16 -20 range this 20 inch brown came to the littlest hopper in the box.
Montana trout fishing reports 7-28-09
A quick day out to the lake for some great rainbow fishing on I lines and Chironomids. Multiple big Rainbows on the strip and an even five minute's a bite kept us on our toes for the afternoon Midge fishing.
Mark from Cascade Montana with an average midge fish.
A little I line action in the AM.
SW Montana fly fishing, 7-25-09
During a three day reprieve from from thunderstorms some hot weather brought the hoppers and gave us a glance of what is to come. Hopper fishing at it's finest on the local rivers. With storms again threatening we squeaked out a few good days of surface only action and are now back into the storms.
Doreen and Reggie on a hopper day just before the storm unleashed one of its first daily thunder showers.
Big Hole River Montana 6-29-09
The Hole is hard on the drop and the PMD action is damn good, average size fish (fourty plus trout today) with a shit load of whiteys on the side.Good dry fly action when there is a cloud around, Parachutes and sallies, swinging some softies as well!
Beaverhead River 6-28-09
Finally raising the river and the PMD's will be the hatch of choice, good nymphing and dries as soon as it stabilizes again, look for flows around 700 for the best fishing, it should spread out the anglers and the fish as it has been extra crowded above high bridge.
Montana fly fishing 6-24-09
Big water from rains have us traveling to the other great waters in Montana, a two hour drive to the Missouri River is nothing much for the fast action we get when we arrive.The Mighty Mo has had its recent rise from 6000cfs to 10800cfs in the last two days, these fish don't seem to care as long as the bugs come off. Great hatches of pmd's and caddis are the norm for the time and today was no exception, for the second day in row we hammered rainbows and browns, many to that twenty inch mark.
Good steady action for four hours on a deep nymph rig, crazy deep 8 plus feet, that's insane from where I run!
PMD emergers, caddis emergers and Sallie nymphs!
Big Hole Salmon Fly 6-18-09
The Big Bug is on, a little cloud cover and some light rain definitely helps, they were much tougher to time the strike than yesterday and the bug of choice is narrowing as the fish see every ones best presentation. !6 - 19 inch brown trout are the average.
John Barrett knows how to spend his retirement years, chasing the Salmon fly.
Mark Ripolone is on his second week here at the Stonefly Inn and managed to wait out the Salmon fly, he has been on a terror with the nymphing stick racking up some good numbers fishing with Greg Bricker of the Stonefly Inn, after yesterdays report he wanted in on the dryfly action and got his wish.
I fished with these two on there last visit two years ago during hopper season.
Mark and John with me in 2007 during Hopper season, we were looking for something bigger this year but 2 foot is tough to beat.
Salmon fly and dry fly in general should continue for a couple weeks on the Big Hole, Goldens are next and then the plethora of Mayflies and Caddis right up to Hopper season. I just may be done with the nymphing for the season.
Big Hole River 6-17-09
Ringo and Jane Nishioka fished dries all day today, Salmon fly fishing is at the best I have seen in five years. The Hole was steep on the rise and actually went out for an hour and we still caught the shat out of 18 inch brown trout and a dozen or so rainbows. They where eating the big bug today instead of the Golden. lots of Salmon fly on the water as well as buzzing the sky. Big bug fishing can not get any better than this, PERIOD.
Big Hole River, Melrose MT 6-11-09
The Brown trout fishing has been so good it should be illegal! As many 16-18 inch Browns as you want, every where you throw a streamer a brown will inhale it, the damn things are fighting over the fly!
Steve Barker one of many streamer fish above Melrose.
Montana Report 6-9-09
Steve Barker with a fat 18 inch brown on sir san juan.
Today produced calm winds and blue bird skies, no streamer action but very good nymphing and the first few fish on dries for the season. Crazy action with six fish engulfing the bobber. A big orange Chernobyl and a dropper caught the biggest fish of the day.
Tomorrow is a Big Hole day, water is dropping fast. The Beaverhead has fallen off the charts with low water down to 200 cfs.
Bad ass weather moving through the Madison valley yesterday produced some very exciting streamer fishing and some tense moments when clouds looked as if they would reach right down and rip us from the river.
Montana Reports - 06/05/09
Finally getting around to doing some very much needed personal fishing time.
With the Big Hole still high I have been bopping around the upper Beaverhead, fishing above Hennaberry access. Below High bridge it has been a streamer game with big conehead sculpins followed by small buggers in white or brownish.
Above high bridge the pogo nymphing has been crowded and very good. Typical small ass mayfly stuff for big ass trout, daily catches over 20 inches with browns around 18 making up the bulk of the catch..