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Leaving for Montana in a week or so. Just wondering how the weather has been? We fish the southwest area mostly. Have a kid in Missoula starting law school, so hopefully will make more trips. I have to get him started in the fly fishing area. Hopefully the run off is over and the heat has stayed away.
Thanks
Fish
Here's a couple of shops that have pretty accurate,reliable and up-to-date reports:
http://www.troutfitters.com/site/reports/
http://www.kingfisherflyshop.com/missoula-hatch-reports
This is a good one, too:
http://www.bigholetrout.com/
Lots of water in the rivers http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mt/nwis/rt , you should have plenty of options. Catch a bunch.
Regards,
Scott
In the western area of Montana, at St. Regis, check in with Brooks Sanford at the Clark Fork Trout & Tackle http://www.clarkforktrout.com/
In SW Montana in the Dillon area, check in with Tim Tollett 's Frontier Angler Fly Shop
http://www.frontieranglers.com/
Larry ---sagefisher---
Fish -
As of the middle of last week, the big rivers around Missoula were still really BIG with run off. The Clark Fork, the Blackfoot, and the Bitterroot were high and off color. Didn't even consider fishing them, so I can't speak to that. Had the impression while spending time in the local flyshops that folks were getting out on them in driftboats, but can't be sure.
The smaller rivers were dropping and running pretty clear. See my threads on the Fishing Reports Forum for the East Fork of the Bitterroot and Rock Creek. Neither of those streams were wadable beyond the margins but both were running very clear ( Rock Creek was stained, but clear ). I had the impression that the West Fork of the Bitterroot was in about the same condition as the East Fork.
According to the folks in the fly shops, this week and maybe next are expected to be really good for the salmonfly hatch on the Forks of the Bitterroot and Rock Creek. With clear, sunny, warm weather forecast, the big bugs should be pretty active. There were golden stones out last week, and they should be around somewhat longer than the salmonflies.
On Rock Creek, I saw a variety of flies, to include bwo's, PMDs, caddis, and the golden stones. The guys in the shops were really talking up green drakes, but I didn't see any the day I fished it. Didn't see many bugs on the E. F. B. but the fish were coming up for both salmonflies and golden stones fished close to the bank, behind structure and especially in the deeper holes and slots behind instream structure.
If you are in the Missoula area next week, we might run into each other ?? If we don't, we'll each run into a lot of other anglers, for sure !!
John
P.S. Besides Kingfisher ( on East Broadway ) in Missoula, check out the Missoulan Angler ( on Orange ), Kessel's ( on South Reserve ), and The Grizzly Hackle ( on Front Street ).