Kootenai River, Libby, MT

[sagefisher]

I fished the Kootenai River near Libby, Montana a few days ago. While the fishing was slow for others on the river, our guide put us on as many fish as he could find. I have no idea how many trout we caught, it was a lot, and many were doubles. It was my first float on the Kootenai. We fished there because my favorite river, the Clark Fork, was way too low and warm and I don't like stressing the trout. The Kootenai River flows out of the bottom of a huge dam, lots of cool clear water. Most of the trout, Rainbows and Cutthroats, were not real large, in the 14 to 16 inch range, but they were good fighters and gave us many hours of fun. I did manage to damage a fly line so when I got home I went on line and ordered a new Rio line from J. Stockard.

Larry ---sagefisher---

[pillcaster]

I was able to fish this in late September a couple years ago with Dave Blackburn. By then, the corp has reduced flow to make it wadeable in some places. According to Dave, it's the only river in Montana with wild, native bows, part of the Columbia system....
Just curious, when we were there the bull trout had "disappeared". Any sign of them now?

[sagefisher]

They say that there are Bull trout in the river, as well as Brown trout, but we never caught either species. The Rainbows were nicely colored and a kick to catch. For that matter, the Cutthroat were also a blast to catch. The river flows were around 9,200+ 0r - so not much wading to be done, but the drift boat did very well. The first day we did a 10 mile drift from the dam, the next day we fished Troy to the Yaak River, about a 9 mile drift.

Larry ---sagefisher---