Fishing the Missoula, MT Area

[Lew Beccone]

Planning to be in the Missoula area with a couple friends in mid-September and looking for input from folks familiar / experienced with area fisheries - Bitterroot, Blackfoot, Clark Fork, and Rock Creek. How would you divide five days of fishing time among these streams? Have fished other Montana streams & rivers, but these are new to us. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[randyflycaster]

I guess the best thing to do when you get here is to buy the very good river maps at the fly shops. They maps will give you pretty good river access. I would certainly fish all the rivers. Personally, I find Rock Creek a little too fast for me to wade, but a lot of other folks love the river.

Randy

[Lew Beccone]

Thanks Randy. Much appreciated.

[JohnScott]

By September the flows should be down to very wadable levels.

Rock Creek and the Blackfoot are your best options for a lot of access and good wading. The Bitterroot has a lot of access points, but it also involves dealing with a lot of posted private land. If you are a really strong wader, you can solve the private property problems by crossing the river to stay within the high water mark, or you can go with watercraft. The Clark Fork well above Missoula has wadable water, but also poses access issues. Below Missoula, the Clark Fork is quite large, and is best fished from watercraft.

If you don't have watercraft suitable for both the Bitterroot and the Clark Fork, or don't want to use a guide, you are better off spending more ( most ) of your time on Rock Creek and the Blackfoot and scratching the Clark Fork.

The river maps can help on the Bitterroot, and the Blackfoot, to some extent, but you can just as readily get access information for those rivers by talking to the local fly shop folks - The Grizzly Hackle, Missoulian Angler, Blackfoot Outfitters, and Kingfisher. Rock Creek Mercantile can give you information on what's happening on their namesake water.

John

[Lew Beccone]

Thanks John. I'll add all that to the hopper. Any info / opinion on the Thompson River - Clark Fork tributary? Someone here recommended that as an option.

[JohnScott]

The Thompson is one of my favorite smaller rivers. I haven't been up there in the fall, so I can't tell you what to expect. And it is a bit of a drive from Missoula, but a pretty drive at that.

Another option for smaller tribs to the Clark Fork is the St. Regis. I've only fished that once, from a raft with a local guide who gave me a free ride one day. What I remember most is how beautiful the streambed was - a tremendous variety of quite colorful rocks. Stunning, and I did catch a few pretty nice fish along the way.

Fish Creek is another Clark Fork trib, and much closer to Missoula. But I haven't done much there and haven't done well the few times I've fished it.

It does occur to me that all three of these tribs might host brown trout spawning runs, but mid-September might be a bit early for that.

You might PM Sagefisher, who has spent quite a bit of time on the lower Clark Fork on guided trips and probably has some good ideas.

[Lew Beccone]

Thanks John. All very helpful. Clearly no shortage of options for this trip. I appreciate your sharing & input. Lew

[sagefisher]

Lew,

I have fished the 'lower Clark Fork' from Forest Grove to Paradise many, many times. All on guided float trips. All very worthwhile trips to take. The drive from Missoula to St. Regis is a bit long, around 100 miles. If you decide to go guided on that portion of the Clark Fork, go with the Clark Fork Trout fly shop/guide service in St. Regis. Steve Temple is very good as a guide. That portion of the Clark Fork is huge (the Clark Fork is the largest river flowing out of Montana) and to try to fish it from the shore is really difficult.

The upper Clark Fork, I have only fished once, from Clinton to Turah. Up there the river is a lot smaller. I prefer the lower Clark Fork.

Rock Creek is decent, but if the weather is nice you will get a large 'Missoula Hatch' during the day, a lot of fly fishers. I preferred the upper Rock Creek area myself, out of Philipsburg. A great little stream and it even has a very small population of Golden Trout (brought in to Montana way back in the early 1900's).

You mentioned the Thompson River out of Thompson Falls. I used to fish that a lot. It has good access. In the spring, there is a fantastic Mother's Day hatch of Salmon Flies, just for info. It is a long, very long drive from Missoula.

Back to the Clark Fork. If you wanted to drift the river in a pontoon boat or something, there are a few decent but short drifts you could do. Talk to Steve or Peggy Temple and they will be more than happy to tell you the best drifts at that time of year. Sloway to St. Regis is a good one. Dry Creek to Sloway is also good. The water will be low and slower than late spring and early summer.

The whole area has great scenery and lots to look at.

Hope you have a good time.

Larry ---sagefisher---