FISHING MONTANA’S EARLY SEASON
Now you might ask, “What early season?” Well, there is a period of time from around the 15th of March to about the 1st of June, which I refer to as the early season. During this time period many anglers believe that either the weather is still too cold or that there are no hatches. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I’m at a loss when people tell me they can’t wait until the season opens since our best ‘season’ is the months of March through May on a number of the world’s most famous rivers. No crowds, great hatches (skwala, March Browns, BWO’s, midges, midges, midges…), and superb water conditions. Granted, the waters I fish most are tailwaters, so the water conditions should be fairly good to great, but this is agricultural country and summer time really has some high flows, comparable to runoff on freestone streams. I catch many of my outstanding fish of the year during these three months and wouldn’t trade them for anything.
Thanks for the great article.
Kelly.
Nice article but one thing puzzles me. It talks about fishing the Upper Madison at Slide Inn/Raynolds in April, but the river between Quake Lake and McAtee Bridge is closed from March 1 until the 3rd Saturday in May to protect spawning rainbows.
Regards,
Scott
hmmmmmmm …
