Dry Fly Wet april

Spring fishing in Missoula is coming to an end here as April is visible in the rearview mirror. We have seen a good amount of rainfall this spring and our rivers are showing it. Since late March, our drainages have left the low water stages as we had an early push of spring water. Since then we have maintained above average flows which I am hoping has benefited our local trout. In the past two seasons we have dealt with bottomed out water levels for most of the spring which allowed the pressure of anglers to really beat those fish early on. With this bigger water it gives these trout more places to hide and less daily pressure. Our tributaries have good early flow to allow these spring spawning rainbows to get their eggs in place for the next generations of fish. My spring was up and down with successes similar to our rise and falls of the rivers. The lack of water temps in the last two weeks made things interesting with hatching bugs but not super active fish. However, the windows of phenomenal fishing were had. In the beginning of the season I found myself in the mix of the Bitterroot with most of the local crowd chasing the early stone fly hatch. I noticed big stones came earlier this year but I also noticed that there were a lot of smaller stones hatching like nemuras and capnias. It seemed that the fish were getting plenty of opportunities with the amount of food around but I think you had to be smart on where to cast. My memorized fish from previous years still gave up a nice dry fly bite, but it wasn’t found at every undercut bank and piece of down wood that you saw. As the spring pushed forward, I took a few gambles and branched up to the Blackfoot to chase some un-touched fish and the quietness of uncrowded rivers. I noticed a similar pattern on the Blackfoot, high water and cold temps. I was able to dig up some trout on nymphs and some streamers to entice my clients to keep off of the busy Bitterroot. Instead of following the crowd and getting in line, I tried my best this year to branch off to the upper and lower Clark Fork whilst most guides were playing bumper boats down the valley. Once again, high water made things a little more interesting, but while I was by myself for multiple days in the clouds on the big river I discovered quite the hatch in early and mid April on the Clark. BWO’s and March Browns came early this year as well and I was able to give my clients some great opportunities at dry fly fishing. We saw moments of glory this year with our dry fly fishing, some days it was only 1-2 hour windows but if you were looking in the right places so were the fish. As April winded down, along came early warm weather and some fantastic hatches. One of the better days I had for a dry fly day was in the middle Bitterroot with Gray Drakes. I was able to capitalize on the drake hatch on the lower Clark Fork as well, it seemed that those last few cloudy days of the month really produced some amazing fishing as I predicted earlier this spring. Cheers to the clients and anglers who toughed it out and held on to see some of the magic that our spring fishery has to offer. I polished off my early spring season with some family fishing and some morel picking. With that earlier warm temperature the soil temp in our river bottoms warmed up nicely and produced some early mushrooms that my family and I were able to take advantage of. Once again the Missoula spring fishery has come and gone, many bugs hatched and lots of fish were caught. I would urge my clients and interested anglers into booking those early season days to take advantage of the fresh hungry fish and the variety of river choices you get with the early push of water. As May comes into full swing you can find me over on the Missouri River where I meet clients to show them opportunities on the other side of the divide. When the time is right and the flows look good, I will be sneaking around Missoula looking for the right fish for every client.