Slammer JUne

If you missed June in Missoula for fly fishing, man you missed out! It went by fast. This summer has started off with quite the bang, warm weather dropped all of our rivers into shape quick this year. I found myself in the mix of all the best places to be at the right time. Early June was spent wrapping up a few days chasing big fish on the Missouri river, follwed by a few fantastic salmon fly days on the Blackfoot. Usually we don’t see our epic Blackfoot days until mid June with the levels starting to come in atound 4000cfs on an average year, this year was different. Due to our early warm water the Blackfoot was absolutely on fire with bugs and proper flows in the first and second week of June. That was followed up with all the traffic and fun floaters as well, so we jab and move like a great boxer and switched gears down to the lower Clark Fork. The second and third week of the month was stacked with earlier than usual PMDs and goldens flowing through the swirlies and shallow fast ripples of the Clark Fork below Missoula. I spent a week tracking the clouds and the bugs down there and rode that horse before venturing to the upper Clark Fork above town for a few days. The streamer rip and the goldens were pretty good up there along with a great caddis and PMD hatch following into that third week of June. My clients who showed up to fish big bugs on the Blackfoot were thrown a curveball when they saw great conditions on all of our major rivers. We did encounter an issue on the upper Clark with an early release of the green algea. Every year we see a window where the algae releases and makes it a total pain in the ass to get a drift without needing to pulling it off the flies. My personal opinion on the algae this year is that we didn’t get a big enough run off to clean the algae off from the previous year, add that with earlier than usual irrigation pumping and a few cold nights and you have a recipe for floating algae. One of the many obstacles I will encounter this year. I wrapped up my June by getting down to the Bitterroot for a few days while still mixing in a little Clark. The Bitterroot is still a little big for my liking but we made the most of some bugless mornings catching some pike on streamers and some nice trout as well. It seems that the afternooon hatch in the middle root is the best. One of my days we limped through a morning with a handful of nice trout and 5 or 6 good pike, but once 3pm came around I found myself in one of the most prolific PMD hatches I have seen and the rising trout in the evening was insane. We ended the day packing the net with over 20 nice dry fly fish of good size and multiple doubles to pad our day. So far my first year of outfitting has paid off. My re-bookings are 100%, my clients are happy and the fish are healthy and hearty. I did two big runs this month, wrapping up this last week with 15 days in a row. I feel like when I get on big runs my fishing gets in a great groove. I would say one thing that separates me from my competion is my desire to EXPLORE. I never take the easy route, I create opportunities for clients to discover new waters and styles of fishing, from single dry fly to streamers to nyphing we do it all. Also, we have FUN! I bring a lot of energy to the boat and all I ask if for my people to keep an open mind and relax. With the recent clouds and rain our season has been epic, maybe it won’t last, maybe we see hootowl and warm waters and struggling fisheries. I am an optimist, I have partically filled my summer calander but won’t max it out just in case these fish need a break, but I am confident the fishing gods and the great state of Montana will bless us with more clouds and cooler temps to keep this aweome year of fishing going strong!