The "deadliest catch" & the "beach boys"

Spring in Montana! What are you going to do? On week we are bundled up like we were on an episode of the Deadliest Catch...





The next we are digging through the gear for the sunscreen, and tearing off layers as fast as possible...




Both conditions yielded great trout, and wonderful times with our clients! Sunburn or frostbite? Pick and choose!

One thing I've learned over the years is the inevitable "right of passage" that one must endure on their first skwalla trip to Montana. Apparently, if you've never been out in March or April, you must experience at least one day of casting large dry flies during a snow storm! I've been telling one of my long time clients, and good friend John, about how great it is in the spring here. He was looking at me like I had three eyes one morning as we started our float down the river in the freezing cold though. Cold temps hardly ever hit Montana in the later part of the first week of April, but since it was John's first time out here in the spring, and he had brought a companion who was also from New Mexico, the cold weather had to make an appearance for us. He did catch a 22 & 1/2 brown on the trip, and we landed many a beautiful trout each day of their trip here. I hate saying it, but they really did miss the true spring weather by one day. Our warmer weather hit the following day, and the dry fly fishing exploded! The right of passage continues, next year my friend, next year.

What a spring it's been here. I've truly had no time for blog entries with as much guiding as I've done this spring, and the fishing continues... We are in a bit of a heat wave at the moment, and the Bitterroot has risen a little too much. The Blackfoot and the lower Clark have given us incredible fishing in the meantime, but as the weather cools this week, especially in the evenings, the Bitterroot will clear, the other rivers will follow suit, and we will be casting skwallas, March browns, and caddis galore to rising fish on the Bitterroot again in a few days!
The Blackfoot and lower Clark have produced incredibly well these past few days, but the push of water is upon those two rivers at the moment now as well. The Missouri was a great river to be on today, closer to Holter where the rainbows are still plentiful, and less towards the lower Mo' where the fish have wandered off to spawn in the tributaries.

Time to tie more flies right now, and dig out the orange and golden dubbing in preparations for late May and June in Montana. More to come soon, and here's to a great early summer in Montana!

Come get your fish On with us soon...