The ‘Root is finally beginning to fish pretty much along the whole river, though I’m spending most of my time on the West Fork still – that’s more or less my home water. Flows are settling decently, and it seems that just this past week the river and fish are beginning to settle into more […]
River – Bitterroot
After more or less settling a bit every day last week, flows on the upper Bitterroot bumped a lot after yesterday’s rains. I’ve been on the West Fork three times in the past week, and it’s been fishing pretty well with Drakes, Caddis, and Salmon flies. The river is pretty clear for the most part […]
Just as the river was beginning to wake up a bit (in terms of what most folks think as the post-runoff, summer pattern), the river has seen a pretty impressive bump in flows. The Darby gage is up quite a bit this morning as you can see….. Friends and I have had a couple of […]
Today’s report is a good news – bad news kind of report; there’s more good news than bad, so let’s do the bad news first. The bad: Clarity remains a problem throughout the river, worse the further downstream you’re considering fishing. The good: Flows have been falling like a rock off a cliff; look at […]
As you can see from the flow chart, the Bitterroot is running ‘high and mighty’ these days. She hit flood stage in the Darby area yesterday and probably will again today. One of the shops in Missoula is reporting that the river is muddy enough to walk across, and I almost believe it after […]
Warm temps, rain, and a rising river. She’s gonna flood again. Sigh.
This is for all intents and purposes my home river; she’s been on the rise now since late on the 16th and really, really pushed up yesterday and through the night. There had been some fishable Caddis and MBs on the river above Hamilton, but conditions are rapidly pushing into full fledged runoff, and flows […]
Like most of the rivers over here in the southwestern corner of the state, the Bitterroot is fishable but far, far from being anywhere close to ideal conditions. If you’re headed for the ‘Root today, the upper river again this week provides the most reasonable conditions. You’ll be holding onto your rain hat most of […]
Bitterroot River Fly Fishing Report 5 May 2009: Still Fishing, Should Have Been Here Two Days Ago…..
It’s time once again for the spring time river flow roller coaster to take us all on the wild ride we know all too well this time of year. Over the weekend flows were down after the cooler week and the river was fishing incredibly well – a strong nymph and streamer morning, followed by […]
What a difference a couple of days of cooler weather can make. After being blown much of last week and weekend, flows are dropping and the river’s clearing, at least above Hamilton. The flow graph is pretty impressive actually…. From what I’ve heard in the past twenty-four hours, there still might be a Skwala or […]
After a nadir in flows last week on the 17th, flows are zooming back up. In fact, though there’s cooler weather coming later this week and weekend, I have that feeling in my aging bones that we’re looking at the beginning of the genuine runoff on the Bitterroot. I’m sure not everyone will agree with that […]
What a difference a week makes. Since last week’s report there’s been a great deal of melt in the lower elevation snowpack that’s send a bolus of water and color into the river. I’ve been talking about it this morning early with some friends, and most of us think that this is all lower level […]
The Bitterroot is living up to its Spring season reputation, but lots of folks who thought they were going to clean up over the weekend didn’t find it quite so easy. There were a lot of city folks people fishing the river over the weekend, and the first bright sun in weeks and lots of […]
There is a lot of great fly fishing water in Montana – most of it is pretty darned well known to those who frequent the area, some of it is not so well known. In addition to the Yellowstone National Park waters that we’ve been covering for the past several years at Best Fly Fishing […]
