Our weather and water conditions continue to be pretty interesting this year in Montanaland, and the big news is that run-off is tapering down more quickly than expected on many of our blue-ribbon rivers are they are coming into excellent shape for some of our most exciting hatch cycles of the season. This is great news for all our anglers who will be arriving in the next few weeks to fish in the Helena, Missoula and Bozeman areas.
Here's a quick breakdown of what we're seeing and hope to expect for the rest of June in Troutopia:
The Missouri River has dropped from roughly 20,000 cfs to 13,000 cfs in the last five days, which is a major change. The PMD mayflies and caddis have begun to come off and we are likely going to stabilize somewhere in the 10-12 thousand cfs range for a bit, which will likely be good enough for some headhunting dryfly fishing. We caught our first dryfly eater in a few weeks on a PMD cripple on Thursday, and it was a moment of glory after too many weeks of deep nymph fishing - we are excited for more of that!
The Land of Giants continues to fish well and will also get better as the flows drop through that section of the river. The walleye bite has started to pick up too, so good mixed bag fishing there is back in the mix.
The Madison River is also dropping nicely and coming into great shape for the arrival of the salmonfly hatch later this month. The Gallatin and Yellowstone Rivers are still riding high and will take a while longer before they are fishable again.
The Blackfoot River has dropped from a high of 19,000 cfs all the way down to the 6,000 cfs range, which is getting close to the magic flows for that freestone. The salmonfly and golden stonefly hatches here should also be popping in the next 2-4 weeks and some glorious dryfly fishing will be taking place.
The upper Bitterroot River has also dropped into a great level and this river should be fishing well very soon and get better as we go. The Clark Fork is going to be a little while still.
So overall, we are pretty pumped about the prospects of our June fishing opportunities across Montana, and we are ready to put away the bobbers and hunt for some rising trout. The reward for muscling through a period of high water is about to happen, and you should definitely get yourself on the water soon to find your moment of trout nirvana.
Contact us today to get in on the action!
