FLY FISHING THE BITTERROOT RIVER MONTANA WITH BIGFORK ANGLERS
The Bitterroot River offers the most consistant and longest dry fly season of all our rivers. Starting with the Skwala stonefly hatch, the Bitterroot offers the first big bugs of the season as early as the first week of March and consistant dry fly action through October. The Bitterroot pleasantly splits the Sapphire and Bitterroot Mountain ranges and incredible views of large jagged granite peaks are the back drop while you cast to wild trout. This large fluvial river basin has many side channels, spring up-wellings, and log jams, providing anglers with all the characteristics of a great trout river. You can pitch attracter patterns to pocket and riffle water on the upper reaches or target a crafty rainbow sipping small mayflies in the flats on the lower.
You will find rainbow, brown, cutthroat, and the occassional brook trout throughout the drainage. The upper reaches tend to produce more cutthroat while the lower has more hard fighting bows. There are decent numbers of brown trout thoughout and we have caught 2 footers from top to bottom. This river is a true bug factory with great hatches of stones, mayflies, and caddis keeping the fish looking up throughout the year. It is not uncommon to have several different hatches overlapping at any given time. You can expect fish from 12-18" with some opportunities at larger fish and the occassional bruiser.
Fly Fishing Western Montana
