River Flow -6,000 CFS , 16-foot visibility, Water temp 55 degrees.
Hatches: Still fishing hoppers, along with heavy PMD and Tan Caddis in late afternoon and a great happy hour at dusk, sporadic BWO in selected areas, tiny ants also showing some days, some earlier PMD’s showing on the upper river in the mornings on cooler days. Some of the best streamer fishing seen this season has taken place in the last week.
Patterns: All medium sized hoppers, Purple Haze, Tan Stimulator, beadhead prince, olive and brown wooly buggers, cone-head sculpin, Purple Prince, Da-Bomb, blue-quill emerges, Red Quill
Guide and Fish Report: We are seeing the best streamer fishing of the season. We are landing the largest rainbows in Montana on Streamers. We landed 4 Rainbows 10 pounds and bigger with the largest a 20 pounder that was 32 inches long.
As many of the rivers in Montana are on hoot-owl hours, with impending closures looming the Kootenai continues to be immune to the plight of the freestone streams in the state. With selective withdrawal provided by Libby Dam water temps coming out of Libby Dam remain to be in the 50’s insuring high productivity of the fishery. Fish are looking up and rising with enthusiasm to well placed and presented dries. Last week our doubles record was shattered with 23 doubles to the boat all on dries. We specialize in dry fly fishing and really don’t need to look at bobbers when there are rising fish to be had.
