Missoula area fishing report - late October

The East Coast does not have a monopoly on fall colors!

So far it has been a busy fall here at RBM headquarters.  Since I've been back I have taken three sets of people out fishing and finally yesterday, I got to fish Rock Creek until it hurt.  I've been waiting until I fished most of our local options before I wrote a report.

The Clark Fork:  The lower river was amazing last week.  It is one of my favorite places to fish in the fall.  We were still in that sunny, hot spell so the hopper dropper was king.  Those huge Clark Fork rainbows and cutbows were all over it.  Watching those big trout come up from the deep swirlys and slow sip your hopper is just too much fun.  Every type of hopper we used worked with the largest fish succumbing to the Unabomber.  Now that fall weather has arrived, it will be back to a mayfly game.  BWOs, mahoganies and the flies that represent them will catch you fish all day down here.  Look for sippers everywhere along the banks, in the scum lines, and the big swirlys.  Throwing streamers on the lower river in the clouds can also be amazing.

This weekend I had the honor of taking an international visitor, a policeman from Japan, out on a short float through town.  It was the last day of hot, sunny weather and the last of the summer hee-haw's were out in force.  We struggled a bit and even though we had an interpreter, the language barrier was tough.  I owe that guy a big long float down the MO or something.  This stretch of water should improve drastically with the clouds and cooler temps.

The Bitterroot:  The lower end of the 'Root was also slow in the sun and heat of last week.  We did get some nice ones on the hopper dropper rig though.  It was rough because right as things started to get good, the wind came up.  For whatever reason, the fish in the root are very sensitive to the wind as compared with the other streams in the area.  That same float on a cloudy day like today would be a whole different story.  The lower root is a great place to throw streamers in the fall as well.

Rock Creek:  I had been playing guide since I got home from CA so yesterday, I took advantage of the incoming storm and went out to Rock Creek for a whole day of intensive fishing all by myself.  The morning was tough.  It was still sunny and there were dudes everywhere.  I mean everywhere!  Then, the storm came through and all of a sudden, I had the place to myself.  Rain, clouds, October, no wind, and some new wading boots; I was in freaking heaven.  I put on a white bunny streamer and moved so many fish it was unreal.  The big boys were out in force.  I caught some great browns and the large cutts also came out to play.  I fished and covered water until it hurt.  I put in a full ten hour day and limped and moaned the whole way back to the truck in the dark.  I'd been waiting two months to do that!  There were fish up on BWOs and mahoganies but the streamer fishing was too good and exciting to even think about throwing a dry.  Nymphing was really slow, even with eggs.

I'll have detailed reports from the Mo and the Blackfoot soon as well as the upper Clark Fork.