Flows are way down, Currently the river is sitting at approximately 631 CFS, down from around 733 CFS this time last year. Water temps are getting down in the low-forties at night and staying down in the low-fifties during the afternoon highs. There is a lot of exposed timber at the moment, though Stevensville down to Missoula is pretty clear. The heavy rains we had earlier in mid-September helped bring some much needed water volume and cool water to the river, but its still one of the lowest years we’ve experienced. Lake Como is too low to release any water from painted rocks dam, so there’s not any other supplemental water coming in either. We do have some rain in the forecast, so hopefully we’ll get another bump in water volume before winter.

Early morning fishing will see hatches of BWOs and Mahoganies, with late evenings bringing hatches of October Caddis. With the early mornings and late afternoons being the bulk of the dry fly fishing, we advise fishing the mid-day lull with streamers or nymphs. Fish will still go for a dry in that slow period, but it’s also a good time to alternate to a streamer or nymph. The ever-reliable hopper dropper rig is also a great way get a little more activity mid-day with the chance of opportunistic fish going after the dry.

Streamer fishing has been good. Browns have started doing their thing, and with that, there has been a lot of good action to the aggressive strip. When you know the fish are active and acting territorial, there is less of a need to play around with alternating strips – they want it fast. Larger profile flies that push water like the Dungeon, Wedgehead, Kill Whitey, or Silk Kitty have all yielded good results. Aggressive and fast strips along structure is the name of the game right now. So too might streamers with trailer hooks bring you good luck with a lot of the fish becoming more territorial at this point. Lots of fish are biting at smaller fish moving through the system just to get them out of their area, so if you’re fishing big bushy flies with long tails, you may feel the tug and then lose the fish because they were just nipping at your fly, and not engulfing it as they would if they intended to eat what you’re throwing.

Nymphing on the root is always a good option, but the bug activity recently will mean that fish may be still looking for dries while they’re still around. Perdigons, Sunken tricos, and Hare’s Ears have all brought in good returns for some of our staff. Swing into the shop to get geared out on all the essentials to make the day a good one on the water.