The Bitterroot River is one of, if not the, best rivers in Missoula County to fish at the start of the season. The river runs warmer than the Clark Fork and Blackfoot, staying open longer in winter and icing off earlier in the spring. It’s also a much more “fishable” river during high water than the Blackfoot or Clark Fork. Clarity isn’t usually as bad and there’s more braids and backwaters to search for productive fishing in extreme high water. Winter came to an abrupt end with an abnormally warm late February, and this March has been notably warm as well. Flows are increasing rapidly with the spring runoff. Water volume was pretty stable until about the twenty fourth when a very warm sixty degree weekend melted down a lot of the shoreline ice.

We’ve seen our first Skwalas and Nemoura stoneflies of the year, and a few early reports of successful dry fly fishing. The Skwalas usually peak in early April, though last year they were very thick at the end of march and early April. This year has been very warm and they are rapidly picking up steam, So we’ll expect them to peak out a little earlier than we’re used to. Their smaller cousins, the nemoura, usually start coming off a few weeks earlier and will overlap into the skwala hatch. A 12-16 sized Chubby Chernobyl in black or dark olive mimics both bugs very well, so there’s not much need to have multiple patterns on hand for the skwala and nemoura hatch. Though for the hatch matchin’ masters out there we also have MFC’s fool’s gold for a realistic Skwala and the Luna Negra for good nemoura. The March brown’s are also hatching, and we have several march brown-specific dry patterns.

Nymphing is always a reliable move no matter the season, but especially in this early spring high water fishing where water clarity is an obstacle. Larger stonefly patterns like the TJ Hooker, Pat’s rubberlegs, Neo twenty-incher, or double bead stones are great options for sinking line or indicator fishing. Smaller Perdigons like the Spanish bullet are great as a dropper fly or fished euro-style with a tight line rig.

Streamer fishing is another great option that works year-round. The Bitterroot has bigger browns than most folks know, and those fish are fed on MEAT. Articulate patters like Galloups dungeon, the sparkle yummy, kill whitey, or a gonga are great options for big fish. Darker patterns will stand out in the low visibility water, and flashy patterns work well in the upper water column. Look for undercut banks, hard rock shoreline, or deep pools if you’re hunting browns, sluggish tail outs, inside bends, and warm sloughs for big pike.