The Blackfoot is currently at 915 CFS and has been steadily climbing since the twenty fourth when it jumped 200 cfs overnight. we should see it rapidly climb in volume in the next few weeks. At the moment the water is very muddy and difficult to fish. The upper sections will be clearer and easier to fish than the lower river.

We have skwalas coming off in Missoula at the moment, so they should be working their way up river with the warming weather. They’ll definitely be present from the confluence out to Clinton though. 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.

If you're sick of looking at your indicator floating all day, the Blackfoot has plenty of options to both swing and strip streamers. Our recommendations are black Sculpzillas, Goldies, and Chicago Overcoats on the swing, or with slow deliberate strips back to you. The fish are searching for food as hard as you are trying to send it to them, so keep it low and slow so they have a chance at finding the fly. The Blackfoot also has a lot of boulder fields, so a slow sinking or floating pattern like a drunk and disorderly or kill whitey can be killer for checking the backsides of boulders for big fish. If the water is high and muddy we recommend using darker colors, clear and stained something flashy in color.