Category Archives: Fishing by Time of Year

Early Spring (late March thru early May) is the most underrated time of year to fish in Montana. The trout are hungry after a long winter and have not seen a fly in months. Low water levels have fish concentrated in specific areas and crowds are sparse. While visiting anglers have discovered our...

One of the factors that makes Bozeman, MT such a great trout town is that the surrounding waters offer great fishing 12 months out of the year. Mild winter days offer anglers some prime opportunities to catch trout with very predictable fishing and nonexistent crowds. Winter is the time to...

Some of the best fishing of the year occurs just after runoff subsides. Post runoff fishing can be very good for a variety of different reasons. First, trout have not been fished to in several weeks; it is hard to fish when you are dodging floating debris! Second, water temperatures are hitting the...

We are now into April and our snowpack across Montana is healthy and above average. For those of you were out here three seasons ago when we had the record breaking high water year we aren’t expecting anything like that, just a near “perfect” scenario of slightly above average snow. Generally...

This is one of our most commonly asked questions. It is also one of the most difficult to answer. As with most fishing related conversations the initial answer to questions inquiring about the best time of year is “it depends”. There are several reasons why selecting a single time of year to...

Fall fishing has a cult following in Montana. Die hard anglers visit the Big Sky state in October every year hoping to hook up with the fish of a lifetime. For a variety of reasons, most angler put their fall fishing eggs in the October basket and ignore the late fall. Rivers in November are...

Some of Montana's best hatches occur early in the season before the rivers become swollen with snowmelt. Savvy anglers have realized that targeting these hatches can provide some fantastic early season dry fly fishing. Many Montana fly fishing guides rate the spring as their favorite time to hit...

Rock Creek is a 52-mile long anglers haven located west of I-90 and just 30 minutes south of Missoula. On any given day you can hit a “grand slam” by catching beautiful browns, rainbows and west slope cutthroat and even the occasional brookie. The river corridor is surrounded by pristine land of the...

One of the most frequent questions I am asked when visiting anglers are planning their fishing trip to Montana is “when is the best time to come out”. That question is impossible to answer so I generally try to feel out what is most important to someone: nice weather, lots of action, dry fly fishing...

Many avid anglers target September as their preferred month for fly fishing in Montana. Once kids go back to school the amount of tourist traffic visiting the Big Sky state drops off dramatically so the casual anglers sneaking in a guided day of fishing on their Yellowstone Park vacation almost...