Category Archives: Flies

The Smith River in Montana is one of the state’s prized fly fishing rivers. The main season for floating and fishing the Smith River kicks off in April and runs into July. In some years late September and early October can also provide floating and fishing opportunities. The Smith River is managed...

There’s something to be said about spending time at the vise preparing a number of flies for your next fishing trip. While relaxing, tying a few bugs, and daydreaming about future fishing days is a nice way to spend a couple hours, there are also times when you need to go into full-on production...

Choosing the Best Streamers for Montana Fly Fishing When fly fishing in Montana, anglers tend to push the envelope of new tactics and exciting ways to catch trout on streamers. Probing Montana rivers like the Yellowstone and Madison with large streamers and sink tips is a favorite method for Montana...

Montana Fly of the Month: March 2018 The Split Flag Blue Winged Olive tied by Bob Quigley March fly fishing in Montana is a time when things begin to get a little bit more interesting following the long winter days spent fishing small flies in cold conditions. The air temps and water temps along our...

Fly of the Month: April 2018 El Camino, Skwala Stonefly tied by Andrew Grillos April fly fishing in Southwest Montana brings a wide variety of options, a favorite option is trying to hit the skwala stonefly hatch on one of our Montana Rivers. Certain rivers have larger populations of these small...

A fun and effective method of trout fishing is the down-and-across streamer swing. The popularity of trout spey fishing in Montana has grown exponentially over the last few years and for good reason. The simplicity of spending a day stepping down a run casting and swinging is a refreshing change...

Many of our guides at Montana Angler enjoy chasing steelhead in the fall. Trips to the Pacific Northwest are priorities on some of our calendars, time chasing these elusive anadromous fish can be highly addictive! A fun aspect of being a steelhead angler is spending time tying flies for fish that...

Stillwater Indicator Fishing Basics At Montana Angler we’ve got a wide variety of stillwater fishing options that add a fun and different option for our guided fly fishing trips. Stillwaters can actually produce some of the largest fish a fly fisherman may catch in Montana. We often target smaller...

Flies for Montana Rivers: Soft hackles There are few things in fly fishing that are more satisfying than tying flies that adhere to the adage “less is more.” Soft hackle flies are a perfect example of flies that play off of simplicity, clean lines, and perfect proportions. They’re also very fun and...

Montana Fly of the Month: February 2018 The Juju Emerger tied by Charlie Craven Winter fly fishing conditions reign supreme during February and a staple of the midwinter Montana angler’s fly selection has got to be a variety of tiny midges and small nymph patterns. The majority of insects that are...