One of the primary questions we get asked each year is “when is the best time to fish?”
That answer depends on what you’re looking for. Let’s go over it.
Biggest Fish:
If you’re looking for the biggest fish of the year in Western Montana – that basically breaks down into two general time periods. Those periods are Spring and early Summer. Specifically, in late March and throughout April we see a higher average fish size and more fish that eclipse the 20” mark each day than any other. The other time period is basically the entire month of June. Coming off of runoff, the big fish are hungry and pushed into feeding edges near the banks that make them susceptible to being caught, even on dry flies. There are fish that move into these spots that you maybe only have a realistic shot at for a handful of days out of the year.
Most Consistent Dry Fly Fishing:
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Best Scenery/Weather/Overall Atmosphere of Experience:
For this we would have to say that the best times would be all throughout the summer (June-August) and continuing throughout September and the first couple weeks of October. Summer is the classic Montana fly fishing experience – shorts, sandals, warm sun and cool water. And Fall is among our favorites due to the beauty of fall colors along the river bottoms and in the mountains. Cottonwoods and Aspens in the bottoms turn golden fire as September turns to October, and mountain Larch lights up in brilliant oranges along the mountainsides. Add to that the beauty of the warm, angled fall lighting and you’ve got a Montana scene made for perfection.
Least Amount of People on the River:
If you don’t like seeing many boats or other fisherman on the river (which we totally get and try our best to accommodate everyday), we like late Spring and Fall. In mid to late April, many of the “hype” anglers of the Skwala hatch have gone home a couple weeks prior, leaving arguably the best part of the hatch to the dedicated angler. We love April 15-30th, it’s absolutely some of our favorite days of the year.
Fall is undoubtedly one of the quietest times of the year on the water as well. Many tourist anglers have gone home after summer, kids are going back to school, football games are on tv, and many Montanans have switched gears towards hunting seasons. It’s not uncommon in Late September and October to not see another boat on the water during your float.
Best Weather for Family Outings:
For family outings, we recommend July and August. This is the perfect time to take your friends, sons, daughters, wife or husband on a float trip, even if they don’t have much experience fly fishing. Lower water conditions and Warm and sunny air temperatures make for a friendly, easy environment for people of all ages, backgrounds and experience levels to have a great time on the river.
Best Time to Catch Lots of Big Fish on a Tailwater River:
Undoubtedly this would be May on the Missouri river near Craig, MT. During this time period, we move operations to the consistent tailwater flows of the Missouri while our home rivers around Missoula are blown out with mountain runoff. We’re super lucky because this time actually coincides with some of the best fishing of the year on the “MO”. It’s mostly a nymphing game (however there can be great dry fly opportunities at times) but most days we catch a lot of fish, and a lot of big fish. It’s not uncommon on the Missouri to hook well over 50 fish in a day, and most of these fish average 17”-20”. They also are maybe the hardest fighting trout in Montana. If you’re looking for big fish and lots of them, book a trip to the Missouri River in May.