We are officially only a little more than a month away from the first boats hitting the water for the 2024 fishing season here in Montana. Our season starts out with a bang during one of the best hatches of the year, the skwala stonefly hatch. Skwalas start to emerge to the surface around St. Patrick’s day, and the hatch intensifies throughout the last week in March. As we enter April, Spring mayflies such as march browns and blue wing olives join the skwalas, creating a spring smorgasbord for our trout. It goes without saying that March and April are arguably the best months of the year for the combination of size of fish and numbers of fish on dry flies. This is prime time in Western Montana.
Our Spring season consists of some of the absolute best fishing of the year. Multiple factors collide to make this happen. First, the trout are coming off a long winter that consists of minimal bug life for them to feed on, plus almost non- existent angling pressure. This makes trout very hungry when the skwalas start hatching in March, and fairly uneducated in term of angling pressure. Second, the weather in Spring is usually prime for surface feeding, with many days providing darker cloud cover rather than bright sunshine. This is the number one reason why we catch a lot of big browns at this time that are so tough to see in other times of year. Dark, cloudy, humid days are perfect for bug hatches to emerge, and big browns feel comfortable rising to the surface to eat them. When fishing in the Spring, you can legitimately catch your biggest trout ever. The potential is always there. Every log jam, inside seam, or riffle, could hold the brown trout of your life. Come see what it’s all about this Spring in Western Montana!
The Spring calendar is starting to fill up but we still have prime dates available. Its also not too early to think about Summer fishing as well. Prime time dates like June and early July are filling up as we speak so please call earlier rather than later to reserve the dates you’d like. Remember, the best guides fill up fast, many months ahead of time. Call Montana Guiding Company Outfitter Trevor Anderson at 406-239-7959 to make a reservation. We look forward to seeing you on the water this year!
-Trevor Anderson
Owner/Outfitter, Montana Guiding Company