SURPRISING TIME OF THE SEASON

The spruce moth fishing on the upper drainages has been good enough, steady enough, that we haven’t been calling on too many wild card floats.

But we took a lark the other day and called the shuttle guy, who told us that the otherwise well-trafficked SUCH-AND-SUCH to SO-AND-SO hadn’t been floated in over two weeks–and, man, were the fish every ready to entertain visitors! Fishing a fairly straightforward rig, we were able to boat big fish on dries all day, including some beauty browns from deadfalls that looked like they hadn’t been hooked on a since the Skwalas came to town.

It’s a fun time of year to seek out surprises, to go against the sure bet. Of course, there’s some risk in this approach, but the reward is often the season’s most memorable fish.

Speaking of surprises, a second wave of PMD spinners is washing through the system each morning, giving the Clark Fork fish something to be happy about, and the dry fly angler some slickwater fish to curse.

There are also plenty of these critters on the Blackfoot, as well as the first Trico spinners, but the majority of the good fishing up here is still moth-related. Dawn patrol if you dare.

The ‘Root has been very rewarding at times, and extremely frustrating at others — a decent nocturnal stone bite up here right now.

Keep em wet for now, and let’s see if we can’t make it to the first frost by the end of the month!