Posts by Anthony VonRuden

If it’s sunny, go hopper-dropper to catch a whopper; if the clouds come in, let the single mayfly roll. That’s been the jingle for the past week or so, and we expect it to continue through the month. For the next week, count on fish on all three of our rivers to munch the pork-chop […]

First frost? Not quite yet, but the fruit trees are full, the black bears are on the move, and the trout have lost their dog-days laziness. Cool nights (knit caps in the morning) and short days have water temps down into the ideal range, and mayfly hatches are ramping up: Tricos, to name one small […]

Well, we may have survived the worst of it: the heat, that is. As a cooling trend moved in over the weekend we saw air and water temps decline rapidly, with all of the previously dicey temp sites falling well into the safe zone. From here — knock on wood — we should be good […]

While we are pre-hopper madness and spruce moth mayhem, there is still some fine fishing to be had for the adventurous angler. It’s the time of the season when fish in the riffles will rise to just about any attractor…but which attractor they’ll rise to is an algorithm you have to solve each day. Maybe […]

On the heels of Missoula’s gluttonous June fishing, July is a spectacle in and of itself: clear water, rising trout, and plenty of dry fly opportunities. Our river system is fishing well from top to bottom, and while flows are dropping steeply, we are in a far better place than we were last year at this […]

Fishing’s been good…to great…to as fine as you’ll ever find, here in Western Montana over the course of the past week or so. Most anglers fishing with us last week rebooked for the same dates next year. We’ll keep the light on for you! Clark Fork River: Even in the sun this river held a strong […]

If you haven’t been on the water in Missoula lately, your excuse had better be good. After a brief heat wave, we have settled back into a wet, seasonable window that has the fish going gangbusters. Our boats in the past four days have seen blanket hatches of mayflies on the Clark Fork and strong […]

What an amazing month of fishing we’ve had this May, both locally and on the Missouri.  Three pushes of runoff sent us over the Pass to the Mo’s dry-fly-eating trout, and three steep drops in flow produced some downright amazing (and solitary) Missoula fishing.  Being able to analyze the fluctuations in flow and capitalize on them, […]

Someone once told me: “Normal is nothing more than a setting on your washing machine.” So far, to put it simply, it’s been a strange spring in western Montana. Summer was upon us, with caddis hatches thickening by the day, and then it retreated–so much so that yesterday on the Missouri felt like early March again, […]