Posts by Anthony VonRuden

January Fishing Report January is the month of thaws. It will snow all week, then the temps will crawl up into the high-30s and the die-hards will shelve their snowboard for a couple of days and look for sippers on Bitterroot back channels. You certainly have the trout to yourself this time of year. Fish […]

Quicker than a spooked trout, we went from a lingering autumn to full-on winter in Missoula, and, outside of the Missouri River, our fishing options have been slim to none. Most guides and anglers have traded their oars in for bows and tree-stands, or a bag of decoys and a Lab. However, if you’re jonesing […]

The switch hasn’t flipped “off” on the fishing season just yet–in fact, we’ve been on a slow dial down for the past few weeks with angling options remaining solid to strong throughout the Missoula river system. Hatches of blue wings and midges have been prolific on the nasty days in short intense windows. We have […]

If you thought fishing had started to die off as October’s nights grew colder, think again. Our fall fishing in Missoula has been nothing short of outstanding, a brilliant cap on a fantastic year. And frankly we’re just getting to the good stuff… Missoula Fishing Report Sparse hatches of blue wings, mahoganies, and October caddis […]

Hoppers, Hecubas, and Rounding It Out In late August, I was talking to one of our veteran guides–this year is his 17th behind the oars–and he said he thought that 2014 has been the best fishing season in the past fifteen. When gauging the opening of this month with the past four, it’s hard to […]

Roughly 52 floats within an hour’s drive of Missoula. Something like 350 miles of floatable water, not counting Rock Creek. Anyway Mother Nature deals the cards in this town, we come out with a pretty good hand to play. Variation and angling possibilities are two chief reasons why Missoula is one of the West’s undeniable […]

As we enter into August’s fishing full swing, we often ask ourselves the pressing question: “Should I twitch this fly, or not?” Spruce moths, nocturnal stones, hoppers, crane flies, terrestrials, upcoming Hecubas, mice, rainbow trout fry, etc. All of these food items are prevalent this time of year and move quite a bit on and […]

Some years, this last week of July is the week when great fishing starts to taper in the Missoula area… Not this year! Spruce moths have arrived early on the Blackfoot, and the big golden stonefly game continues in spades on the Clark Fork. And, on the right grassy bank on a windy afternoon, hoppers […]

Regarding dropper fishing, one of our old mentors is fond of saying, “It detracts, Fred!” And during certain times of the year, we’d have to agree. Your fly gets a much longer, cleaner drift–into fishier places–when it doesn’t have a 3ft dropper hanging from the bend of its hook. Not that we won’t sneak some […]