Posts by Anthony VonRuden

It usually doesn’t happen this early in March, folks, but the spring fishing chess game has begun. One look at the not unfishable but pretty darned off-color Clark Fork in town today told me that I’d better start checking the river flows each day while I drink my coffee. Warm daytime temps, warm overnight temps, […]

The old saying applies to spring dry fly fishing in Missoula, too, and the go-getters have been getting theirs this week. Fishing has been solid to very good, depending whom you ask and how honest your Missoula Fishing Report source is. Catching big trout on dry flies is special any time of year, but early […]

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 […]