Fly Fishing The Blackfoot River in Montana in April 2023

Waking up to snow on the ground in Montana in April is not out of the ordinary.  Jake picked me up at the Doubletree around 8:00 and we headed out of town to the Upper Blackfoot River.  It was a bit of a drive, and it gave us some time to strategize.  Fishing out of Missoula is amazing because there is so much diverse water you can access and float.  This section of The Blackfoot was known to be one of the most beautiful floats near Missoula, and I was excited.  

 

We made it to our launching zone, and began pushing down river.  We didn't fish this section, the water was small and shallow.  There were several pools that looked like they would hold fish, but we pushed on.  

 

We waited until we made it to a confluence section and fished an interesting set up.  We set up our El Jefe 8 weight combo with a large white streamer, and fished it about 30 inches below an indicator.  This set up was interesting, because we were not dead drifting this streamer, like a normal indicator set up.  We would actually mend the line heavily which would cause the streamer to pop around a bit.  This seemed to cause some great reaction strikes when floating past larger fish interested in a big meal.  The indicator went down, and I knew we hooked into something interesting.  After a quick battle, this great looking bull trout came to net.  These fish are cool looking, and look a bit like a char.  They are in the same family as brook trout or arctic char.  They are native to Montana, and are protected.  Anglers are not allowed to target bull trout, and if caught, they are to be quickly released.  We took a quick photo of this 22 inch bull trout, and got it back in the water.  Little did we know this would not be our only encounter with this species today.

 

 

 

Bull trout are not the only apex predators in The Blackfoot that will eat a streamer.  We had been hoping to lock into a large brown trout, but we got a few rainbows and cutthroats as well.  

 

 

After some time, the snow melted and we progressed down river, we floated through a huge foam swirly where a ton of small fish were feeding on midges.  We choose to let them be, and pushed down stream so we could find some larger fish.  

 

 

When you fish The Blackfoot, you always hope to see a grizzly bear.  If I was a grizzly bear, I would definetely live here.  I’ll bet we saw over a hundred whitetail deer on this float.

 

 

We approached the canyon, which is simply one of the most beautiful places I’ve fished.  I got a few photos, but these don’t do the scenery justice.  

 

 

We switched the tactic up a bit, and used our El Jefe 6 weight combos to fish a big chubby up top to imitate a large stonefly, and a turd below, also imitating a large stonefly.  It seemed that every time we made a good drift in a fishy place, we would hook up with a 16-18 inch cutthroat or rainbow.  Amazing.  

 

  

 

The weather started warming up, and we stopped to fish one nice tail out.  We hooked into several chunky fish, and even got out to wade a bit.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right before lunch, we started seeing rising fish in several places.  There was a hatch going off that we had not seen in other places.  We again switched up our tactic and tied on a single parachute adams dry fly.  This type of fly fishing is incredible.  Tossing a tiny dry fly to rising fish takes some patience and skill, but is very rewarding to watch these fish holding, and then eat your fly.  The fish below was one of the single dry eaters.  

 

 

Catching trout using so many different methods takes a ton of skill, and Jake is among the best in Montana.  After hooking up with the fish, Jake made the comment, “it’s almost like I know what I’m doing.”  Indeed, he is good!

 

 

After our Montana April winter morning, it got hot out and we needed to strip off some layers, as it felt like summer.  Then came a large storm to give us a nice Montana spring.  It’s pretty amazing to experience sun, rain, snow, and big storms all in one day.  That’s Montana for you!

 

 

 

Now is the time for the fish story of the day.  We were fishing our El Jefe 6 weight with a dry and dropper set up next to a bank and hooked into a 14 inch rainbow.  Out of nowhere a giant fish nailed the rainbow and took us for a ride.  This was a very large bull trout that took us for a ride.  Jake says the state record bull trout was around 37 inches.  This fish was easily three feet long and had a head that was massive.  This happens on occasion, and Jake calls this the upgrade program.  I wish we got some video of this, but we were both too concentrated on landing the monster.  The bull trout was holding the rainbow like a dog holding a bone.  Unfortunately it never choose to eat the fish or we would have had a chance.  I would pull this fish close to the boat and when it got about five feet from the net, it would let go of the fish and slowly swim off.  I would let the rainbow swim off, and the bull trout would nail it again.  It was an incredible experience.  After three times, it slowly swam off, leaving Jake and I a bit heartbroken.  This fish was easily three feet long, and easily 20+ pounds.  It took us a bit of time before we could speak again.  Wow, what an experience.  The one that got away.  

 

 

What an incredible day.  The Blackfoot is one of my favorite rivers out there for obvious reasons.  The fish are incredible and the views are amazing.  I can’t wait to go back!  

Until next time, tight lines my friend!  Jeff