Hey everyone we welcome March 2026. We have some news and are excited that our son Pride Jessen is going to do some guiding for us this season. He’s really fishy, a streamer Guru, great fly tyer, caster, northern pike guy, and handles a boat flawlessly. We’re excited to get him out with some guests to enjoy our rivers here in western Montana. Yesterday he hiked into one of his harder to get to spots on the Bitterroot and stuck some really nice brown trout on the big ugly bugs. If you guys get an opportunity to fish with him you will have and epic trip. Hopefully we can talk our daughter Logan into making some or her gourmet desserts to add to your’ river lunches where my wife Sandy kills it.
We are also offering birding trips/ Ornithology bird viewing scenic float trips for non fishing bird enthusiast. We’ll provide binoculars, spotting scope, field guides, a charcuterie trey, and beverages. We’ll float through bird habitat that you can’t really walk into including viewing areas close to great blue heron rookeries, Lee Metcalf Refuge, and many other beautiful floats bountiful with waterfowl, raptors, song and shore birds for your viewing and photographic pleasure. I studied wildlife biology and my family and I have always been bird geeks so this is going to be fun.
My daughter and I did some scouting/ check floating on the mid Bitterroot about a week or so ago in February. We did see a few bugs, mostly midges and not much rising fish activity. We caught some fish on droppers but it was just refreshing to get back in a drift boat and float the river.
March 1 and 2 I guided an old friend who has fished with me for the last 25 years. The forecast said highs in the mid 50’s. I felt like the fishing would be slower based on the colder nights and being early March but we were pleasantly surprised. The mid Bitterroot had skwala nymphs in the rocks but I only found a couple of winged adults on Sunday. The dropper fishing was really good, we had to switch it up from San Juan worms, double bead stones, little TJ’s, jigs, and perdigons but if you got it in the right spot it would happen. We had very slight company only seeing a few anglers and boats. We did see a big healthy cow moose. It’s funny to me watching people fish water that doesn’t hold trout this time of year but I’m glad they are when they’re ahead of us! My guest Jeff still questions me after 25 years when I tell him to cast to the slow inside bucket and not the outside fast deep undercut bank where trout are in summer but not when the the water is 41 degrees. “Man I would have fished the outside bank where it looks trouty” Jeff says. My reply is “If you want to catch trout then put your bug where I tell you, not the obvious dumb dumb bank where everyone else fishes.” It’s always the same as a guide, we are out here 150 days a year for 26 years and we kinda know what’s going on!
Old school bugs came into play yesterday. John Faust, may he RIP, a legendary Bitterroot fly tyer hooked me up with some bullet heads about 15 years ago. I watched a few nice fish slurp skwala’s in greasy slow slicks, mostly shady spots and that was the ticket. I found a few in my skwala box, put em on. It felt like 2008 yesterday, no other boats around and big fish sipping size #10 skwalas that are almost impossible for us to see. It wouldn’t happen in obvious spots and you couldn’t get away with sloppy casts. It had to be downstream aways from the boat and presented correctly but the bigger cuts, bows, and browns were after some early season big bugs. A couple of 25 fish days with a good angler felt good.
Other than the lower Clark Fork you typically don’t see a blanket hatch of stoneflies in the Spring but fish will eat these big bugs if you fish them correctly. My friend Patch, who was young and passed away from cancer a few years back, used to love the early season big bug hatch. Patch and I guided together for many years and steelhead fished in ID a bunch back in the day. He, his brother, and I would pick up some toads in early March on dries. Patch said “Gotta go beat em up early before my gym bag gumbah clients come out here and F%@k everything up!” I miss Patch every day and think good thoughts and recall many awesome memories we shared on these rivers in Western Montana on our Trout Journeys.
We’ll hopefully see you soon on the river. Have a memorable Spring of 2026 from Brooks, Sandy, Logan, and Pride at Troutzoola Montana Fly Fishing