Montana’s temptations
Interstate 90 ranks up there with caddis and mayflies in delivering satisfaction to Inland Northwest fly fishers.
The four-laner is the express way to Montana and its assortment of premier trout fishing streams.
From Spokane – if you can get past the turnoffs to Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe rivers – you can be fishing the Clark Fork River up or downstream from St. Regis in about two hours after leaving town. The pre-runoff period in March and April attracts the first surges of anglers as blue-winged olives, Skwala stoneflies and March brown mayflies generally hatch before the river becomes high and roily from mountain snowmelt.
The legendary salmon flies tend to hatch while the runoff is still underway.
Numerous other insects, such as the pale morning dun and green drake mayflies, pick up after runoff to combine with hoppers and other terrestrials to provide good fishing through autumn.
The Clark Fork fishes well all the way from St. Regis to Missoula, and I-90 is never far from the water.
At Missoula, you can detour south to the Bitterroot and spend the rest of the season there catching cutthroats, rainbows and browns; or stray to the north and sample the Blackfoot River, which has undergone a trout fisheries revival in recent years.
About 30 miles east of Missoula, you can’t miss Rock Creek. It has its own exit off I-90, and hundreds of anglers use it for good reason.
At Garrison Junction, you have to make a decision: Continue east on I-90 to find nirvana at Warm Spring Creek, the Beaverhead, Gallatin or Yellowstone (yikes!), or defect to the north and spend the rest of your allotted angling days on one of Montana’s most dependable trout fisheries year-round.
At Garrison Junction, leave I-90 and drive north for Helena and then take the four-lane toward Great Falls. Stop at Wolf Creek and splurge on one of two options on the Missouri River:
“Hire a drift boat guide for a great day of fishing from Wolf Creek to Craig. Cost: About $300.
“Bring your own pontoon boat or rent one from Montana River Outfitters and float the same stretch alone. The shop will arrange a vehicle shuttle.
The Missouri from Holter Dam to the area near Craig is dam-controlled, so it avoids the peak flows of runoff and the extreme warm-water temperatures of summer. Although the fishing can slow from mid-April to mid-May while the rainbows are spawning, the browns are still there (until they get the urge in the fall).
Other than that, wind is the only factor that shuts down the prolific hatches and fishability of the Missouri. Always come with that in mind, and a deck of cards in the camping gear.