Great Falls, Montana Fishing Report 11.01.18
Missouri River
Late fall weather is always a wild card. As the weather goes, so goes the fishing. Sunny, windy days can be challenging. Overcast periods with moderate to light winds can provide fantastic action. It looks to continue. It will be rather mild with some clouds and rain possible over the next week. That’s generally a good thing for fly fishing.
Nymphs
Nymphing is a bit hit and miss right now. The water is low and many of the fish are still spread out over skinny flats looking for baetis and midges. Short leaders with small stealthy indicators or dry droppers are the best approach to fishing the skinny water. If you focus on the deeper runs and outside bends of the river, you can use longer leaders, larger indicators and scuds, sows, and attractor nymphs.
Dry Flies
Drifting caddis, ants, and beetles over productive water can sometimes provide surprisingly good action before the little baetis start covering the water in the afternoon. Then most of the fish get selective, but some will still eat a bigger target.
Sometimes, not knowing what you should be doing is a good thing. Heard about a fellow who tried fly fishing for the first time on the Missouri River on October 28th. He tied on a hopper while he was practicing his cast because a double nymph rig is challenging to start with. He caught three fish on the hopper.
Streamers
Streamer fishing is getting more consistent as we get later into the fall, but color seems to be a factor. Black has been a producer most days, but sometimes white has been hot. Gold and silver flashy stuff has not been stellar lately, though that might change. You will likely need to keep trying different flies and retrieves until you find your magic bullet.
Trout Spey
More and more anglers are swinging soft hackles and catching enough fish to be happy while doing it. Setting up with a Scandi head or an integrated floating line and a long leader provides a system that’s a joy to cast and super fun to fish. It’s a really relaxing way to spend a day on the water. Small leeches, buggers, and minnow imitations like the foxxy Clouser are always a good choice and can be fished in conjunction with the softies.
If you want to target the most aggressive fish, you can go with a Skagit head and sink tip. Sculpzilla’s, mini gongas, bald eagles, smoke n’ mirrors, mini dungeons and so forth. The list is long, the flies are bigger, and you just might capture your fish of the year.
Stillwaters
Some really nice fish are being taken from area reservoirs this fall. Holter and Willow Creek are getting the most attention. Most of the larger fish are coming on with buggers fished deep. As long as the weather stays mild, the fishing opportunities will remain excellent.
See past reports from the Great Falls region here, or click here to view all northwest regional reports.