Timing a trip to a place you’ve never been before, or even spent a limited amount of time but know little about, is a tough decision. Often, you look up prime time and realize there are two choices. The safe and consistent fishing, or the risky but potentially exceptional fishing. In heading west enough times now though, i’ve formed some opinions that are supported by enough days on the river to be worthwhile. These are the bullet points.
“PRIME TIME” IN WESTERN TERMS MEANS MEDIOCRE FISHING
With any fishery, it is important to have some context about the fishing culture surrounding the area going into it. Out west, the culture is all about production. The western U.S. is a major tourist hub for fly-fishing with many “clients” being people that have fly fished very few times, if at all, before booking their trip. This causes the marketing from the western U.S. outfitters to promote the mid summer season, a time where flows stabilize and steady fishing to cookie cutter fish can be had fishing blind dry dropper style, or with an indy rig off the boat as the guide rows and makes your drift happen for you (a method you genuinely can’t say is enjoyable). Understanding these motivations and approach of western outfitters is important if you are an angler that is foreign to, and have been dreaming of heading west. You think that’s the time after reading up- but its not.
The western U.S. can be broken down into 3 types of water when it comes to moving trout water. First, you have high gradient freestone rivers. These rivers have a very limited dry fly window when it comes to hatches, and those bugs usually come off at the early part of the season when water level risk is high. So most people avoid and rightfully so. Once the early season hatches fade, these freestones become run and gun fisheries, where large dry fly terrestrials and attractors are used, often also as a bobber, with any nymph underneath it to catch 10-20 average fish a day.
You then have the tailwaters. These are high number rivers in terms of fish count, but often are very crowded during prime time. The bugs are usually there for much of the season, but so are the people. I tend to enjoy a few days on these waters during my trips out west because of how reliable the fishing is, and the high average size of the fish on these streams. But many of these streams are fairly featureless water wise, and can get old after you have had your fill. For these reasons, I like to branch out after getting my fix on these waters.
You then have the smaller streams that are a mix of spring creeks and mountain freestone rivers that vary from popular to untouched. And often, the more well known the larger freestone or tailwater is nearby, the lesser touched those mid to smaller sized streams are. And they don’t always mean small fish. Like any fishery though, there is a time to be there and sometimes these rivers do offer unique big fish opportunities during the mid summer months on terrestrials, while others just get low and marginal. These being the considerations, when should you head west?
EARLY SUMMER IS NOT AS RISKY AS ADVERTISED
The key to getting into truly good fishing out west is fishing on the fringe early or late in the season, and eyeing up conditions before locking yourself into a particular fringe week. Booking a trip 8-12 months out in advance almost assures you are going to get shafted every time on your trip. You need to remain more flexible and patiently wait to book your trip as things develop, rather than panic on locking in lodging and logistics well in advance. You need to see what conditions are doing in the late winter months when the full season outlook becomes more clear. Snow pack, weather, and general seasonal progression becomes more predictable by March/April which is when you can determine the level of risk you want to take on your trip timing wise.
In my experience, fishing early summer (June 15-July 1) is a good time out west although it’s perceived to be high-risk flow wise by the general angling public. It is important to realize however that much of the general angler base that migrates out west is a heard of sheep and creatures of habit. They fish a particular mainstay tourist river all week, the same week every year, and never even change up the stretch they are floating let alone the river. The Missouri. The Bighorn. The Yellowstone. They want a lodge/cabin in a hub fishing town 5 min from the boat ramp that they can walk to every night and have no thought process of what other streams are out here. They tend to travel in large groups (a situation outfitters love/make money on but make those that have been there a while realize the place is ruined), meet for lunch to talk about fishing and sometimes don’t even fish afterwards because they get too drunk at the trout bum bar, and are who I would point to if asked about the negative effects of the film “A River Runs Through It.” They are unadventurous domesticated sports.
In truth, Montana and most western fishing destinations are incredibly diverse when it comes to the water available to anglers. There are “tailwaters” that are 30 feet wide and resemble spring creeks more than dam fed streams, there are spring creeks that never blow out, there are freestones that even when high, fish well, and have bugs in the early fringe summer window. And the big fish are hungry. There is always fishable water somewhere even when the flows are high in June, and good water.
Oppositely, western conditions are not what you would expect for such a trout rich habitat during the mid summer months. Mid summer “prime time” consists of mostly sunny days that average 85-100 degrees daily. Most rivers have limited hatches at this time other than the well-known tailwaters, which by mid summer are mobbed with drift boats, and usually filled with weeds making fishing frustrating.
Early summer is different though. Regardless of water conditions, you have bugs on most waters, and the fish are incredibly resilient and willing to eat regardless of the conditions. Fish are in back channels that aren’t even really part of the stream eating salmon flies on the Big Hole. Big Browns are in the Missouri sipping PMD’s that are of a class size that you likely won’t see 3-4 weeks later when the tricos come on and the pressure is heavy. And the Yellowstone produces browns the size of your dog, while it will likely only show you hand sized rainbows in prime-time that even the most social media driven angler struggles to take a picture of, but does anyway along with the pretty mountains in the backdrop to balance it out #Noonecares.
Bottom line being early, but not too early is the real prime. June 15 to July 1. You have bugs everywhere, and a dynamic ecosystem where something is always fishable. It will force you out of your comfort zone if your favorite tourist river is blown, but just talk to the shops and roll up the sleeves to get into nearby alternatives that I promise you are there, but you just never heard of. Or post your favorite 15” rainbow caught on a purple haze on July 15th instead.(Yes I’m speaking from experience)
FALL IS RISKIER BUT MIND BLOWING IF YOU HIT IT RIGHT
I’m not going to let my attack on mid-Summer fly-fishing tourism go as far as to sell a fishing window that downright poses risk. And the fall does. But the risk is different than you often read about. The biggest risk in the fall isn’t cold/bad weather, but rather the risk that summer persists and lingers longer than expected into the fall months. Late September used to be golden for quality fall fishing in Montana and many other western locales, however with weather patterns changing out there of late, late September often now becomes an extension of summer, with hot days, fish that are tired of seeing terrestrials, a premature streamer bite for pre spawn browns, and no fall bugs to get the fish up.
In response to the climate shifts, I’ve started doing the second week of October. What I’ve found is the fishing is downright good, but you can’t bank on the dry fly game and need to be willing to commit to a mixed method approach to consistently do well. Dry fly is always an option, and can be outright good, but sometimes the wind is constant and the fish that are rising are the cookie cutter fish rather than the ones you are looking for. That leaves streamer fishing as being the best method to target the upper class fish, which lets be real if you are there in October, are what you came for. If you are fortunate enough to get cloudy weather and manageable winds, you can stick some monsters on olives that you would never think would rise to a dry fly, or in the stream those fish were found. To not be too evasive, I’ll throw one bone out there. (The Lower Gallatin near Manhattan in mid-october)
While the weather in Mid October can be anything from mild summer conditions to early winter conditions, the fish don’t care when the weather gets cold and nasty, which is honestly what you are hoping for. Some of the best dry fly fishing I’ve ever had out west has been on October days when the air temps were 35-40 degrees with snow falling and olives glued to the water. Another awesome and unique thing about the fall out west is fish enter rivers that are usually marginal at best during the other fishing months. The fish migration that occurs out west during the fall months is much more extreme in terms of distance than most regions see, to the extent that rivers which held little to no fish 30-60 days ago, can hold many large browns after a cold week or two once fall sets in. Knowing and timing these streams is important, but is also something the uninformed but exploratory angler can stumble upon with a little due diligence, resilience, and savvy in the fly shops and bars talking to folks about where those spots are. While the fishing reports wind down in the fall, and give off the impression the the fishing has too, that is just because those shops are downright tired and burnt out after a busy summer and know their money making demographic is largely and unconditionally committed to the “prime” mid summer window. Report wise, shops know the fall is for the locals and those in the know that don’t read their reports or buy their sweatshop cheap flies anyway, so why would they try and write something meaningful?
REGARDLESS OF SEASON- KEEP YOUR OPTIONS OPEN
As mentioned, most out of state anglers often get excited, or nervous due to the angling demand for the place, or sheer vastness of the place, and lock in logistics firmly when heading out there well in advance. Common Itineraries include “going to the Missouri River, booking 7 days with headhunters, have a drift boat rented for all 6 days fishing, catch a 100 rainbows that week that all look the same.” Even if the fishing were good elsewhere, these people wouldn’t leave because that requires too much thought, and have also already spent the money so they have a good excuse to not go anywhere else. I promise you going to any western tailwater for a full week, without switching it up, will get old. The fishing is steady but repetitive with flat, uniform streams that lack the character you think of when you picture a trout stream. On each trip it should be a goal to try a new place and I’ve never had an issue finding a fishy motel to crash at nearby where I’m fishing when venturing to new waters. Regardless of what you have heard, or haven’t heard, there are other waters near the mainstay tourist river you are bunkered down on.
Often times, I gauge the quality of the new water I’m inquiring about by the look on the seasoned fly shop guy’s face when I drop the name of a stream I’ve read about/but never fished to get their opinion. If he doesn’t know it, he’s likely a recently transplanted summer fish bro with a job the equivalent of a lifeguard, and if he seems nervous you brought it up in the shop, you make a note and try the place. In a lot of places, I do believe that most good secrets are on the decline due to the fact that nothing is sacred and kept quiet anymore. But that’s not the case in Montana. The place is too big, and too remote in spots to be totally figured out by anyone, which provides a unique opportunity to see things you wont see many other places on the water. You just need to be honest with yourself- are you a tourist there to see the place, or a fly-fisherman?
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