Bitteroot Blowout
Well its that time of year as we know it….. RUN OFF has begun as of this afternoon I believe. I was able to make one last fishing adventure on Saturday with Montana Wild Outdoors friends Aaron Bonsall, Ben Morin, and Stephen Anglin. We fished the Victor Braid and managed lots of whitefish, a beast of a cutbow, and a couple nice browns….. oh and a mystery fish that Aaron caught. Here’s a video of the last couple of weeks before runoff hit. Primarily filmed on the lower half of the Bitteroot and it was phenomenal. Check it out and be sure to bump the quality up to 720p!
First trout of the day and an incredible net job by Aaron. Thanks buddy!
This brown trout was an awesome fight…. He came flying out of the water and took my drag for a ride.
A beauty of a brown trout that Stephen pulled out of some increasingly muddy water. Almost got away, but I managed to net him.
Ben with a nice streamer catch brown trout. Streamers have been fishing well with the rising waters and murky waters.
“We were born to fish.”
-Travis
3 hours on the Bitteroot River
The younger brother (Travis) here logging in my first info into our blog. Had a couple hours between my college classes and my job to check out the Bitteroot on a beautiful Monday. This ended up being a solo mission (fishing is priority on sunny days right?). Finally seeing some sunshine and left the day with a slight sunburn. Water was very clear to my surprise! Saw some large fish in some slower moving water and ended up with my first sucker on a fly rod.
1st carp of the year
This fish actually put up a pretty good fight and measured 23″ in length and barely fit in my net. Waded further upstream and tested some skwalla patterns with no success. 
A couple of rainbows I managed to pull out of a deep hole.
Great day all together and there were fish starting to hit top water towards the end of my excursion (around 330pm). Video up soon…
Travis
The start to a new season: 2011
With the Montana archery season spanning about 4 1/2 months, we hadn’t had a chance to think about fishing. This turned out to be a great thing because the time off made me appreciate the chance to get out an fish even more. The first day of the year February 19. This turned out to be about two months earlier than we had ever made it out on the river. With the weather hovering around freezing and the sun trying to poke through the clouds we headed out from the car.
- Travis searching the river for his first fish.
We decided upon the Bitteroot River outside Florence. After a short walk and some time feeling out our fishing after a long break I hooked up on my first fish. That first fish made me feel like I was filming a modern day “A River Runs Through It.” He gave me a couple jumps at an attempt to shake the fly but I wasn’t having it.
- Bald Eagles keeping watch.
Reading the water definitely changes from winter and summer and once I got this figured out I landed a few more fish. The fish I found were slow chest deep moving water and when they got on they were fighters.
- Wading to a new spot
Travis got to test out his brand new St. Croix Legend Ultra 8’6″ 5wt. rod and G. Loomis Venture 5 reel. Unfortunately he didn’t bring any to net today but I’m sure he’ll be making up for it soon.
- Travis searching the river for his first fish.
Soon a snowy front had pushed over the Bitteroots and we decided not to fight iced guides and a snowstorm. Despite the cold, iced up guides, and slow fishing we had a blast and we look forward to some great spring fishing.
Zack