On the Road Report: Bugs & Suds Edition.

It’s the fifth official day of spring here in Montana which means a few things. 1) The weather is unpredictable. Like a drunk stumbling home after a weekend bender, it’s puking snow one minute, pissing rain the next or warm enough to pass out in a field on the way home. 2) Bugs. With water and air temps on the rise Spring marks the beginning of the hatches that are (for most people) a welcome end to a winter of frozen hands and following bobbers all day. And 3) It’s the only opportunity I get before summer sets in to fish with friends of mine whose careers keep them busy all season long. So when my buddy Eric, a wild land firefighter for the USFS, wanted to hit up some freestone west of the divide before a summer of chasing lightning strikes, I didn’t hesitate. Also his awesome wife Val is expecting their first child, so needless to say, time is very limited.

If you remember my last OTR Report, I jumped over the Continental Divide to Philipsburg and Rock Creek to meet up with my buddy Brock. I normally don’t fish the same water this often but based on the water and weather, it seemed promising. We’re still hunting the first hatch of bigger bugs of the season, Skwala americana, or just Skwala. Some of the smaller of the stone-flies, they’re olive/brown in color and are the first of the spring and summer hatches of these big, leggy bugs. Fishing dry/dropper rigs was pretty much the plan. I mean we got eats on the surface three weeks ago, why not now? We never saw Skwala in the air but there were a few nymphs crawling around on the edges in a few spots throughout the day. Fish still looking up too a few times. Most of the work was done sub-surface. Stonefly nymphs and attractors brought fish in all day. I think it’ll still be a little while before the Skwala really make an appearance in the upper reaches of the river Eric and I fished, but I assure you, the fish are there and they are hungry. Big hitter flies for that P-Burg freestone…