April 7th - 9th, 2023
As you may know, it has been a good winter here in Montana. The second we begin to think we are out of the cold, another storm rolls through that puts a few more inches of snow on the ground and delays spring fishing for a couple of days. This easter weekend was calling for a high in the 50’s so I took advantage of my three-day weekend to do my first camping trip of the 2023 season.
The goal was to catch some fish on the skwala dry fly. The skwala is a stonefly hatch many western rivers get in spring and trout take notice. Looking at water temperatures around the state showed many rivers were still too cold for a great skwala hatch, so I made my best guess with the goal of fooling just one on the big dry fly.
After a late start on Friday due to a tire that struggled to hold air, I got to the river early afternoon and tied on the big bug. Filtering through rocks on the bank showed many skwala stonefly nymphs crawling around. This was promising.
I spent the afternoon casting a single dry fly and to my surprise found some fish willing to eat it. While not many fish in the river were looking up, the few that were had me very excited. If I found the correct water type, there was usually a fish willing to take a look. Any slow-moving water next to the structure seemed to be where I had my most eats. The river was very low compared to previous years I’ve fished it as we haven’t seen any runoff on our rivers due to the cold temperatures.
I ended the first day finding a beautiful campsite along the river where I made dinner, read, and tied flies before crawling into the truck camper for a cold night. Not a bad way to start the camping trip.
Saturday morning I woke up to cloudy skies and excitement for another day of dry fly fishing. I made it a goal this year to take care of my body on fishing trips, as historically I fish sun up to sun down with little food and water. This leads to a rough start to the following week as my energy levels are low and it takes me a few days to get back to normal.
While there will be many more hardcore fishing trips in the future, it was nice to take my time this weekend. I spent the morning stretching, eating a hearty breakfast, and doing a workout. These small changes to my morning made my day much more enjoyable.
I put on the river around 10 AM on Saturday and started throwing a streamer, a tan meat whistle. The local I met at the campground the night before talked about some bigger fish he has found in here so I thought I’d see if I could fool one as water temperatures rose. A few fish were interested, and I landed a really solid brown for this river on the streamer. After landing this brown I switched to a dry dropper as the urge to fish it after a long winter was hard to resist.
Seeing the color of the Skwala nymphs, I realized I had a pats rubber legs pattern that had a very similar color. A combination of gold, green, and black. Since these stonefly nymphs were in shallow water close to the bank, I assumed the fish were feeding heavily on the nymphs. I switched to a Skwala dry fly to a pats rubber legs about 16 inches below on a dropper. This allowed me to fish in shallow water where I was seeing most of the nymphs. This setup turned out to be deadly, and I hooked fish after fish on the rubber legs.
Times like these are so rewarding as a fly fisher and a reason why I love the sport. Observing my surroundings and food sources for the trout, I was able to match that food source and find great success. It shows the importance of observing water conditions and potential food sources before making a cast. As the day went on and water temperatures rose, more fish became interested in the dry fly and I ended the day with many memorable dry fly eats. Day two left me more than satisfied, and I had a relaxing night catching up on some reading without any worry in the world.
I woke up Sunday to pure solitude and a bright sun shining on the mountains around me. I drove down a forest service road not maintained for winter travel to find a great camping spot with no one around. The road was just passable in my old Chevy, and worth the risk of getting stuck in the middle of nowhere. After a similar morning routine as the day before, I made the trip out of the canyon to target a slower-moving meadow section higher on the stream.
The sun was high in the sky by mid-morning and it was noticeably warmer than previous mornings. It felt like the true spring day we had all been yearning for. I was looking forward to the warmest day of the year, and it delivered some amazing fishing.
I knew this section of water had many undercut banks, side channels, and overall slower-moving water than the canyon I fished the two days before. As I started walking from the access point, I couldn’t believe how low the water was compared to the few times I had fished here in the past. The morning was slow, but as the water temperatures warmed and I found some better holding water. It turned out to be one of my best days fishing so far in 2023.
A midge hatch got the fish going around noon, and any slow slick had cutthroat and brown trout sipping midge clusters. A size 16 griffiths gnat did the trick and fooled a few of the biggest trout of the trip. Two beautiful cutthroat in the 16 to 17-inch range were the biggest of the trip, while I can still picture one that I fooled on the midge that probably would have measured 18 or 19 inches. It jumped clear out of the water after falling to the midge, and I got a glimpse of his bright red belly as he spit the hook. Easily the biggest fish I had seen in this river and a reason to come back. My fishing trips often involve a story about losing the biggest fish, and it makes me wonder if they just look bigger when you aren’t able to put them into the net.
When I didn’t see fish rising to the midge, I fished the single dry fly tight to structure in any likely holding water. I had some incredible eats on the big bug with long reach casts into woody banks. It was insane. The colors on the fish were stunning and to be able to fool them on a big dry fly was such a blast. The skwala hatch can be a hard one to time, so I was grateful for such an amazing day of spring fishing.
My Setup
I was using my 9ft 5wt Orvis Helios 3F (such a great dry fly rod) with Scientific Anglers Amplitude smooth trout taper weight forward fly line. My leader setup was your standard 9 foot 3x leader that I added a foot of 4x to. This is where I tied on my skwala dry fly. If I added a dropper, I used 16 inches of 4x fluorocarbon tippet to tie on my stonefly nymph. When I switched to midges, I added two feet of 5x fluorocarbon tippet to a size 18 or size 16 griffiths gnat. My go-to flies for the trip included a skwala dry fly I tied with Stonefly body cutters in a size 10, pats rubber legs size 8, and griffiths gnat size 16. They are pictured below.
What I learned
What I learned from this camping and fishing adventure was the holding water for these trout when taking skwala adults. I did not get many dry fly eats in the heart of the run or big, deep pools.
I found almost all my fish on the dry fly tight to structure or the bank, in semi-slow moving water. Many banks looked good for a big dry fly but were moving too fast for early spring fish. If it were salmon fly time they would have been perfect, but for the skwalas, the fish were in slower water. Once I figured this out, the goal was to fish the big bug as tight to the bank or structure as possible. Fishing without a dropper allowed me to get it in hard-to-reach places and made for some amazing dry fly eats. Pictured below is a prime example of holding water I was catching fish on the skwala dry fly. I fooled three trout in and around this wood pile, including a 16-inch cutthroat.
What Left Me Curious
I only saw one adult skwala in the three days I was fishing this river, but had many eats on the skwala dry fly. I wondered how many adults these fish were seeing or if they were just opportunistic at the sight of a big bug on the water. I hear the Skwalas may hatch at night, so maybe the fish were seeing them more after the sun went down. I don’t know many cutthroat that’ll refuse a big dry fly, so maybe they were just opportunistic. Whatever it may be, I think the fish were just as excited about spring fishing as I was, and it made for a great weekend.
