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March 13, 2005
Last week the weather was somewhere between idyllic and unreal. It was warm and
beautiful.
The river took a lot of hits from fishermen who were in hopes that the water temperatures would warm up too, and that the skwala hatch, the Bitterroot’s early season olive stonefly phenomenon with big fish chasing size 8 dries with total abandon after a long winter, would start early.
For some it did. Our own Scott McCormmach got out one day, and landed a batch of trout in the 15’ to 17’ range.
“All on your pattern,” he told me. “They were taking on top. I didn’t see many adults on the surface but the fish didn’t seem to care. Through the day I turned over a bunch of rocks and found batches of skwala nymphs up close to the edge of the river - ready to migrate out and hatch.”
Then it snowed.
It is snowing today, Sunday March 13, as I write this. Those bugs are still along the edges, waiting for things to warm up, to complete their migration journey. That could happen later this week. Stay tuned...
It will take a series of warm nights to bring the water temperatures into the range that will cause these underwater bugs to migrate to shore and molt their nymphal shucks, and when that happens, the trout will be on them soon, with the best fishing coming about three days after the migration starts.
Until then, successful dry fly fishing is still a distinct possibility, but I’d go with the Olive Drifter nymph in size 8, which closely mimics the size, color, and activity of the skwala nymph, around the edges.
I’d fish carefully, in the areas where the current bends toward shore, pushing the migrating stoneflies with it. Trout in such water can be skittish. Mustn’t spook. If you don’t there are times when you can pick them off, one by one, for hours. Some of these fish will be the best you’ll see, all season.
And I’d also be prepared for Blue Winged Olives, a couple of smaller stones, especially a gray one in size 12 or 14, and midges. And, I’d carry a skwala dry pattern, (I’m partial to my own Chuck’s Skwala pattern) just in case things got started on top. And I’d be prepared for sudden changes in the weather.
That’s the way it is with spring fishing on the Bitterroot, and the skwala hatch. This early, the angler who looks things over, as Scott did, and is flexible enough to do what is called for, has a chance to score big when conditions are right.
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USGS:
Stream flow in the West Fork Bitterroot River
(below Painted Rocks Lake near Conner, MT)
