The Bitteroot is hanging around 2300 cfs and is running fairly clear. Cloudy days have been gooood, but you can still find fish willing to eat in the sunshine. Skwalas, March browns, and baetis are still the top items on the menu (even though we might be fishing in a snow storm the next couple days). For all you streamer junkies, the fish seem to be looking for a bigger meal lately. Smaller, flashy patterns have been moving a lot of fish. The fish will be tight to the banks and in the slow diamond chop on inside bends.

Double dutch bugs, flush floater skwalas, royal chubbies, rogue skwalas, olive chubbies, Amy’s ants in olive, and bugmeisters are all good choices for skwalas. D&D March brown cripples, rusty spinners, Flick’s March brown, mimic may March browns, and parachute pheasant tails are what you need for March browns. For baetis use thorax BWO’s, Wilcox’s micro mays, smoke jumper baetis, and olive parachutes. Underneath use pheasant tails, pearl green lightning bugs, San Juan worms, amber princes, Pat’s rubber legs, jigstones, and hare’s ear nymphs. Streamers have been working well in the down time between hatches with Aztec streamers, sparkle minnows, bighorn buggers, sculpzillas, and sex dungeons.

HATCHES/Flies: Midges, skwalas, march browns, baetis, grey drakes A Review of the Winston Fly Rod

For more info on the Winston Nexus