The Hoot Owl restrictions on the entire Bitterroot have been lifted.

Much like The Blackfoot, the ‘root is low and concentrated in smaller flow channels. This makes for much better wade fishing than floating for sure.  The upper river near Darby is seeing some of the coldest water temperatures in the area with a high yesterday of only 63 degrees.  The lower river near Missoula was down to 67 for a high as the cloud cover for the week moved in.  Look for that high to drop even more in the coming days.  A variety of stuff is working up here from tricos in the morning on the lower river to good streamer fishing even midday on the upper river around Hamilton.  Prospecting with terestrial/mayfly combo rigs is a good way to test the waters so to speak or doing the hopper/subsurface dropper rig can be effective too.  A purple haze cripple in a 14 has been about as effective for us recently as anything, but attractors like stimi chew toys in red with a 15″ dropper to any size 14 soft hackle (allowed to swing at the end of the drift) have been working too.  Today’s flow near Missoula is 454 while up around Darby, it’s running 392.

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Additionally, all dries and nymphs are $1.95 every day to begin with and nearly all streamers are $2.25 – EVERY day, EVERY week

HATCHES/Flies: hoppers , ants,  tricos, PMDs, caddis, yellow sallies,

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BITTERROOT FLOW AT DARBY
BITTERROOT FLOW AT BELL CROSSING
BITTERROOT FLOW AT MISSOULA