Top 5 Montana Fly Fishing Patterns for Spring

After a few months of freezing temperatures, the winter weather finally starts to break and warm with the arrival of spring. The ice and snow melts, water temperatures rise, and the aquatic life of Southwestern Montana comes back to life. The spring equinox brings a restoration of normality for anglers, along with a variety of opportunities to catch Rainbow and Brown trout on a dry fly, nymph, or streamer.

In the early parts of spring, sub-surface techniques are employed heavily. This is a great time to find trout feeding in deeper runs or buckets on Stonefly nymphs, Baetis nymphs, Aquatic Worms, Midge Larvae, trout eggs, and small baitfish. On ideal days, you can find fantastic hatches of BWOs, Midge Adults, and Skwalas. This is the time of the year when anglers fishing can catch large Montana trout on the surface in many different Montana fly fishing river systems near Bozeman.

Bozeman Fly Fishing Spring Fly Box Essentials

Rainbow Trout begin to spawn in the middle of April, and many areas can be stacked with trout feeding before they begin the spawning process. Anglers mustn't target actively spawning trout during these times, make sure you are fly fishing ethically and respective of Montana's wild trout streams.

As water levels slowly rise and go off-color from snow melt, streamer fly fishing becomes a focus for many anglers. Big Montana trout are caught every year during this time of the year as fish move between holding areas, making catching them a reality.

With over 20 years of experience outfitting Montana fly fishing trips, Springtime fly fishing on our guided day trips near Bozeman can provide some of the most memorable moments of the year.