Kootenai River Report 9.15.16

The weather called for blue skies, no wind and temperatures in the 70s. What a beautiful day to hit the Kootenai River, and fish for gorgeous rainbows and cutthroat. The plan was to float from Troy to Yaak in hopes of possibly hooking a couple big rainbows. The water was gin clear, and flows were at 6,500cfs. With every weight rod imaginable in the boat, we were prepared for any situation that may arise.

Fishing started off slow for the most part. We stopped to swing streamers through a couple incredible seams off islands with very little luck. Without a doubt, our best stretch was just below the Highway 2 bridge on the residential side of the river. Here, we actually found a series of rising trout that seemed interested in the small PMD hatch. After several drifts and many fly patterns later, I got a couple eats on a #16 PMD Cripple. Nothing of any size, just a few fun fish to pass the time. The fly of the day was most definitely the Articulated Sparkle Minnow. Although it only landed a few fish, it was the most consistent.

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We finished the 8 mile float only bring a total of 6 fish to hand. Exhausted after a day of fishing in the warm sun, we realized we had a little more work to do considering the keys to the truck were 8 miles up river. Luckily, Montana is full of nice understanding campers that were more than happy to give us a ride to the boat launch.