My Top 10 Montana Fly Fishing Spots

One of my favorite sounds to hear is “Fish on!” coming from a friend about 20-30 feet away.  It’s even better when I’m the one saying it to the delight of my friends.  I grew up fishing, but didn’t learn to fly fish until I moved to Montana in the late 90s.  What a place to learn.  Big Sky Country.  One of the trout fishing paradises of the world.  And, yes, if you know me, there is almost always a funny story to go with anything I do as you will read.

It was the late 90s and I had recently moved to Montana.  On a whim, two friends, Jon and Frenchy, invited me fly fishing.  I had no gear at the time of the invite, but went out and bought a rod and reel.  I borrowed a pair of waders from the Military Outdoor Recreation Center.  When I arrived to pick the waders up, Frenchy had just been there and picked up the last pair of fishing waders, so I got stuck with duck hunting waders.  No big deal, right?  Waders are waders, right?  Oh, how wrong that statement turned out to be. 

My first time fly fishing…

We woke up very early, packed up our gear, stopped to get lunch and drove about an hour or so south out of Great Falls to Craig and the Mighty Missouri River. The first light from the sun slowly crept over the hills, but a good bit of darkness still surrounded us that chilly day.  We suited up and I followed the other two down to the river.  I couldn’t really see exactly where I was going, but I trudged on into the river. 

And boy did I find out how cold the water was.  And, no, I didn’t fall.  The waders had several holes in them and the cold Missouri River filled my waders quicker than you can believe.  If you’ve seen the Seinfeld episode, things shrink when they get cold.  I’m surprised other things ever descended.  By the end of the day I also ended up getting contact dermatitis from the wet waders rubbing along my upper legs.

I don’t even think I caught anything that day, while, as usual, Jon caught a dozen or so.  (A few years later Jon received a new, well-earned callsign, Trout.)  Thankfully I stuck with fly fishing, and a week or two later, with a good set of waders this time, I caught my first Rainbow Trout fly fishing. 

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I know the picture of Trout and I on the left is old and a bit faded, but this is the start of a more than 20-year fascination with fly fishing. This is my first trout.  Kind of a cool picture.  The newer one is a picture of Trout and I with another friend, Don, back in the same area 20 years later.  I think my hat looks better in the more recent picture.           

This week’s Top 10 list is a list of places I love to fish in Montana, and will be in alphabetical order.  It is very difficult to rank streams/rivers for fishing since they are so different in size, water flow, type of flies used, what part of the year, how big the fish are, etc.  As with all areas in Montana, please obey the land owners’ signs getting to the water.  There are places you can enter, and others you cannot.  And the places you can enter, please leave them better than when you arrived.  Pick up after yourself. 

I also suspect there are better places to fish in Montana than my list below. Some of the more well known hot spots I didn’t get a chance to get out to so I can’t put them on the list.  Some spots I’m not allowed to discuss. They’re “classified” Double Uber Maximum Top Secret. Sorry. Some people don’t like talking about specific spots, so for some of these spots I only talk about an area, which I feel is acceptable.  I wouldn’t want to ruin prime fishing holes and for all of them (those listed and not listed) I want to be invited back.    

Top 10, in alphabetical order…

#1 Belt Creek Part 1; This is the part of Belt Creek from Sluice Boxes State Park downstream into and a bit beyond the town of Belt.  This area of the creek runs along Rt 89 and is very accessible.  There are a number of pull-offs along Rt 89 where you can park and walk/hike to the creek, as well as a spot to park at the State Park.  This is a quick 25-30 minute drive from Great Falls and a fun little spot to catch small trout, and sometimes a lot of them.  My favorite time to hit this area is during the summer when the hoppers are going crazy.  There are a number of holes where the creek runs along fields, and when presented right, a hopper is awesome.  I used my 4 weight and could have gone smaller, but I don’t own a smaller rod and reel.   

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#2 Belt Creek Part 2; From Memorial Falls Trail Head down to Monarch.  This area of Belt Creek is nestled in the mountains and The Lewis and Clark National Forrest area.  The creek can be smaller in places here, and the trout are smaller too, but still a lot of fun.  This whole area can be fished with small nymphs, hoppers when the season is good and occasionally, I would hit using Elk Hair caddis or ants. 

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I remember bringing my Dad to this part of Belt Creek almost 20 years ago.  This was an adventure that I will never forget.  And it has nothing to do with the fish I caught, or fishing with my Old Man (which was a lot of fun.)  It has everything to do with my Old Man’s technique of going to his fishing spot.  It is a technique I would not replicate in a million years. 

After we arrived, I pointed out a good spot for him to go upstream.  I said I would go downstream about 50 yards from him and we could slowly make our way upstream.  I gave him first crack at the creek upstream. Then, I made my way into the creek and started fishing.  He finished getting ready and started walking to his spot.  Quick background, my Old Man is not a small guy.  At the time he was about 6’3” 275.  He went into the creek about 30 feet from his spot and proceeded to stomp up stream, making more noise than a train.  I lowered my head and shook it from side to side.  I’m not sure if we caught more than 2 fish that day.  It was fun fishing with the Old Man, but stealth is not one of his strong points.      

#3 Blackfoot River; In-between the Lincoln area and east of Missoula, in the National Forrest and along Rt 200 runs the famous Blackfoot River.  This is the river made famous in the book and movie A River Runs Through It.  I’m sure Norman Maclean fished the river a bit closer to Missoula, but this is the part I like best.  You are away from the city, in the mountains and the fishing can be great (or really bad if the river is running hard and muddy due to the melt off.)  This area is untamed wilderness (just like a couple of others on this list) and trout will not be the only wildlife you run into.  You may see plenty of deer, elk, hawks, eagles and bear.  Just be vigilant and, if you want, carry a side arm to protect yourself.   

#4 Little Prickly Pear Creek; Along the Recreation Road both north and south of Wolf Creek.  Although I didn’t catch too many, this is another area that is very pretty.  And, usually quiet from seeing another angler.  Prickly Pear Creek flows into the Missouri right below stream of the Wolf Creek Bridge.  The area closest to the Missouri I have never been to so I can’t say if where the two meet is any good.  But, south of Wolf Creek the stream runs clean and steady so there are enough places to drop a nymph and wait for the strike. 

#5 Madison River Part 1; This part is between Hebgen Lake and Earthquake Lake.  This little area, right outside West Yellowstone, is amazing.  (Unfortunately, the part of the Madison that I like even better is in the park area that rests in Wyoming, so that one doesn’t count on this list.)  This part of the river gets a lot of attention and is usually pretty busy.  But there is a reason.  It is really good.  There are several nooks and crannies that hold some very nice trout.  The options for floating a fly along the top of the water, or bouncing one along the bottom change based upon the hatch and the stream conditions.  I would absolutely stop by one of the fly shops in town, check the board, buy some new flies and enjoy.    

#6 Madison River Part 2; Between Earthquake Lake and Ennis, the Madison is interesting.  This area can also be challenging at times.  There are spots where the water flow is quick and the time to present your fly to a fish is small so it needs to be good.  The fish are good size but somewhat shy due to a lot of traffic at times.  But when you hook one, they are lively and fun to land. 

#7 Missouri River Part 1; Between Holter Dam and Craig.  This area needs to be split into further subsections.  I will do Section A, from the Dam to Wolf Creek Bridge and Section B, from the Bridge into Craig.  Overall, the river is wide and deep in spots around here, so don’t think you can wade across it.  Pick a side and stay there until you are ready to get in your car and cross to the other side (unless you are floating, then have fun and enjoy the entire river.) 

Section A, between Holter Dam and Wolf Creek Bridge; This area is amazing, full of fish, and at times, very tricky.  This area also could be packed shoulder to shoulder on the weekend.  And as such, the fish are very wary if the fly looks even the smallest amount unnatural.  But, when it is quiet, and the fish feel like eating, this is some of the best fun I have had fishing.  This area is Blue Ribbon fishing.  The rainbow and brown trout are abundant and usually big.  The last pull-off before the dam on Beartooth Road is a great spot to park.  You can walk to the dam along a field, or head a bit downstream.  A nice, two fly setup works great.  Just bounce a scud along the bottom with something 16-18 inches above it and you should have fun.

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I remember fishing Little Prickly Pear Creek one day.  The fishing was bad and a heavy rain was about to hit so I picked up and decided to head home.  As I crossed the Wolf Creek Bridge, I thought, sure, I’d turn right and head towards the Dam just to see what the Missouri looked like.  I stopped at the spot listed above, took my 4 weight (I was planning on only doing small stream fishing that day) and trekked into the Might Mo.  Just downstream, the river splits and there is a small island I waded out to.  Thankfully the river was a bit shallow at the time and I had no issues wading.  I pulled out a crappy version of a mini-rainbow streamer I tied, and threw it into the river.

The river makes a cut along a bank here and it runs deep and fast.  For some reason, that streamer, when floated down and then jerked upstream right at the bend worked like a charm while the rain dripped off my hat.  I caught a half-dozen 20+ inch rainbows in an hour.  It was awesome.  I brought my wife’s best friend/”sister” there a couple months later and, although we didn’t land any of the big ones, we still caught a couple nice sized rainbows.   

Section B, below Wolf Creek Bridge and Craig; This spot is where I started my fly fishing journey.  There are a bunch of spots on both sides of the river to stop and throw a fly.  With several splits in the river, fishing along the top or bottom of the island can be fun.  I see a lot of boats through this area.  They launch at the bridge and float down past Craig.  I personally have never floated this part of the river, but I hear it is really good.  The spots I have waded are good, but I’d like to get back and cast from a boat.  With farm land on both sides of the river, hopper season late in the summer is great.   

#8 Missouri River Part 2; Below Craig, the river flows through some canyons and back and forth under the highway.  This part of the river I have floated and it was a lot of fun.  I have also waded close to Craig many times.  When you take the boat, there are a couple of places that are harder to get to while wading that look really good and hold some monsters.  Although downstream from the dam a bit, the area is still rich in aquatic insects and the fish are still very abundant.  Also, having eagles soar over your head while you fish can be exciting.

I floated this with my brother-in-law Joe and Don.  The river was amazing.  The fishing was horrible that day though.  I’m fairly confident we caught nothing that day.  And we tried everything we could think of.  After we brought the boat back, we learned that the river upstream of Craig was super-hot, but downstream was luke-warm.  The difference is a couple of miles.  That shows how fickle the river (and trout) can be.   

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Fun fact for you…

As a fun fact, there is a bridge before the river passes Prewett Creek called the Hardy Bridge on Old US 91.  It may look familiar to you.  If you ever saw the Sean Connery, Kevin Costner movie The Untouchables, this is the bridge that plays the border crossing between the US and Canada.     

#9 South east area of the Bob Marshal Wilderness: Feeding into the Gibson Reservoir there are several creeks and tributaries.  This is an area you should take a motor boat across the Reservoir to get to instead of hiking it, unless you plan on spending the night in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.  I only made it to this area once, on the last time I went fishing in Montana before leaving a couple of years ago.  Two friends (Conn and Moe) and I took the day to head up there.  You take the boat to the opening of some of these tributaries, then, with one-person fishing at the boat, you hike up the stream until you find a nice spot. The Bob Marshall is another area where wildlife is present, so be prepared to protect yourself.    

I know I caught at least two dozen fish, most likely almost 3 dozen.  I lost count.  Even as I was fixing one of my flies, the other fly was in the water and I caught at least two fish just standing there like that.  That was one of the most fun days on a river I ever had. We caught close to 100 fish between the three of us.  The only bad part about the trip was Conn lost a fly-rod on the ride up there.  We think it bounced out of his boat as we went over the dirt roads.  So, tip, make sure your gear is stored properly so it won’t jump out of the boat.      

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#10 The many little creeks, ponds and lakes east and around Lincoln MT that are just so picturesque and have good fishing.  I love the area around Lincoln.  If you want to image the Rocky Mountains, wilderness, trout streams, wildlife, and peace and quiet, this is the place to picture.  There are so many creeks, streams and brooks there I can’t name them all or even come close.  Rainbows, Cutthroat, some Browns, they all live here.  And they are all fun to catch.  I remember being up there in the area in the early 2000s, and I hit a couple of streams during a caddis hatch, and I couldn’t keep up.  The caddis hatching were small, but I had something close enough and did pretty well.

The last time I was stationed in Montana, I brought my daughter up there with me.  That was a lot of fun, even if we didn’t catch too many fish.  It was during a summer with bad fires, and we had to be careful the winds didn’t blow the wrong way and drive the fire towards us.  That is another issue with summer fishing in Montana.  Be aware that the state suffers from some wicked forest fires.

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These 10 spots don’t even come close to all the great fishing in Montana.  The areas near Glacier and Yellowstone are amazing and I was able to do a little fishing around there.  Unfortunately, I never really made it to the Southwest area of Montana, where you have the Clark, the Bitteroot or the Big Hole rivers.  From my friends that went there, those places are awesome.  If you ask anyone that lives in Montana, they might tell you a different spot that they like, but if they bring you to a spot they fish, know that might be their little secret.  Again, fishing spots are sometimes a closely held secret.    

Montana is Big Sky Country.  It is also Big Trout Country.  Learning to fly fish in one of the hottest spots for trout fishing in the world was a dream.  People pay top dollar to travel there and fly fish.  I was lucky enough to live there.  If anyone asks you if you want to go with them to Montana to fly fish, ask them when and then start getting your gear ready.  If you don’t go, you will miss out on the trip of a lifetime.  This list is meant as a primer.  Go explore and find your spots.  Teach someone how to fly fish.  Enjoy the outdoors.  As always, safe travels, good luck, have fun and hope for tight lines!

I want to thank Trout, Don, Joe and Conn for some of the pictures, permission to talk about some of the spots and for allowing me to fish with them. I have fished with a bunch more people over the years, and I would like to thank them too (although they will remain nameless and their fishing hot spots will not be released.) I’d also like to thank my Wife for giving me “kitchen passes” to go fishing, and my Daughter for occasionally going with me.