The Blackfoot River Fishing Report

Tip of the Week:

Adding split shot to your indicator nymph rig is very important when wade fishing.  The added weight of the split shot will get your flies in the strike zone faster, resulting in more opportunities for fish to eat on each drift.  We like to use split shot even when fishing tungsten bead flies.  Shot is less important when fishing from a drift boat or raft because you can achieve much longer drifts, but we still use it when fishing flies that are weightless or have small beads.

A Drought Closure (fishing prohibited 24 hours) is in effect for the North Fork Blackfoot River from USFS boundary downstream to Highway 200 starting September 10.

Streamflows were measured at the DNRC Ryan Bridge Gage 76F 03500 and have remained below critical threshold of 5 cfs since September 1st.

Beaver dams and braided channel morphology have combined with extremely low flows in the hydrologic-losing reach to create conditions that are expected to concentrate adult bull trout as they attempt downstream migrations to the Blackfoot River.

The closure criteria follows the Blackfoot Drought Response Plan.

7 Day Outlook: 

It’s going to be a cold and snowy week up the Blackfoot!  Highs will struggle to break 40 while lows will dip below freezing.  Up to 10” of snow is predicted!  Bring it on!

Best techniques:

Nymphing is going to be your fishiest technique on the Blackfoot for the foreseeable future.  Focus your efforts on the deeper and slower moving areas on the river.  

Streamers: Kreelex, Sparkle Minnow, Brown Town, Zonker, Chicago Overcoat

Nymphs: San Juan, Rubber Legs, Prince, Duracell, Spanish Bullet, Perdigon, Zebra Midge

Dries: Midges