Its January and lots of Montana fly fishing guides finally have plenty of time to fish for themselves.  Everyday there are new pictures on Facebook and Instagram of a Montana guide hoisting a nice trout over an icy river bank.  Even in the winter when most fly fishermen consider Montana unfishable, the guys who really know what they are doing are getting it done. Everyone has heard the old saying... "10% of the anglers are catching 90% of the fish."  Its true! As a guide it seems that plenty of people attribute the success of the 10% to some sort of secret fly, exceptionally perfect drag free drift, the perfect cast or a hidden super spot where the fish are just lined up feeding like crazy.  

​For the guys sitting behind the oars, these explanations usually don't add up.  There are hundreds of great flies out there but my best bugs every year end up being among the ones everyone knows about.  If I could only use two in a season, it would be a girdle bug and a prince nymph...the two most well known flies in the box...every shop has them.  Likewise, some sort of unacheivable super drift is not going to suddenly get you hooked up.  Good enough is usually good enough and most of the time the drift is more about getting the fly to where the fish are and keeping it there.  There are plenty of days in a Montana fishing season when more trout get caught on a dragged fly than that perfect drift.  The perfect cast? Being able to get the fly to where the fish are definitely matters but they really don't seem to care that your 15th cast went an inch closer to the bank than your first one.  A good cast is one that catches a fish.  Secret spots?  There are tons of them and knowing the river helps with catching fish as much as anything.  However, there are fish all over and being able to read water and know where they are going to be on a given day is the real secret...not one honey hole that is always on fire.  I could go on and on about myths and misconceptions but here are the top 5 reasons that guides notice when people are not catching fish.

99% of all fish are caught in the water!  Putting the fly in the water seems simple but sometimes it is the only thing you have to do to catch a fish.  I see a shocking number of hook ups when we are pulled over changing a bug, eating lunch or talking and someone's fly is dangling in front of the boat.  Some days dragging the fly when you are rowing to the other bank seems as productive as a dead drift.  However, waisting time by second guessing yourself and changing bugs every 5 casts or doing 5 false casts between drifts does not help. We call this "casterbateing" and it will make you go blind...or at least keep you from hooking up.  Its simple math, if you do 5 false casts when you only needed one, you spent 80% of your time with your fly in the air and you spent 80% less time in the water and caught 80% fewer fish during that time.  

This one is super common on guided trips.  If you don't commit to that hook set, by the time you realize that there is a fish on the other end it is too late.  Most often when a fish comes off mid fight it is the result of an uncommitted hook set. It is shocking how much time guides spend trying to convince people that there was a fish chewing on their fly while they were shaking it off of a rock.  We always lose this argument but normally we are making it because we could see that little rainbow trout turning side to side under the water trying to shake the fly free.  Again, it comes down to math. Whether you think it is a fish or not, if you miss 50% of you shots, you caught 50% fewer fish. When in doubt rip it out! 

Back to math class...if you spend all day in a hole that is only ever going to be good for 5 eats, the best you could hope for is 5 fish.  This is one of the reasons drift fishing is so popular.  You cover tons of water and sometimes you can have solid fishing just by showing your fly to lots of different fish.  For wade fishermen knowing when to move is a big issue.  The biggest advantage of wading over drifting is the ability to park on a good hole and get a bunch of shots.  However, knowing when to leave is just as important.  Usually you are going to have your best action and best shot at the big one in your first 10 drifts through a run.  After that it is often just going to fade.

When things slow down a bit and you went through a beautiful spot without a tap, you start to think that something you are doing is not working.  Two or three good spots like that and you need to make a change.  Being able to adapt to different fishing conditions is one thing that keeps good anglers hooked up.  However, overthinking the situation and second guessing yourself can lead to disaster.  I find that on most guide days if fishing starts off slow and we have to change bugs a lot, when it finally does get really good, we are catching them on the same rig I started with.  Changing flies is good but keep it within the relm of reasonably good bugs and don't be afraid to circle back to your first instinct or what you have the most confidence in. It is easy to spend 50% less time with your fly in the water because you are trying every rusty mouse in the bottom of your box and cussing it for not working within 10 drifts.

This one is not an easy fix.  It takes time and it is the reason that those Montana trout guides are able to go out in the dead of winter and have some pretty solid fishing.  People see the photos and say "well..if you are going to be dumb you gotta be tough" but guys are out there catching trout on some of the west's most famous rivers and never seeing another angler. If you know exactly where to fish and what to use on a given stream you can make things happen in even the worst conditions.  For this, the only answer is practice. Learn how fish behave under various conditions, in certain spots during all times of year and what bugs they ate under those circumstances.  

Most people I talk to ask about what fly to use or what section of river to fish or a dozen other questions without ever considering the role of water temperature.  Trout are cold blooded so the temperature of their environment plays a major role in how they behave.  If its cold, they are going to hold in deep slow water and move much less than they might at warmer temps.  Further, water temperature is the main thing that triggers aquatic insect hatches.  There is one major factor that influences how fish move and where they hold and what they eat and most people don't even consider it until it gets too hot on a summer afternoon and nobody is catching anything.  Paying more attention to water temperatures in your fishing is a good way to get into that 10% who are catching 90% of the fish.  

Winter is happening this year in Montana!  There was plenty of snow in December and we are off to a good start for snowpack.  Snowpack is really important to some of our fisheries like the Jefferson river and Madison river.  These two rivers fish really well on a good snow year.  While the upper Madison River is one of the best options on a low water year, a good snow year produces even better fishing with fewer people traveling over from fisheries with poor water conditions.  

The Bozeman Chronicle put out a good article on the current state of our snowpack in Southwest Montana.  It is still early but so far we are right on track for a good water year and a lot of our rivers fishing well.  For those keeping an eye out for spring runoff, it is worth noting that the Land of the Giants section of the Missouri river will not get muddy and fishes really well in May and June.  Likewise, the upper Madison can get dirty but experiences a much lighter runoff than most other Montana rivers.