My wife and I spent a week on the Kootenai about 4 summers ago in the first part of August. The weather was real hot that week and the fishing was a little tough. We spent the first part of the week in a campground up on the reservoir above the Libby dam and had it all to ourselves until the weekend. The last couple of days we rented a cabin that was right on the river and owned by Dave Blackburn who run's the local fly shop. We had our 14 ft. drift boat with us and floated the river every day. The flow of the river varied depending on what the dam was doing. It's kind of like a shallow Skagit with tons of trout. I didn't hook any monsters but the current in the big river makes playing even the small guys interesting. Small nymphs are what worked the best. I guess in the fall the big boys come out to play and hoppers and other drys work well. Below the dam there are some huge rainbows and bull trout that feed on kokanee that are killed by the turbines. I think someone caught a 30 plus pounder the year we were there. I talked to some locals who were fishing at the base of the dam. There technique was drift fishing just like you would for steelhead only they were using belly strips for bait. I attempted to cast my fly there but was not effective. I could see some huge bull trout cruising. They were big....no....they were gigantic! All in all it was a great trip and I would love to go there in the fall. We mostly did long floats probably over 13 miles of river and only saw a few other boats and fishermen. Definitely not like West Yellowstone in the summer. Of coarse, after this post all the lurkers will be planning their next vacation in Libby, right?
Sincerely, Keith http://www.montana-flyfishing.com/
