Bitterroot River - East and West Fork, MT

The Bitterroot can be divided up into 3 different sections.  The upper channels of the Bitterroot River has 2 forks, The West Fork and The East Fork.  These are ideal exciting floats during high water and abundant stonefly hatches in June.  The fishery on these sections is dominated by native West Slope Cutthroats, but also has large rainbows and brown trout.  There are Bull Trout in these upper reaches, but they are rare.  These sections offer quality fishing from spring to late fall.  As the river gets lower in the summer, pools will stack with trout eager to hit dry flies.

After these Channels merge the upper river holds over 1000 trout per mile and is very forgiving to anglers of all levels.  As The Bitterroot migrates north through the valley it begins to change its character and has many braided channels and log jams.  This is where the trout numbers decrease, but the larger rainbows and browns reside here.  The Bitterroot River is very complicated and has many channels and springs that hold all species of trout in these stretches.