Monture Creek Montana Fishing Report & Options for Selecting Flies: Email us at (sales@perfectflystore.com) with the dates you will be fishing and we will send you a list of our fly recommendations. We can get flies and gear to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Your can also call us at 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide what flies and gear to use. All orders are shipped free in the U.S. If under a $100 order requiring Priority mail is a charge of only $8.10. Orders over a $100 are shipped free via Priority Mail.
We have custom Perfect Fly selections in 3 different price ranges for this stream that come with or without fly boxes that make excellent gifts. Click Here To Order or Call us at 800 594 4726 or email us at sales@perfectflystore.com.
Type of Stream
Freestone
Species
Brown Trout
Rainbow Trout
Cutthroat Trout
Brook Trout
Bull Trout
(Wild Trout)
Size
Small – 29 Miles Long
Location
Southwestern Montana
Nearest Towns
Missoula
Ovando
Season
3rd Sat. May – Nov 30th
Special Regulations
Monture Creek
Access:
Fair
Non-Resident License
State of Montana
Weather
National Weather Service Link
Seasons:
You can catch trout during the entire season.
Spring:
Except for the spring runoff, this is the best time to fish Monture Creek.
Summer:
The first part of the summer can be good but the stream can become to warm for good fishing in many areas in extremely hot weather.
Fall:
Fall is usually very good.
Recommended Tackle & Gear
Fly Line:
4, 5 or 6 weight
Leaders:
Dry fly: 9 to 12 ft., 5 or 6X Nymphing:
71/2 ft., 3 or 4X, Streamers 0-2X
Tippets:
Dry fly: 5 or 6X, Nymphing: 3 or 4X,
Streamer 0-2X
Best Fly Rods:
Perfect Fly Supreme Four, Superb Five
or Ultimate Six
Fly Reels:
For 4/5/6 fly line
Fly Floatants and Misc Items:
Floatants, KISS Strike Indicators
Tools & Accessories:
Nippers, forceps, retractors, etc.
Copyright 2013 James Marsh
Fly Fishing Monture Creek Montana
Monture Creek flows for twenty-four miles from the mountains in an area that borders the Bob Marshall Wilderness into the Blackfoot River near Ovando, a tiny community about sixty miles from Missoula. Monture Creek Road (Forest Service Road #107) off of highway 200 accesses the upper part of the stream and campsite area. It’s about an eight mile drive from highway 200. There’s also the Monture State Fishing Access located on the creek just off highway 200. It has the basics with restroom’s but no water. You will have to hike to reach most any other area of the stream. The is prime Grizzly Bear country, so you may want to make a little noise along the way.
Monture creek consist of a fairly equal mixture of riffles and pools. The streambed is made up of sand, gravel and cobble. Once the streams is out of the headwaters in the mountains, it meanders back and forth through a relatively low gradient area to the Blackfoot River. The stream is easy to wade and a pleasure to fish.
It is home to a variety of wild trout species including the rare Bull trout. They enter the creek from the Blackfoot River to spawn along with other species. The headwaters area is known for its population of Westslope Cutthroat Trout.
For years, the lower section of the stream was heavily damaged by livestock. From 1990 to 1998, riparian livestock management improvements were implemented on the lower nine miles of the stream. Six miles of the area is a prime bull trout spawning and staging area. In 1997 a cooperative stream restoration project was completed for two different sections of the stream or a total of about three miles. It increased the fish population and helped to insure the Bull Trout will continue to be able to spawn there.
Fly Fishing Guide to the Monture Creek
Fly fishing Monture Creek varies from the headwaters to the lower section near the Blackfoot.
The story goes that Meriwether Lewis first named the stream after his Newfoundland dog, Seamon. Seamon Creek was later renamed after a man name George Monture, an Army Scout who was the first white man with the courage to travel into the Blackfoot Indian territory. This has nothing to do with fishing the stream, but it will probably make you stop and think about how it may have been to have fished it before anyone other than the Blackfoot Indians.
The first time we ever fished the stream, we just discovered it traveling to the Little Blackfoot River miles away. I couldn’t help but want to stop and cast a fly in it. I had never as much as heard of it, even though we had fished the Blackfoot River a couple of times prior to that. On my first cast, a ten inch Westslope Cutthroat Trout ate the dry fly. That did it, I suppose, and we have enjoyed fishing the creek several times since. Catching trout is about as simple as it gets. Just make your way upstream casting a fly in all the likely places.
The upper part can get tricky to navigate. You will probably find a some log jambs and deadfalls in the stream, which is a good thing for the fish, but not so good for making your way upstream. All the time you are fighting through the brush, you cannot help but think how long it is going to be before a Grizzly is going to be looking you square in the eyes. It has never bothered us at Yellowstone but for some reason, it stays on both our minds when we fish Monture Creek. We are very noisy angles but apparently we haven’t bothered anyone else because we have never seen anyone fishing Monture Creek but us. Maybe that is why.
We have never fished anything but a dry fly because we have always been able to catch plenty of trout on the dry. Most of the trout in the upper portions are cutthroats. Most of the brown and rainbow trout are found in the lower part of the stream. They are also relatively easy to catch. On one occasion we fished the stream in late summer, it was low and the water flowed very slow in many parts of the stream. Even then we were able to catch plenty of trout. Each of the pools seemed to have several trout in them willing to take a dry fly. The water was in the high sixties. I would think one shouldn’t fish the stream with it much warmer than that.
We have yet to spot a Bull Trout in the creek, but we suspect they are mostly there in late summer and the early fall to spawn. We have not fished during that time and of course, you are not supposed to catch one. It would probably be something else to se e one try to eat a small trout you had on.