Fly Fishing Rock Creek Montana This includes a fly fishing report for Rock Creek Montana
Type of Stream
Freestone
Fly and Gear ordering and delivery: We can get flies 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. Please see the bottom of this column for ordering options.
We also have custom Perfect Fly selections in 3 different price ranges for this stream that come with or without fly boxes. They make excellent gifts. Click Here To Order or Call us at 800 594 4726 or email us at sales@perfectflystore.com.
Species
Brown Trout
Rainbow Trout
Cutthroat Trout
Brook Trout
Rocky Mountain Whitefish
(Wild Trout)
Size
Medium – Over 51 miles long
Location
Southwestern Montana
Nearest Towns
Philipsburg
Clinton
Season
3rd Sat. May – Nov 30th (Catch and
Release Only, Dec. 1 to 3rd Sat.
May)
Access:
Excellent
Non-Resident License
State of Montana
Species
Brown Trout
Rainbow Trout
Cutthroat Trout
Brook Trout
Rocky Mountain Whitefish
(Wild Trout)
Size
Medium – Over 51 miles long
Location
Southwestern Montana
Nearest Towns
Philipsburg
Clinton
Season
3rd Sat. May – Nov 30th (Catch and
Release Only, Dec. 1 to 3rd Sat.
May)
Access:
Excellent
Non-Resident License
State of Montana
Species
Brown Trout
Rainbow Trout
Cutthroat Trout
Brook Trout
Rocky Mountain Whitefish
(Wild Trout)
Size
Medium – Over 51 miles long
Location
Southwestern Montana
Nearest Towns
Philipsburg
Clinton
Season
3rd Sat. May – Nov 30th (Catch and
Release Only, Dec. 1 to 3rd Sat.
May)
Access:
Excellent
Non-Resident License
State of Montana
Recommended Tackle & Gear
Fly Line:
5 or 6 weight
Leaders:
Dry fly: 9 & 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 Superb Five or Ultimate Six
Fly Reels:
For 5/6 fly line
Fly Floatants and Misc Items:
Floatants, KISS Strike Indicators
Tools & Accessories:
Nippers, forceps, retractors, etc.
Fly and Gear ordering and delivery:
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.
Copyright 2013 James Marsh
Rock Creek Montana Fly Fishing Report – October 30, 2024
The stream is flowing a little below a normal level and clear. Good hatches are taking place. Check back often as we update the Fly Fishing Report for Rock Creek Montana often.
Stream Conditions:
Rate: 201 cfs
Level: 5.13 ft
Afternoon Water Temperature: 60 degrees
Clarity: clear
USGS Rock Creek
Weather:
Recommended Trout Flies:
Midges: Cream and Red (Blood) midges sizes 20/22, larva, pupa and adult. Our larva and pupa midge flies, pre-rigged in tandem, are very popular here. You can fish them under a strike indicator keeping the larva fly near the bottom. https://perfectflystore.com/product/pre-rigged-tandem-midge-larva-pupa-tippet
Sculpin and White Belly Sculpin and Articulated streamers, size 6/4
Black Matuka and Olive Matuka Sculpin, size 4/6
Blue-winged Olives: size 16, nymphs, emergers, duns, spinnersOctober
Spotted Sedge Caddis; size 14/16, larva, pupa and adults
October Caddis, size 6, larva, pupa and adults
Fly Fishing On Rock Creek In Montana: This is one of Montana’s best trout streams. Its waters are mostly all open to the public to fish. Fly fishing Rock Creek is a wading angler’s paradise, not only because it is easy to wade, but also because float fishing the river isn’t allowed between July 1 and November 30th. Rock Creek flows with the Sapphire Mountains on its west side and the John Long Mountains on its east side.Rock Creek begins near Philipsburg where its West, Middle and East Forks, along with the water from Ross Creek, join to form the main stream. Not far from there it flows through over thirty miles of National Forest Land followed by the Rock Creek Road. It exits the Lolo National Forest and flows for a few more miles where it enters the Clarke Fork River near Clinton.Camp sites along the river are plentiful. Rock Creek is bordered by National Forest for most of its entire distance. This makes it easy for those who camp because they don’t have to make a long drive to fish Rock Creek. There are very few rentals, motels, etc., in the area.Nymph fishing is both popular and a very productive on the stream. It is so popular that dry fly fishing Rock Creek is often overlooked. Trout can be taken on dries throughout the season, especially during one of its many hatches of aquatic insects. Rock Creek is a fairly fertile stream with a good pH level and as a result there are lots of insects for the trout to eat.The surrounding scenery of Rock Creek is simply beautiful. Lolo National Forest has snow covered mountains, canyons and plenty of granite cliffs. One thing that really turns out to be to the angler’s advantage, is the long, rough, narrow road that follows the creek the entire way. Its bad enough to keep the general tourist away, yet navigable enough for you to safely get to where you want to go. Rock Creek has boulders the size of rooms in a house creating pocket water with deep pools and fast flowing runs and riffles. Its trout are plentiful and in general, aren’t that picky or difficult to catch provided decent presentations are made. This beautiful stream offers some of the best small stream fly fishing opportunities in the western states. You don’t have to worry about not being able to find a place where your not fishing behind someone. There are miles of water that offer an opportunity. It can be a little crowded in some areas at certain times, but that is rare,not the usual case.
Fly Fishing Guide to Rock Creek: Rock Creek is a pure freestone stream and it’s flows are strictly depends on melting snow and rain. Fishing in the headwaters of Rock Creek is typical of most headwaters. The fish are generally very plentiful but small compared to those downstream. Cutthroat, brown, brook, rainbow and bull trout exist in Rock Creek. Most of the fish in the headwaters are brooks, cutts or rainbows. There are few brown trout.Below Montana highway #38, the river flows through the forest. Riffles, runs and deep pools make up what would be best described as pocket water. As mentioned, Rock Creek Road follows along the creek for its entire length. For the first few miles below the bridge at highway #38, the fish population seems to be mostly a mixture of cutthroats, rainbows and cutbows or hybrids. The fish are much larger in this area than they are in the smaller headwater streams. They seem to increase in size the further downstream you go although that may be more of a coincidence than fact. Several small creeks join Rock Creek on its way to the Clark Fork River. Below Harry’s Flat Campground, the creek looks more like a river than a creek. The river gets wider and slows down some. The lower section has both rainbow and brown trout but the rainbows decrease in numbers and the browns increase the closer the stream gets to it’s confluence with Clark Fork.The wildlife along this creek is incredible. Our first trip there, Angie video taped two Bighorn sheep crossing the creek just below me. I was not aware they were behind me and she was staying quite because they were close to us. When I noticed her continuously shooting downstream of me, rather than the whitefish I had on, I yelled to ask what she was doing. The Bighorns went into high gear and I only got a short glimpse of them until I reviewed the tape later that night. I was not aware that she had been shooting the sheep for the past few minutes. Another reason I suppose that stuck with some is that the creek has a lot of deep pools. Other than the normal pools that may be less than five feet deep, for example, there are many that are much deeper. In fact, it is difficult to get a nymph down to the bottom in many places. I’m not suggesting that anglers should fish a dry fly when nothing is hatching. I would tend to always use a nymph or larva imitation under the “no hatch to match” situation. That said, I haven’t found that the stream necessarily has any fewer hatches than any other freestone stream of its type in the western Rocky Mountains. In fact, it may have more. Stoneflies are very plentiful in Rock Creek. Most of the time you will get far better results fishing a stonefly nymph than you would an imitation of the adult, but that is no different on Rock Creek than anywhere else. If you pay attention to the hatch times, you should do well fishing dry fly imitations. We have been able to catch more trout on the dries than nymphs, but of course we usually fish them more often than we do wet flies or nymphs. We think the “nymph” stream is an unfair and inaccurate label for Rock Creek. We hope you will be the final judge of that. Many anglers think that Rock Creek is purely a nymph fishing stream and that the trout want generally feed on the surface or take dry flies. I think that is probably because several articles have been written that more or less state that. In our several trips there at different times of the year and during several different years, we have not found that to be the case. I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to say that Rock Creek is a top dry fly stream. I am just saying that they seem to feed on the surface there as well as most other places. Thank you for visiting the Rock Creek Montana fishing report.