When do rainbow trout spawn in montana

The trout's exterior shifts from a silvery color to bright red, pink and green. The closer to the spawning event, the easier it is to distinguish between the male and female trout. Male trout develop a hooked jaw called a kype, which elongates in size. The female, as the eggs grow in the abdomen, becomes more rounded and stout. Rainbow trout spawn earlier in their lives than most other trout species at roughly two years and their spawning season occurs in the late spring and early summer as water temperatures rise.

Brown trout spawn in the fall, from late September to early November, and are primarily active during the daytime. Lake trout, on the other hand, spawn at night during the autumn months. You've got the time nailed down, but where's the best place to find these spawning trout? From late June to early July we experience our famous Salmonfly hatch. These 2. This is a busy time of year and a difficult hatch to fish as the hatch progresses upstream depending a lot on air temperatures.

But, that day you hit it just right will be the best day of dry fly fishing in your life—guaranteed. It can be busy on the river with many others looking for that epic day, but I feel that our experienced guide staff has the tips and tricks to ensure a great time.

July and August is also terrestrial time in our area and if you like throwing big attractor dries and foam flies that you can see, then this is a great time. Fishing the hot summer days, blind casting big grasshopper patterns either on the bank on mid river can bring up some trophy trout on the Yellowstone or Madison Rivers.

This is one of my personal favorite time periods to fish. After Labor Day, many families have kids back in school and the pressure on all the rivers tend to relent. Fishing with terrestrials is still a possibility, but we experience another stonefly hatch that has completely different qualities than our early season hatch.

These nocturnal stones hatch at night and throwing big attractors can bring explosive strikes on the surface. Dropping a small stonefly nymph off the dry can also be very productive. As October approaches, another hatch of Blue winged Olives emerges. Smaller than their spring time cousins, the trout key into this hatch on many of our western rivers and fishing small technical dries will test the most experienced anglers. As the brown trout began to stage up to spawn, the streamer fishing can be very rewarding as well.

Fishing weight rods and throwing big streamers for trophy brown trout is a lot of work but can get you that fish of a lifetime.

Seeing a huge brown trout come off the bank, charge your fly, and try to rip the rod out of your hand is an unbelievable experience.

We fish year round here in Montana. What we look for is a day that is not too windy and air temperatures above 32 degrees. You want to concentrate on the warmest part of the day, such as 10am-2pm, when the trout are most active this time of year. They tend to prefer water with a little less flow, a little less pace, which makes sense when you think about their favored holding lies. Brown Trout spawn in the fall, and as they move up the tributaries to find spawning ground, you have a good chance of taking a big Brown in a small stream.

And Brown Trout get big.