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Head Hunting

3 - Days of Technical Dry Fly Fishing

Bitterroot River Trico Hatch Jim Poole

Headhunting

Technical dry fly fishing is incredibly fun and challenging. The mark, cast, hook set, and fight are all important for having success. Being proficient at head-hunting takes time and practice and spending a few days on the water with a guide can speed up your learning curve drastically. Not every guide is an ace at coaching technical dry fly fishing, MGF will make sure you have the right pro to teach you what you need to know. 3 - days $975 per angler or $1950 for single angler. Stay and fish packages available.

What to Expect

There are a number of things we will focus on during your 3 - day trip. Cast tuning can be the most beneficial for your growth in technical dry fly fishing. Some days they'll let you cast on them over and over again. Other days the big one is going to give you just one chance. So it is important to be efficient with your strokes. We will work on improving your reach cast, stack mending line and general line management once you've put the line on the water.  Marking rising trout is another aspect that most anglers need help with. The fly needs to be put on a dime and if your mark is off, you'll miss the opportunity. Marking accurately comes with time and practice. Your guide will be able to tune your marks and help you put that small dry in the right lane. Hook setting is obviously very important part of fly fishing. You can do everything right leading up to the hook set but if you're off you'll be spending a lot of time wondering what happened, you're most likely late. Your guided will closely watch your hook set mechanics and give you instruction on how to improve. You've cast perfect, nailed the hook set and now you got the big one on. Fighting and landing a big trout on 6X is the next challenge and your guide can help you improve your landing success rate. 

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Trico, Baetis, & Mahogany

The Trico mayfly hatch really gets going the last week of August and will run through October. The Trico hatch starts late morning and will last 4-5 hours. This hatch can be prolific in the sunny weather which is unique when compared to Baetis and Mahogany. They like low pressure and nasty weather for big hatches. There are days where we will fish all three patterns and will have rising trout the entire float. The Bitterroot and Clark Fork rivers have the best mayfly hatches in the Missoula area, with dozens of floats to choose from. 

What To Bring 

Brown Trout

1

3- 5 Wt. Fly Rod

We recommend you bring a few rods with you. 3 - 4 wt rods are ideal for protecting 6x tippet when Trico fishing. 5 wt rods are the ideal weapon when you're fighting the wind. 

2

Outerwear

Bring appropriate outwear for the conditions, the weather can vary drastically this time of year. Waders and rain gear are highly encouraged. 

3

Sunglasses

We recommend you have a couple pairs of polarized sunglasses for the varying light conditions. A size #20 Trico is a lot easier to see when you have the right eyewear.

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