Blackburn gives advice on Kootenai River rainbows

One advantage of attending meetings of the Flathead Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited is the monthly program.

Recently, longtime outfitter Dave Blackburn, owner of Kootenai Anglers in Libby, gave a presentation on the Kootenai River.

Blackburn described the Kootenai River as the “Mars bars of western fly fishing,” referring to his view that the river can be 10 different streams, depending on flows from Libby Dam.

In the mid-’80s, flows from Libby Dam could vary from 4,000 cubic feet per second (daytime) to 25,000 cfs (nighttime) daily, depending on downstream power demands.

These wide flow fluctuations all but wiped out caddisfly populations in the river.

After the dam was fitted with gates that released different water temperatures from different levels (selective withdrawal), downstream flows more naturally mimicked traditional, natural flows for both water volume and temperatures.

According to Blackburn, a 3-year-old Kootenai rainbow trout is 11-12 inches and much of the best fishing is in back channels.

By comparison, a similar-aged fish in the Missouri River is 17 inches.

Biggest trout in the river feed on the up to 5 million kokanee salmon that are sucked through the dam and churned up.

No boat traffic is allowed immediately below the dam to the David Thompson Bridge.

Blackburn noted that anglers fishing shooting head lines and fishing drop-offs 10 to 15 feet deep will find larger trout than pounding the shoreline.

Another tip from Blackburn is, with evening caddis returning, some of the bigger rainbows come up during the last hour of daylight.

For more info about fishing the Kootenai River check out www.goflyfishmontana.com or call Kootenai Anglers at 800-322-9339. Trout Unlimited info can be found at www.flatheadtu.org.

Jerry Smalley’s Fishful Thinking appears weekly in the Hungry Horse News.