A little brown sugar

Ye olde brown trout face

I had some work training at the Warm Springs Ponds today.  Checked in on the Upper Clark Fork afterward. The brown trout are not quite in the insane zone yet, but they are definitely starting to get excited to eat meat.  My carp leech to be exact.  Also, above the ponds, the cutts are eating streamers.  Yup.  I have been told a million times that cutthroat are not piscivorous by a bunch of fisheries biologists.  I guess I'm a science denier on this one but I do have tangible proof.  On the other side of the continental divide, the carp bite is still on.  However, the calm clear days are few and far between.  It's trout time in Montana.   

Missouri River autumn magic

Missouri River Morning

We spent the weekend in wonderful Craiglandia, Montana and it was fabulous.  The trout were huge, hungry, and acrobatic.  They even took my mind off my new carp obsession for the first time in months.

The Craig Bridge

The trees were hanging on to the last of their color, the weather was great, and the fishing was off the charts.

MO Brown

A couple of nice browns were hooked in between the onslaught of huge rainbows. We fished double sowbug short leash in shallow water and could not stop catching fish.  Then, I noticed some orange swimming around in the back part of a seam.  I threw a streamer at it and this happened:

Two rare occurrences, a picture of me on the blog and a huge kokanee salmon in the Wolf Creek area. 

So, I guess some kokanee occasionally make it over the dam and into the river.  This was the biggest kokanee I've ever caught.  We saved it from a lonely death.  He's going into the smoker!

Kokanee kype.  Look at those teeth!!

Nose to nose.

Fall is flying by.  Don't let it slip through your hands.  You've got months of football and cabin fever ahead.  See you in the field!

Fish pics

Brown trout skin

Here's a short photo collection of some of my favorite shots from the last couple of months.

Juvenile arctic grayling

Bowl full of browns

Cutthroat hiding with grayling in foreground

Gigantic hatchery rainbow

Raceway cutts

The Big Hole River, Montana in the Fall

Maiden Rock Bridge

The Big Hole is arguably one of the most beautiful rivers anywhere.  In the Autumn, it is really out of control.  This river is predominantly a brown trout stream, making Fall even more mystic and exciting!  This is my first Autumn in Butte and the closest large river is the Big Hole.  I have a lifetime of exploring to do here and I'm really happy about it.

Yesterday, the fishing was great.  I'd rather have been in my raft all day but this was a quick after-work fix. The streamer bite is on!!  Yellow bunny streamers and darker Skiddish Smolts were the ticket.  The fish were in faster knee-deep riffles and absolutely pounded the fly.  It felt like I'd hit a boulder and then there'd be that brown trout, throbbing head-shake.

I had the place to myself with the exception of this guy who fished for a little while in one spot.  He had brought his wife and kids who waited stream-side in their truck.  Poor bastard!!

It was mostly cloudy but when the sun would break through, the Fall colors were outstanding.  I saw some really slappy rises from big fish here and there and figured there must be some remaining October caddis.  I put on an appropriate foamy and skated it over a shallow riffle and Boom, rainbow trout!

There were some signs that the spawn is getting going.  I caught a couple rainbows on egg-type stuff and a guy came by and told me that he saw some browns sitting on redds in the upper river by Wisdom.  He also mentioned that the fishing was slow up there and that is was really weedy.  He was from out-of-state so it may just have been him.

The Fall has really just begun here in Southwest Montana.  I can't wait to float the Jefferson for the first time, hit the awesome streamer maddness on the MO as always, the Yellowstone beacons as does the Madison, and there's huge brook trout on the spawn in Georgetown Lake.  Not to mention the Upper Clark Fork and the brookies in Silver Bow.

Too much awesomeness, too little time!!

The Upper Clark Fork is off the hook!

The Upper Clark Fork is off the hook right now!  The flow is perfect (for now), there are solid Mothers Day caddis hatches everyday, and the streamer fishing is ridiculous.  It is the time of year to throw big and yellow.  These mean browns were throwing themselves out of the water for my streamers and the big boys came out from every undercut bank with a vengeance.  I had a couple of them destroy my streamer right at the surface with a huge splash.

I wouldn't bullshit you... But this guy might!

Quick Jaunt to the Big Hole

Big Hole Brown

My first semester of graduate school is almost over and I'm barely hanging in there.  I had enough time to shoot down to Maiden Rock yesterday afternoon for a quicky just to get my head straight. The Big Hole is flowing great and is the classic tea color.  It looks absolutely perfect for a float!

Pound the banks with leggy nymphs or the dude rig and keep an eye out for rises in any type of slack water.  There was a solid March brown hatch yesterday in the snow and wind and the fish were on it.

Once this semester is over, I'll only have to work 40 hours a week like a normal human being and I've got lots of fishing trips planned and new places to discover.  I can't wait!

Big Hole mule deer

Escape to Racetrack, Montana

Shadow with trout

I snuck away yesterday.  I had to.  Plus, I really wanted to explore some new water and check out a pond that George Grant Trout Unlimited has been working on.

Racetrack brown trout

I came across some of the gnarliest rip rap I had ever seen.  This is utterly disgusting!!  What an absolute horrible hazard.  This whole bank is lined with tons and tons of giant balls of tangled metal wire and a couple cars (Detroit rip-rap).  Rip-rap (stream bank reinforcement) is bad for streams in many ways but this is just ridiculous as it also poses a major safety hazard for people and animals. Gross!

Metal wire balls rip-rap

Racetrack Pond

Racetrack Pond is a really large pond/small reservoir in Racetrack Montana.  It is a stocker pond for families and meat fisherpeople.  With some love, this place could be as popular as stupid Beavertail Pond near Missoula.  I'm excited to see what will happen here in the coming years.

Butte headframe at sunset

Took this shot on my way home from picking up a grocery store rotisserie chicken for dinner.  I was tired and happy.  Now back to the insanity...

March Madness on the Poindexter Slough

The Poindexter Slough of the Beaverhead River

The Poindexter Slough in Southwest Montana flows through one of the finest pieces of public land in the entire country.  The Slough is America's spring creek and although it is on public land, the skill and physical fitness level required to fish it keeps the crowds very much at bay.  In fact, I fished just about the entire reach and I saw nobody else all day long.  The only people I did see were two bait fishermen fishing frog water while I was limping back to the truck in the dark.  I was too tired to tell them that fishing bait is still illegal for two more months which turned out okay because they were really nice and told me they hadn't caught a thing.

I, on the other hand, had a 40+ fish day and one of the most fun days bushwhacking and catching large browns and rainbows so far this year!

Brown on the line

The Slough is not the place to bring a beginner.  Your roll cast needs to be in top shape here as the banks are lined with thick willows.  You're also going to want to leave lollygaggers and the timid behind.  If your not getting your ass kicked by the willows and your skin and clothes ripped by the roses and currants, your not getting in deep enough.  Effectively getting to where the big fish are is as close to going guerrilla in a jungle as you can get in MT.

Underwater Brown

  


























The Slough is chock full of very large, very wary brown trout and some big-ass rainbows too.

Brown Trout sucking on the Meat Whistle

I fished streamers downstream all the way down to where the Slough hits the Beaverhead and was absolutely blown away by the number and size of the browns in that small piece of water.  The MeasureNet works on a number line centered on 0.  To get a measurement, you add the value at the head and the tail of the fish.  As you can see here, this guy was pushing 20in. (51cm.)  John Barr's Meat Whistle in green was the ticked to getting some vicious hits from the browns.

Another brown sucking on the Meat Whistle

Once I reached the mouth, I set up a nymph rig and headed back upstream.  I put on the Soft Hackle "Sow Bug" and all of a sudden, started to catch huge pre-spawn rainbows.  Surprise!

Soft Hackle Sow Bug in a big rainbow's kype jaw

I'm talking BIG rainbows!  Check out the kype on this big guy.  He was pissed about getting caught.

Female rainbow release

This large female was never lifted out of the water and released faster than a toupee in a hurricane.

Underwater rainbow

It's getting to be the time of year where you have to start looking out for redds.  More on that soon.  Once irrigation starts in the Beaverhead Valley, half of the water going into the Beaverhead and also the Slough ends up going down ditches.  The weeds grow long in the Slough and the fish become almost un-catchably spooky.  I'll see these guys again in the fall...

Brown Trout Fail

The Release

The Escape

The Beach - Oops!

It was full-on March Madness on the Poindexter Slough of the Beaverhead yesterday.  Stay tuned for a full post on the happenings tomorrow...

Spring Break

An Upper Clark Fork goodbye

Spring Break is not going to be the all-out, fish bum, first camping trip, fish every day madness that is usually is for me.  In fact, I'm a good couple of hundred miles away from a trout right now. Sometimes you got to be a good grandson and hang out with the folks that support your various exploits.

However, trout of the Clark Fork, Rock Creek, Beaverhead, and Big Hole be warned, we have a date this weekend and the coming month is going to be epic!!

Bella Italia - Alta Val Rendena

Give me Montana or give me death

Winter sunset on the Deer Lodge Mountains

I was bummed because I could not afford the trip to Helena for the Public Lands Rally yesterday.  I'm still stuck in that in-between time when you transfer jobs and you don't get a paycheck for a month and a half.  Not cool!  In lieu of the rally, I went and enjoyed some public land and reflected about how lucky I was to live in a place with so much of it.  

Upper Clark Fork brown trout

I've been working on my release shots lately.  They are not as easy as you might think but I'm getting it down.  I suppose a polarized filter will help but that's a couple weeks out.

Copper colored bone

The Upper Clark Fork is one of my favorite places to fish in America.  It's also a toxic mess.  I study this stuff so I love to go and take pictures and samples as well as catch tons of huge brown trout.  I'm going to guest lecture a class at MT Tech and I really wanted to get some pictures of some blue colored bones and stream-side slickens to show the class.  Mission accomplished!

Mine waste slicken on the Upper Clark Fork

Mmmmmmmmmm.  Phytotoxic soil.

Most folks don't fish up here.  I assume signs like these may keep the crowds away.  You'd think there'd be no fish. You'd be very wrong.

Upper Clark Fork River

Despite the insanity, the Upper Clark Fork is absolutely gorgeous.  I had as good a day fishing for large brown trout as I did on the Beaverhead but with no dry flies.  That's fine, I love to fish the streamer.

Brown trout release

Looks like the spring weather will continue here in Montana.  Better get your fishing in now because mid-summer flows are going to suck.

A report from the Beaverhead

Beaverhead Brown

Yesterday, I put work and school aside and went fishing.  I had never fished the Beav in the winter and that needed to come to an end.  Boy did it!

The Beaverhead is one of my favorite streams in the world and now I can honestly say that it is one of my favorite wintertime fisheries.  I had an outstanding couple of hours (20+ fish in the net) on streamers and nymphs and I had miles of stream all to myself.  In fact, the only people I saw were a couple young kids who never left the sight of their rig in the FAS.  I went deep.

The flow in the Beav is really low right now allowing you to wade wherever you want.

I fished the area near the mouth of Grasshopper Cr. because I just needed to get on the water.

Have a good day Mr. Trutta!

I had a lot of fun throwing smaller sized streamers.  The browns were really in the mood to give chase and I had a lot of exciting chase downs.  I could get about 3 or so per run.  Later in the day though, I wanted to get some bang for my buck so I set up a winter nymph rig.  I had a Ray Charles with a Soft Hackle Sow Bug dropper.  As always, the Soft Hackle Sow out-fished everything else, even after all the orange paint came off the bead.

I already can't wait to go back...