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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

Large cutthroat brought to you by Montana vs. ARCO

This cutthroat trout wears the copper collar.  He's got some friends in low places.

The Upper Clark Fork in winter

Mt Powell and the Upper Clark Fork in January

The Upper Clark Fork, from the outlet of the Anaconda Settling Ponds down to around Galen, is essentially a tailwater fishery and it fishes all winter.  It is full of of brown trout, has some giant rainbows which fall over the spillway from the ponds, and has the occasional cutthroat and brook trout mixed in.

Frozen foam disks

This stretch of river sees a lot of pressure because the fishing is awesome so, it can get really technical.

Ice in the guides

It can get crowded at times.  This is easily avoidable though, so long as you fish at odd times and during the off season.  Also, similar to Rock Creek, most of the people fishing here have no idea what the hell they are doing.  If you have half an idea, you can usually come right behind them and catch fish.  Just try to stay out of sight.

 Staying out of sight is going to be harder for a while as two major sections of the floodplain and stream are closed right now due to some restoration work.  An area about a half mile down stream of the spillway (near the first bridge) has been closed for a while and there is another section on the Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch that is under construction now.

See ya later Mr. Brown

All I can say is that I'm stoked about the restoration work and the future of the fishery.  I'm also excited to now live 20 minutes away.  Want some good advice?  Fight the urge to fish nymphs and throw SMALL streamers.  There are also some epic midge, BWO, hopper, and caddis hatches up here at the appropriate times.

Rattlesnake Creek

Rattlesnake Creek runs out of the Rattlesnake Wilderness, through the beautiful Rattlesnake Valley, and then dumps into the Clark Fork right in downtown Missoula.

Most people have no idea how important this little creek is for the trout in the Clark Fork.  This is a heavily used spawning tributary for the Clark Fork and a source of cold and clean water which enters the river right in the city.  The creek also has many resident trout and some holdovers from the spawn available for catching throughout the season.

There is some confusion about the Rattlesnake though because there is a closed section in place to protect Missoula's back-up domestic water supply.  Here's the deal: during the regular MT fishing season (3rd Sat. in May - Nov. 30th), you can fish from the mouth all the way to 100 yards below the Mountain Water Co. reservoir.  The next six miles are closed to fishing all the way up to Beeskove Creek.  After Beeskove, the creek is open and there is nobody around except the bears and the trout.

    


































Unless you want to walk the 6 miles (12 miles round trip + at least a couple miles of fishing), you'll want a bike to ride up the old road from the trail head.  You'll know your getting close once you start to see lots of raspberries on the left side of the road at the bottom of a talus slope.

Rubus idaeus - wild raspberry

Rubus parviflorus - thimbleberry

Sexy water on Rattlesnake Creek

There are tons of cutthroat and some rainbows and browns mixed in.  There are also huge bull trout which are illegal to intentionally fish for.  Just watch out for shark attacks.

Wild Montana cutthroat trout going back home

Get out there!!