A little surprise

Upper Clark Fork brook trout

So, my "work/school fishing trip" to the Butte area turned into a work/school fishing trip.  Turns out, getting all the required documents to my new school is a lot more laborious than I expected.  However, I did have to shoot back over there yesterday to look at an apartment.  That left me like 45 minutes of daylight in a snowstorm to hit the Upper Clark Fork below the ponds.

I had been fishing for like 5 minutes when I hooked into this male brookie all colored up for the spawn.  I've never caught a brook trout this big in the Clark fork.  There are huge brookies upstream of the ponds and the tribs in the area are loaded with them but this big boy was right in the main stem and was surely a post spawn holdover.

There are redds everywhere in the upper CF right now from the browns (and some brookies I guess) which have been abandoned.  I'm sure you can still find some fish on redds, but it looks like the spawn is over.  Be really careful up here, don't be a dick and fish for trout on their redds.  More importantly, don't walk on the redds.

Redds are easy to spot in small streams like the upper Clark Fork, especially redds from fish who spawn in the fall.  The bottom is usually covered in dead organic material which is a darker color.  The redds are dinner plate to dinner table sized areas of stream bed which are clean gravel.  They are usually in slower water and at the tailouts of deeper holes.

You can see that this fish is wrapped in my leader.  I didn't take the time to try and get a perfect picture because this guy could potentially still be trying to find a mate and he most likely just had a long voyage from wherever he came from.  This was a quick lift out of the net, snap, and release type deal.  Notice the EZ Bunny hanging out of his mouth.

Winter fishing is full of surprises.      

The spawn is on!

The rainbow and cutthroat trout of Montana are on the spawn.  Last week, I witnessed the massive trout orgy that takes place near Holter Dam on the Missouri.  There, the trout make dinner table-sized, community redds.  I can sit there and watch them for hours.  The big colored male and the female getting it on while three smaller males wait in formation for the opportunity to sneak in there when the big guy is distracted chasing away other males.  I was surprised to see that the other people around were oblivious to the redds.  People were fishing them (I honestly don't think they knew they were there) and dropping anchors and parking boats over them.  It was hard to watch.

Yesterday, I took a walk along the banks of Rattlesnake Creek in a local park here in Missoula. Rattlesnake Creek is a major spawning tributary for the fish in the Clark Fork around Missoula.  It is a beautiful creek that comes out of the Rattlesnake Wilderness.  It mostly gets ignored by fisherpeople but it is a fine trout stream all year long. Right now, the Rattlesnake is lousy with spawning fish.  They are everywhere!  

Go check them out and show the kids but do not mess with them.  The creek is closed to fishing for two more weeks to allow the spawn to take place.  It is a great way to see the WILD,  amazing, huge, and beautiful trout that live in the Clark Fork and watch real world biology in action!  Real fish porn.        

large male rainbow on redd

mating pair of rainbows on redd

Betula occidentalis - western water birch blossoms