In search of brown trout - not, brown water

Runnoff is killing me.  Even the MO is huge.  The lakes have been pretty slow as well.  The rainbows/cutts are still on the spawn up high and the stockers in the local ponds have been turned into redneck/osprey food.  I need to get into some fish bad.

Mom with a MO River brown

I'm going to search out some "copper collar" browns at the top of the drainage.  

The new fly shop on the block

Wolf Creek Angler in Wolf Creek, MT and random angler

There is a new fly shop on the Missouri River and they've got a good thing going.  Wolf Creek Angler opened earlier this year.  There was a fly shop in this location before and the new owner worked for the previous place.  These guys are not new to the MO.

The shop provides shuttles, flies, tackle, free coffee, NICE CHEAP CABINS, expertise, and location, location, location.  They are also a St. Croix rod dealer.  RBM loves St. Croix's - American Made - rods. My favorite rod currently, is my Kelly Gallup designed Bank Robber from St. Croix.

So, next time you arrive in Wolf Creek from the west, turn right at the Recreation Road, drive 1/4 mile and check out Wolf Creek Anglers.  You will not be disappointed.
  

Road Stop - Butte

The M&M Cigar Store in Butte, America

There is a lot of stuff to do when your in Butte.  One thing that a person should not miss out on is the old M&M Cigar Store.  The "cigar store" label is a holdover from the days of prohibition.  The M&M is a bar, diner, and live keno lounge.

The history of this place is immense and so are their stuffed potatoes.

The Green Weeny Matuka

The Green Weeny Matuka

Thread:  6/0 whatever color
Hook:  Size 10-6 2XL streamer hook
Tail/wing:  Olive died grizzly soft hackle
Body:  Your favorite dubbing mix.  I use a little flash on some and a lot on others for varying conditions.
Ribbing:  Wire in copper, black, or red
Collar:  Olive died grizzly soft hackle


The Green Weeny Matuka is just plain killer.  In green, it works as a small rainbow trout.  Using other color combinations will cover any baitfish you'll encounter.  I've even caught ditch pickles bass on Matukas.

Yellow grizzly with a brown collar makes a great brown trout fry
Yellow grizzly with yellow grizzly collar makes a great small perch fly
Red grizzly with green or brown collar makes brook trout fry

Beaverhead brown eats brown trout Matuka

Western Montana - high water - fishing report

The large freestone rivers in western Montana are experiencing a nice, steady runoff.  It's looking like we are going to have a great summer and fall with full streams and fat fish.  The cool thing about Montana, especially now that true fishing season has started, is that there is always a place to fish, even during run-off.

Highway 434

You can drive over to the Missouri River which is fishing great.  You can also now fish the tribs here, there, and everywhere.

View of Craig, MT from the Craig Cemetery

RBM Chronicles thanks the people of ALL faiths, genders, ethnicities, abilities, and styles of fishing who have served our country on this Memorial Day.


Flint Creek below Phillipsburg is another great high water option.  Most of the flow comes out of a reservoir from the next drainage over (crazy!) so it has a tailwater aspect to it.  It is loaded with medium sized brown trout and the occasional rainbow and there are plenty of larger fish mixed in.  

Flint Creek in Six Mile Canyon with Pintler Mountains

Flint creek fished ok with small streamers in the sun last week.  They are brown trout though, so early morning or clouds are good to have on your side.  Nymphing with worms and stoneflies was productive lower on the creek where it carries more water and color.


Further up the drainage, Georgetown Lake is an amazing fish factory and will begin to fish like the Dickens soon.  The rainbows are in full on spawn mode which has slowed the fishing at the moment.  They will be done soon though and if you saw the pics of the east shore and Emily Spring from earlier this week, you know there are more than enough huge trout in this lake to make anyone happy.

Rare afternoon glass on Georgetown Lake

Georgetown fished best with egg and worms thrown to trout cruising the shoreline and rainbow trout or brook trout looking streamers fished the same way.


The Beaverhead River is a small tailwater in SW Montana.  It is one of my favorite streams to fish on the planet.

Christine on the Beav

Beaverhead Brown

Tailwater nymphs work here but that's not what I like.  The Beaverhead is one of my favorite places to fish streamers.  This last trip was no exeption.  We were lucky enough to get afternoon clouds and thunderstorms which made sweeping little Matukas through untouched side channels into something I have't stopped thinking about for the last three days.  I had mega chase-downs by mean browns and my fly had the effect of an electro-fishing wand where I could at least move, what seemed like, every fish in the river.  God, I love that stream.

The Beaverhead Mountains of SW Montana

Happy Memorial Day and happy spring fishing!

The view from Lake Berkeley (updated Oct. 2017)

Nestled high up in the Rocky Mountains exists Montana's deepest lake.

The Berkeley Pit

The Berkeley Pit is a 1,780 deep open pit copper mine that is a half mile wide and a mile long.  In 1982, operations at the pit were halted and the giant pumps which kept groundwater out of the pit and old mine shafts under Butte were turned off.  Since that time, the groundwater level below the Butte Hill has been rising back to pre-pumping levels and filled the much of the 10,000+ miles of tunnels below town and also the pit, creating beautiful Lake Berkeley.

Lake Berkeley is not known for its fishing, it's best known as a potential time bomb.  The water in the pit has a PH of about 2.  The acidity of the water causes metals to dissolve and more sulfuric acid to form creating the positive feedback loop otherwise known as acid mine drainage (AMD) or acid rock drainage (ARD).  This does not bode well for most life forms.  I think everyone's heard the story about the snow geese by now (and then it got worse in November 2016).

Water treatment plant

A water treatment plant was built in 2003 to treat the water once it has reached a certain height but that won't go into operation for another 8-10 years. 

Another fun fact about the pit is that the walls sometimes collapse, making mini-tsunamis.  One of the largest landslides beached a research pontoon boat 40 feet above the water surface.

For now, the pit just sits there slowly filling.  MT Resources (the mine next door) used to mine the pit water for copper at a rate of 13 million gallons a day.  They are not currently mining the water anymore.

So, aside from the amazing history of Butte and the awe of human endeavor, why should people be aware of the pit?  Well, the pit and its sister lake, Yankee Doodle Tailings Pond lie at the headwaters of the Clark Fork River.  This is Montana's largest waterway and a major tributary to the Columbia River.  If anything catastrophic were to ever happen, there would be a lot of people and wildlife which would be very seriously affected. 

Another update is that the color of the water turned a beautiful green this spring.  Buttians attributed this to St. Patricks Day.  I've been told it's due to naturally changing chemistry as well as the fact that there is more copper at the surface because Montana Resources stopped mining it. Who knows?

Insane trout orgy

The higher elevation rainbow and cutthroat trout are now in full spawn mode.  These pics are from the east shore of Georgetown Lake and Emily Spring.  These areas are closed to fishing until the madness ends.

Rainbow trout spawning swarm in Emily Spring

East shore Georgetown Lake, MT

East shore Georgetown Lake, MT

Views from the National Bison Range

I took the family to the National Bison Range in Moese, Montana last week and the wildflowers were unreal.

National Bison Range - Moese, Montana

The Flathead River from the National Bison Range

Montana's Palouse Prairie

Balsamorhiza sagittata - arrowleaf balsamroot

Bison rubbing off his winter coat

Pronghorn antelope

Building a Tapered Leader by Tightline Productions

I was planning on posting a how-to video for hand tied tapered leaders last month but was beat to the chase by Chi Wulff.  The video they posted is from Tightline Productions and it was, by far, the best video on the topic I've ever seen.  It deserves a repost.  

The man who showed me fly fishing

RBM's Uncle Tim 

When I was 14, I took a trip out to the Pacific NW to visit my Uncle.  Up to that time, Uncle Tim had been the life-force for exposing me to the outdoors, fishing, conservation, ever since I could walk.  On this trip, our plan was to drive over to the east side of the Cascades and do some car camping and fishing with my sister and cousins.

After sightseeing, spin fishing all day, and setting up camp, Uncle Tim set up a fly rod and took us all down to the river which flowed right past the campground.  I remember him trying to explain the concept of fly fishing to me in the standard way - the line is the weighted part, the fly should float and not drag, and that if put in the right spot, a trout would actually come up and eat it.  I was in total disbelief.

I may never have given fly fishing a second thought if it weren't for that little rainbow trout that came right up out of the riffle like clockwork to crush my uncle's fly on his second or third cast.  I had to do that too!

Like with everyone else that fishes with a fly, my first time was ugly.  I snapped and popped and got super tangled on everything.  It probably took me an hour to just be able to get the fly on the water but as soon as I did, there was another enthusiastic little rainbow that would eat that hopper and change the course of my life forever.

I still can't believe that trout can be caught on some pocket-lint tied to a hook.  I think that's why it never gets old, it's unbelievable.

So to my Uncle Tim, thank you!

Congratulations graduates!

To all those people who graduated college this year, HAPPY GRADUATION!!

I took some of my fam over to the Mo and we killed it.  Stay tuned for some great pics.

Iris the Osprey laid an egg

Watch live streaming video from hellgateosprey at livestream.com

Iris has laid at least one egg and is incubating it. Good luck Iris!
The AXIS P5534-E camera, computer infrastructure and internet connection were donated by the Riverside Health Care Center. Real time High Definition TV - available in Riverside HCC's lobby - was donated by Raptors of the Rockies. Logistic support provided by Northwestern Energy. This camera is also supported by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and their Bird Cams Project. Check out The University of Montana Biogeochemistry Labratory's website for more information.

Hey little apple blossom...

"Apple Blossom" by The White Stripes (with Spanish subtitles just in case)

The Apple Blossom

The Apple Blossom Fly is a saltwater pattern which is part of the Blossom Flies series developed by Mark Sosin.  The series appears in Saltwater Fly Patterns by Lefty Kreh.

Malus domestica - domesticated apple blossom

The Turd and the Worm

The Turd

Pat's Rubber Legs - The Turd

The Worm

San Juan Worm - Dirt Snake - Bacon

For Mom, on Mother's Day

I fish because of my Mom.  She first exposed me to trout, tackle, boats, and beautiful places when I was really little.  She has had to deal with both the positive and negative aspects of that exposure ever since.

When I was a kid, going fishing with my mom and sister was my absolute favorite thing in the world.  We fished all over NY state and for anything that swam.  In those days, we were plunkers.  Most of our nightcrawlers were harvested late-night, after we watered the lawn, with flashlights and pajamas.  That's some fun shit when your a little kid!

When I was little, my mom seemed to have a magical ability to out-fish everyone all the time.  The great equalizer has been her initial learning curve for fly fishing.  I've got a feeling my advantage is dwindling and I couldn't be happier about it.

So, to my fishing mom, and all the other women who've shown children the beauty of fishing and nature, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Mom on the Mo

Mom on flats boat in Boca Grande

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

The phantom of the westslope

In only the most wild, clean, cold, and complex streams on the the west-slope of the northern Rockies, there is an ancient relic that is big, bad, beautiful, and sacred.

Image Credit: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Stock with Wade Fredenberg

In most of Montana, it is illegal to intentionally fish for bull trout due to their listing as a Threatened Species by the ESA.  Historically, all of the westslope streams in Montana, where trout could distribute themselves after the last ice age, were cutthroat and bull trout streams.  Rainbows are not native to Montana except for one strain in the Kootenai.  Brook trout are from the east of the continent and are bad news for bulls because they can breed and create sterile offspring (like horse + donkey = sterile mule).  Brown trout aren't even from this continent, they're European.  I won't even get into the lake trout/bull trout thing, it's super contentious and complicated.

The thing is, these absolutely amazing fish, while struggling, are still here and every once in a while, you'll catch one by accident.

If you fish in western Montana long enough, you'll hear of and eventually witness what we call "shark attacks." You'll catch a tiny cutthroat on a dry in mid summer only to watch a shadow appear from the depths and eat it off your line.  One time, up Rock Cr., I had a shark attack happen.  A shadow came out and whacked my tiny brown trout who just ate my stonefly dry.  I instinctively pulled the little trout away from the shadow and it disappeared.  I just kind of stood there stunned and as I pulled in my little wounded trout, the shadow came back without any concern of me standing there and grabbed my trout.  He didn't let go until I scooped him in my Measure Net. He was 20" long.  I've randomly caught other smaller bulls on streamers in the Blackfoot or Rock Creek and even caught an 18" bull on a skwala dry on the lower CF near Superior.

So why all this about bull trout?  It's because yesterday, I caught a 30" monster bull trout in downtown Missoula. It was about the craziest fishing experience I've ever had.  For the first 10 minutes, I thought I foul hooked a huge sucker.  You know how sometimes this happens and you think for a minute that you've caught the largest brown trout of your life until the sucker bellies up to the surface or you feel the tell-tale signs of a foul hook?

Not yesterday.  I was fishing a 6wt and for the sole purpose of conserving my flies while fishing dirty water, I had my upper nymph tied on 1x and my dropper on 2x.  When I first set the hook, it felt as if I hooked into a sinker log in the current.  My rod was just about ripped out my hand as this giant, throbbing, whatever ran into the main current.  After I figured out that whatever it was, it could not be a foul-hooked sucker, my heart started racing.  I could not pull this fish up in the water column or up river at all and I was confidently giving it hell due to my stout line.  My little rod was bent so hard I thought it would burst.  The fish was falling back with the current and taking me with him.  I caught it in slow, safe water and it was pulling me towards a raging, brown river.

It was about this time, that I noticed a small crowd had gathered on a footbridge about 50 yrds. downstream.  I didn't know if I'd be able to safely make it around some submerged trees and get to some slack water on the other side of the bridge.  I called out to the people on the bridge, "can you see it?"  A guy yelled back, "No, don't come this way!"  I got my answer and the only way I was going to ever see this fish and not die was to pull it back upstream.

When trout fishing, you don't normally have the time to think about a lot when you have a fish on.  Even the most epic battles are over pretty quick.  But this was like deep sea fishing.  Thoughts had time to creep into my head.  Is this a giant brown?  Did a pike eat a whitefish off my line?  I visualized all the knots on my hand tied leader.  I wondered if my cheap-ass rod would explode.

Eventually, some of the crowd made their way down to the bank behind me.  As I looked back at them, I saw that behind them, in the restaurant that overlooks the river, the staff and patrons were all standing at the windows watching me.  If you read my post yesterday, you know I don't normally fish around people.  Now, I had a genuine audience.  Oh god!

A minute later, I got my first look at the fish.  I screamed, "It's a fucking giant bull trout, oh my god!"  It took off deep again.  Now I had time for different thoughts.  I knew my net wasn't going to work - too small. I knew I had to do everything right as far as releasing this rare river phantom, especially because of my job, trout conservation reputation, and the audience watching.  I got him in close again.  It had to be getting tired because I kept having to switch arms because of burning muscles.

As I finally pulled the fish close enough to touch, I grabbed her by the caudal peduncle but she just shook me free.  On my next attempt, I thought I'd just go for the fly.  As I reached for it, she spooked and ran off again. On the last attempt, I grabbed the tippet right above the fly, the fish spooked, the fly dislodged, and the river phantom disappeared back to the darkness.

I looked up to the guy that was helping me.  He noted my undersized landing net floating away.  We both just couldn't believe what happened.  He was an old guy and he said he had never seen a fish like that in the Clark Fork.  He thanked me, I thought that was funny.  We laughed when we looked up in the restaurant and all the people were clapping and making the "how big?" gesture with their arms.  I love Missoula.

.        

The people we meet on fishing trips

I don't go fishing to be social.  Unless I'm fishing with friends,  I go as far out of the way as possible to avoid running into other people on the water.  It's great because even in 2014, with a little knowledge, you can still ditch the crowds in Montana fairly easily.

However, going to the Missouri during runoff is a social event no matter what. You can have the Mo almost to yourself during other times of the year but during runoff, it's like Disneyland in January, Lake Havasu during spring break, or the bars in Missoula on a Saturday night.  It is a total circus but unlike the crowds you might run into at my given examples, for the most part, the folks you meet fishing the Missouri during runoff are some of the nicest, helpful, and accepting people you will meet.

Case in point 1:
I was hopping from access site to access site.  I was wade/shore fishing due to the wind and was having a great time catching mostly browns on nymphs and streamers.  When the hits would stop, I'd move on.  This went on until after one run, when I climbed back in the truck and turned the key; dead.  Shit.  I left the lights on.  I was at a tiny private access and no one was driving by.  I have AAA and was considering how long I would have to wait and bumming because I'd wouldn't be able to give a tip to the driver and still have enough gas money to get home.  I figured I might as well open the hood and get the jumper cables out, just in case someone stopped - at least I'd be ready.

No sooner than I had gotten the cables and walked to the road side of the car, the first truck that drove by did a U-turn and came back to where I was parked.  Two guys got out of the big truck in full camo, gave me a big stiff handshake and we hooked up the cables like a NASCAR pit crew.  We talked about the fishing while my battery charged.  They were spin fishers and had brought the whole family.  They said the fishing had been slow so they "left the wives and took the kids into Craig to show them all the fly shops."  They ran into me on their way back to camp.  Minutes later, my truck was running and I was back on my way.

Later that day, I was fishing on the north side below the dam.  I noticed the two guys' camo jackets and saw them across the river on the rocks fishing with the kids.  They were all excited because the wife had caught a dink.  Then, one of the guys sets into a big rainbow and they all lost it.  The kids were all freaking and so excited.  I was so happy for them.  After some time, I fished my way out of sight as I moved up towards the dam.  About 20 minutes later, they all freaked out again, this time like they had won the Super Bowl.  I could hear it all over the roar of the dam.

Case in point 2: 
I use a bike to shuttle my truck and trailer whenever I can.  I love the pre-float bike rides through the country and all the money it saves.  I have what I call "bike shuttle" floats for all my favorite streams which maximize river mile and minimize bike mile.  The Missouri is perfect for bike shuttles because there are so many accesses.

I had dumped my boat in Craig and driven my trailer down to Spite Hill.  I packed all my stuff that's worth any money into my backpack and strapped my rods to it.  I wear my waders as well as a helmet.  I probably look like a futuristic flyfishing warrior on a bike.  Whatever I look like, I sure get some stares when I ride around Missoula like this.  Anyway, I was just about to hop on the bike when 3 college kids dropped off their shuttle car and gave me the WTF stare.  I laughed in my head, assuming they were at least gently ribbing me inside their truck.  Then, they rolled down the window and said, "Want a ride?"

I left the bike and climbed in.  These guys were mostly from Bozeman but were attending or planning to attend the University of Montana in Missoula.  One guy was a Grizzly Football player and the other was going to be. I don't remember if the 3rd guy was too.  Anyway, they were the nicest guys and although I didn't realize it at first, they actually did more than just give me a ride.  The wind is the great equalizer on the Mo.  When it blows, it's game over.  That day it got really windy.  I had an hour or two of awesome fishing beforehand that I wouldn't have had if those guys didn't give me a ride.

       

  

Road stop - Lincoln

The freestones are all blown here in western Montana.  This scenario brings on one of Montana's largest human migration as every flyfisher, guide, and dude head over to the flyfishing insurance plan know as the Missouri River. The trip over from Missoula is one of my favorite drives to make.  There are two ways to go and I love them both.  The shortest way is to take the ancient "road to the buffalo" or Hwy. 200 up through the Blackfoot Valley, through Potomac, Ovando, and Lincoln and then, over Rogers Pass.  On the other side you take a right down one of the most beautiful stretches of highway you'll ever drive called "Tom and Pat Matsko Bluebird Trail Highway" down to Wolf Creek. There are many place to stop but if your in a hurry to get on the water or get home after a long trip, the Shake 'N' Burger in Lincoln is the perfect pit-stop.

Shake 'N' Burger in Lincoln, MT

You have to supply your own beer but there is a movie rental shop in the back and lots of good boat parking.

Here's some views from the Tom and Pat Matsko Bluebird Trail Highway.

5 sure bet flies for the Missouri River for the next week or so

Heavily used Firebead Soft Hackle Ray Charles

The Ray Charles is the perfect top fly for the double nymph rig.   It was extremely effective yesterday in the wind and sun.  Your nymph rig will need to be deep and have split on it.  6-8 feet from bobber to splitshot.  I used 1 or 2 BBs for weight.  Fish the slow inside curves and pocket water at the tail-outs of the swirlies. The big swirly just downstream from Craig is fishing great, just be careful in those hydraulics; it would not be the best place to fall out of the boat or drop an anchor.

Rainbow Czech Nymph

The Rainbow Czech was the perfect bottom fly in tandem with the Ray Charles when the baetis stuff wasn't working so much

Beerhead nymph/emerger

Although there were no massive baetis hatches over the past couple of days, the trout were onto the nymphs during certain times of the day.  Sometimes they would eat the baetis nymph, almost exclusively, over the others.  In the current conditions on the Missouri R., you'll want to have this as your bottom fly in a double nymph rig.  Sometimes I'll have a size 18 as a lead and a size 20 as a dropper.  The Beerhead is super versatile though and its specialty is as an emerger on a short leash or in the film with a greased leader.  It is one of my favorite flies of all time.  I'm a BWO guy through and through.

Firebead Soft Hackle Sow Bug

This egg pattern also worked as bottom fly.

Black Conehead Bugger

The Mo is one of my favorite places to fish with streamers.  I love slow swinging a bugger through the runs and feeling it get whacked a couple times as it glides through the zone and finally gets grabbed by a mean old brown.  You can get as technical with streamers as you want but a green, black, or white weighted bugger will fish as good, if not better, than anything else.


I have got a couple good stories and pictures of my Missouri trip to come soon.