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?