A day at the Montana Fly Fishing Museum (part 1)

I've been looking forward to this post for some time now.  However, a research proposal and statistics exam delayed it a bit.  In the Butte, Montana Visitor Center, there is an awesome display of flies from the icons of Western US fly fishing.  George Grant, Franz Pott, Don Martinez, Norman Means, and Bill Blackstone all have flies on display.

George Grant Flies:

George Grant soft hackle stonefly

George Grant was a Butte area resident and his feather bodies wrapped with various materials are well known classic wet flies.  The bodies were wrapped with different brands of monofiliment line and v-rib.  The hackles are all woven.

Grant's Soft Hackle Stonefly

Black Creeper with woven hair body

The Banded Featherback Nymph

A display of just the bodies

Woven body flies

The original Muddler Minnow with a woven body 

Woven body salmonflies

Split wing salmonflies

The Bloody Butcher streamer

The Big Hole Demon

Grant squirrel body and collar - white and red streamer

Monofilament-bodied Hairtail Minnows 

God, those are sexy!

Fanz Pott Flies:

This guy was supposedly a wig maker which makes a lot of sense.

Pott Woven Body Soft Hackle

The hairs Pott used

Woven body hair fly patent

Woven body wet ant flies

This is the first installment of two for my trip to the Fly Fishing Museum Display at the visitor center in Butte, Montana.

Next time you drive through Montana on I-90 on your way to a fishing destination, stop in Butte, get some lunch, check out this amazing town with incredibly history.  Then, go to the visitor center and check out this great display! 

Giant pike caught in blue ribbon trout section of Bighorn River, Montana!

Photo taken by Mike Dufresne and supplied by the Billings Gazette

Here's the article in the Billings Gazette.  I hope they cut it's head off and stuck it on a post.  There is already a ton of pike waters in North America.  Wild trout waters are diminishing.  

"The Science News Cycle"

I love this cartoon from PHD Comics!

Where the Clark Fork begins

Outlet spillway for the Anaconda Settling Ponds

The Clark Fork River is the largest river by volume in the great state of Montana, USA.  Technically, its name is the Clark Fork of the Columbia River.  It get's its name from William Clark, the white explorer of the Lewis and Clark, Corps of Discovery.

The Clark Fork is a beautiful stream that exhibits a variety of personalities as it meanders westward out of the high Deer Lodge valley towards Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho.  Some famous MT trout streams make up the major tributaries including Rock Creek, the Blackfoot, and the Bitterroot.  The Flathead system also empties into the system down by Paradise.

The Clark Fork also has a gnarly history of abuse.  I mean seriously gnarly abuse!  If you have been a reader of this blog for any amount of time you've got an idea of the insanity that this stream has gone through. Abuses include being a dumping ground for a century of industrial scale mining and smeltering in the headwaters, smaller-scale (but no less destructive) mining in the tributaries, agricultural damage, interstates and railways, urbanization, de-watering, dams, sewage, invasive species, and much more.

If you root for the underdogs of the world like I do, the Clark Fork is sure to make you smile.  Despite the insanity, this river is still a world class trout fishery for most of its length.  It runs through some absolutely beautiful country and learning the history is super interesting.  In many ways, the Clark Fork is like the aorta which runs out of the historic heart of Montana - Butte.

The future of the Clark Fork is bright.  If you get the chance, fish it, learn about it, and love it.  You will not be disappointed!

Exciting volunteer opportunity with the Clark Fork Coalition

Get off your ass and help the rivers we use and love!

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...