Weather and Flow Updates

Wednesday May 2nd:
Weather bright and sunny with temps in the mid 70's.
Flows
Bighole @ Melrose 2190 C.F.S.
Gallatin 1180 C.F.S.
Yellowstone @ Livingston 11,300 C.F.S.
Missouri 3800 C.F.S.

What about Bob!

Monday April 30th: Hyalite Reservoir with Bob Gagne and my dad. Yellowstone blew out on Friday the 27th and the Upper blew out today. Flows for each were 10,500 for the stone and 1800 for the Madison. Still caddis out on the Lower with a foot or more of clarity and fish feeding on the surface.

I had to get back to my fly orders as well as tie up some staples for the trip on the Mo later in the week so I told my dad and Bob that I could only sneak out for a few hours. Hyalite was prime a couple of days ago and we planned on hitting the lake in the mid day before the college kids could get out of school and hit the lake. We got to the lake at about noon and there were two guys and their three year old son in a canoe on the back side of the island. A chunk of rotten ice was stuck in the gap between the parking area and the island so wading out to the island and fishing was not an option. We hiked around to the point on the North side of the channel and rigged the rods with a Mo Special and a Hyalite special with an indicator about 6 feet up from the flies and no weight. The fish were up closer to the bank as they usually are and I had one on my first cast. It was a small cutthroat and I quickly released him. My second cast came taught to one of the nice cruisers that was putting on his tuxedo for the ladies up the creek.

"Yellowstone Native"

I released him back into the lake and caught a fish on my next 7 cast going 9 for 9 to start the day. The two old guys finally had their rigs tied up on my 9th fish and I gave Bob the honey hole, sent my dad up the channel and I moved further down into the lake. Bob was into them fast and I continued to hook a fish every 3 to 7 cast. After I had 25 to 30 of the cutthroats at hand I finally hooked up with a nice 16 inch Grayling. I admired him and showed him to Bob who was mightily impressed with the fish. I turned him loose and hailed my father who had caught a couple but was not into them like Bob or I were. My hands were also cold from having them in the water so much while releasing the fish. Dad took two cast and was onto a nice fish while Bob continued to catch one after another. Bob finally needed a break from the cold as well and I jumped into his spot at the bush. It was fish on the first cast and I continued to hook them at a record pace for another 45 minutes in the same spot. Bob had headed up to where my dad started and he was getting fish on a regular basis as well. My dad had to make a few more cast than Bob or I were making but he had a bent rod as well. The after school and work crowd started to arrive and we had another angler who had been there the day before walk right in between Bob and I and start fishing. I guess that he was used to fishing close to other anglers that he did not really know. I was a little amazed at his brazen move for a spot to fish but I was the one who had the last laugh when he hooked his first fish and Trico headed over to inspect his fish and tangle her feet in his line while stepping on his rod that he had laid on the ground. He ask me to call her away but I told him that if he wanted to fish where he was that he was going to have to deal with the dog as she was their first. I had a quick giggle inside and came tight to another very nice Grayling.

"Hyalite Grayling"

I was pretty much had my fix for the day and I called it quits on the Grayling. My dad stepped into the bush spot and hooked 7 or 8 more fish and we decided we had plenty of fish on our 4 hour tour. We headed back to the truck and passed a few more anglers who were there for the evening madness. Bob had a wonderful time and there plans of heading to the Lower for the evening caddis bight was put on the shelf because they had both satisfied and they needed a break from fishing after the episode at the lake.

Taters First Float

Saturday April 28th: Jefferson River with Shook, Rhianon, Reece and Tater. Sappington to Willow Creek Bridge, flows 1580 C.F.S. Water clarity was about a foot in Tea Stained water.

Shook called me earlier in the week and wanted to go for a float over the weekend if the caddis were popping. I called him on Friday and told him that the Yellowstone was blown out and that the Lower was going to be a zoo with the Yellowstone blown out and the 15 boats full of wading women on the annual Caddis Fly Float trip that I had started 5 years earlier. I told him that my dad and his good friend Bob also wanted to float something because they were kicked out of the house since my mom was throwing Melissa a baby shower at 6pm on Saturday evening. I also was in charge of watching Reece during the shower so he would be with us on the float as well. I said that maybe we should do something out of the box and float the Jefferson for a change of pace and lack of crowds. So on Saturday morning I called shook and my dad and we all met at the house around 1 pm. We headed for the Jefferson and when we got to the bridge there was a couple of feet visibility in the tea stained water. We put the boats in the water and ran the shuttle. We loaded up the dogs and the kid and made fast to a fish right out of the gate. Rhiannon had a small brown and a whitefish within sight of the rednecks using a pistol to shoot a dead carcass in the river underneath the bridge. We continued on down the river and my dad hooked and landed a nice 18 inch bow where the spring dumps in below the cliff jumping diversion. Shook took over on the oars and I pulled out a fly rod and ran a streamer and a worm in the dirty water. I turned a really nice fish in the fast water above the William's Bridge access and then I lost a couple of fly setups and switched to a very short heavy leader and on Motor Oil Bugger. After that I hooked three really nice healthy browns by either dead drifting it in the big eddies or by dragging and stopping it off the root wads and collapsed banks. The fish that I caught were all very strong and healthy and Reece enjoyed reeling them in and tossing them back for the release. The fish were all bigger than Reece and it took both his arms and his chest to heave them over the side of the boat.

"Reece Put-em' back"

After hooking the three fish Shook wanted to give it a try and I jumped back on the oars. Tater was great during the float and slept most of the way, but when I got on the oars he got a little feisty and began to wander around the boat and test the waters a bit. He became curious about the oars and before Rhiannon could grab him he had three feet on the oar and the attempt at getting all four on caused him to slip off into the water. He did a very graceful dive and went under water a few feet before resurfacing and realizing he was in the water. We plucked him out of the water and he had taken his first swim.

"Tater after the swim, 9 weeks old"

The day was a huge success and I was even more happy with the fact that we caught some nice fish, saw nobody on the river and had very little wind. The reports from the Lower were that the fishing was fair and the wind blew hard all day long making for a long and tiresome day. I made a great call and finally saw a decent day of fishing on the Jefferson.

Bad Caddis on the Stone.

April 24, 25 and 26: "Lord Henry, Rod and Soppe" Vietnam Vets.
Day One: Yellowstone Float. Flows were 2670 C.F.S on day one float from Mayor's to Sheep. Hwy 89 ramp still not completed by the FW& P guys.
Flies: Caddis were out a bit as well as Baetis and March Browns very sporadic. Air Temps in the 60's with bright sunshine. Royal Wulff # 12, Royal Trude # 12, BH Mangy Caddis # 14, BH Softy Caddis Brown # 14, Black Lite Brite Caddis # 14, BH FB PT # 16.
Day Two: Yellowstone Flows were 3140 C.F.S. on float from Mallard's to Carters. Clarity was well over three feet with a brownish tint to the water on both days.
Flies: Olive CH Bugger # 6, Lite Brite Caddis # 14, BH PT # 16, Royal Wulff # 12. Caddis never really showed up until the sun went behind the clouds. This was the best night of the hatch this year and the fish came up in the evening after we left.
Day Three: Upper Madison Float with flows at 848 C.F.S. 8 Mile to town float.
Flies: Orange San Juan #12, Two Tone Tommy Orange Bead head, BH PT Standard # 18, Idly BH Baetis # 18. Saw a few baetis and a couple of caddis near the Ennis boat Ramp.

Overall the trip was fair and the fishing was slow probably because of the skills of our anglers. They did want to keep a couple of the fish on the trip and we had two rainbows and a brown that were hooked deep and bleeding that I kept for them to eat. Sometimes you can learn something special by checking the contents of a trouts digestive system and keeping these fish may have me trying something new next year during this same time. The only question will be how to fish the fly and how to tie the bug to imitate the interesting contents in the stomachs of the three fish I had to vacuum seal. Should it be stripped with a little bit of movement or are they eating them deadrifted in the current. I hope that remember to check this post next year during and prior to the caddis hatch so that I might be able to unlock an unbelievable seceret that no one would ever figure out without checking the contents of a few trouts diet during an obvious amazing hatch. The fish all had 15 to 30 of this small aquatic species in their system and very little else, especially not caddis. All three fish were taken from different areas of the river and each of them had been eating this bug on a very regular basis. The bug must be hatching it's young during this time period because as far as I could conclude from some Internet research the insect in question is visibly larger than the ones in the contents of the fishes diets. I am still a little belittled by the "Beetle and Bailey" situation that this has created for me and I hope that I can come to a conclusion next year.

Mike's Short Skirt!

April 12th,13th & 14th: Bighorn River

After spending a few days with Reece and my wife I was off for another three days on the Bighorn. I packed up the old trusty steed with all the gear I would need to survive three days in the small travel trailer named "Foxxy" at Cottonwood Camp. The bags were packed and I headed out of town on Wednesday at around 9 am. I made one quick stop at Dan Baileys to pick up a few CDC baetis emergers and another stop at Walmart, the home of cheap plastic shit, in Hill Billings Montuckey. I arrived in Ft. Fun at around 2 pm and headed for the trailer park to see who had the day off. I first pulled by Thors house to see if Paulson was around and his rig was a no show so I figured he must be on the water with some clients. I pulled up to Tres Trailers and found Reithmiller dealing with Wilcox's hounds, which were fighting to get under the tender's trailer for a quick escape and journey around the trailer park. Reithmiller had been tying up some bugs for the coming days and after a quick discussion about how the fishing had been we headed over to see how Palumbo was doing. He had just returned from his errands and we sat and discussed music and the fishing for a couple of hours. Kieser poked his head in and we partook in a few busch beers. Once I started to feel the affects of the Busch's I decided I had better go get my camp setup at the "Foxxy" When I arrived at Cottonwood no one was around so I decided to go check out the river. As I pulled out of Cottonwood Alvin was on the ditch road concocting some old tractor parts to drag behind the truck to loosen the hard gravel road in the camp. He told me to go find Doug to see if he had setup the trailer for our stay. Doug was getting the water hooked up in the newer showers and he had not gotten the trailer ready for my stay when I found him. We headed down to Foxxy and with a quick plug in of an extension cord we at least had power to the trailer. I told him that water was not a big deal and that I could care less to blow my self up in the pre 70's era trailer with the propane for the stove and fridge. He concluded with me that propane in the trailers was a scary proposition and that neither of us wanted our obituary to read that we were taken from this earth in a 14 foot travel trailer that blew up when the propane leak ignited. I had my grill, Coleman stove and a cooler full of block ice that would suffice just fine for the three nights and four days of my stay at Cottonwood. I began unpacking my bags and getting the gear setup in the trailer. First and foremost was setting up the fly tying station to pump out the necessary weapons for the next three days. I was running short on Big Uglies, Jess's Pupae, Cripple Thors, Baetis Comparaduns and the four hours in the truck gave me a couple of ideas for a few new bugs that I would use on my clients rod for the next few days. Once all my gear was inside and the place was setup, Peter pulled up and we unpacked his gear and got the trailer ready for our stint at the Disneyland of the flyfishing world.

Day one brought introductions of the clients and guides and I was paired with Mike and Marshal. They were both fairly new to the art of the fly, Marshal had done a decent bit of back country fishing and Mike was very new to the sport. Mike did have some idea about the casting and Marshal was accomplished enough to make the cast he needed to. We put in at the after bay and were in for the long haul all the way to Bighorn. Our first stop was in the Meat hole where I showed them the rig and how it was setup. Then we headed out into the riffle to introducing them to the finer points of nymph fishing, primarily how to mend. Mike was into his first fish after several cast and I landed his small brown and headed up to put Marshal in the spot. Marshal caught several fish right off the bat and I went walking to the head of the hole to see if there were any fish rising. There was a huge bow on a redd at the top of the riffle and I watched the pair move off and on the redd for several minutes. I'm not some pervert, however I do enjoy watching fish complete the reproductive cycle and I figured it would be a great time to give a lesson on etiquette to the clients. I did check out the small side channel and there were about 75 fish rising in the scum and trickle of current coming in from the channel. I rigged up a dry dropper rig and had both Mike and Marshal come to the top to watch the spawners as well as fish to some rising fish. They both enjoyed seeing the spawners and then Marshal took a half hour casting to the rising fish in the scum eddy. He hooked and landed a couple of fish and we headed for the boat to make a journey downstream. We did very well in the meat hole and we could have just stayed there most of the day. Our next stop was not until we hit Carl's and we only stayed there long enough for Marshal to land 4 or 5 fish and then we headed on down the river. We did a little boat fishing on the way and we had to row all the way to the vines for our next stop. The Baetis started pouring off around 1 pm and we could not find a good stop to make for fishing dries. Dave was in the Pipe and there were fish going crazy on the surface. We stopped for a quick bite with his clients and then we headed down to the Vines. I knew that when a good hatch comes off that you can do really well in the vines fishing a drowned dry pattern as they get washed under from the fast water in the Bighorn Rapids. I put Marshal out on the ledge at the bottom and he proceeded to hook and land 30 or more fish most of them were smaller fish but the numbers were very good for Marshal. Mike and I headed up on the shelf and the sun was just right so that you could see all the fish sitting on the rock just off the edge. Mike hooked several large brown trout before he was able to land the big fish of the day, a skinny 21 inch brown. The Fish moved right into the ledge and we could see about 20 of them jockeying for position. We were able to hook another 10 fish swinging a CDC spinner with two split shot under an indicator into the fish. Both of them were very happy with the fishing and we headed for the slot below the Bay of Pigs for one last stop before heading for the lodge. We took a couple of more fish and they were ready for cocktails and a good meal.

Day Two we put in at 3 mile and floated down to the pipe to camp out for the day. Dave had done well there on dries the day before and both Mike and Marshal wanted to give some dry flies a try. We nymphed most of the morning and I had mike try and new fly that came after several Beam and Soda's and about 8 beers. During the course of the morning Mike and I were talking about how great of a day it was already and the only way it could get better would to see a boat full of short skirts and bikini tops go floating by. That is when the new fly was labeled as "Mike's Short Skirt". We stayed in the "Pipe" until around 3 pm waiting for the baetis to hatch but the sun was high all day and the bugs never really got going and the fish never looked up. So we headed on down river and made another stop at the Vines to see if we could hook Marshal up with a few of the large browns that Mike tied into the day before. Mike was on the ledge at the bottom and he hooked and landed plenty of fish to satisfy his day. Marshal and I headed for the upper end of the shelf and Marshal did finally hook and land a nice 17 inch brown that gave him a run for his money before coming to the net. Marshal managed to hook several more large fish and break them off before we decided to head for the lodge.

Day Three: Oh the dreaded Saturday crowds were on tap for the day and the key to fishing the Bighorn is getting lucky with managing the crowds. When I pulled up to the ramp there were already 14 trailers in the lot and another 8 kick boats getting ready to put in. I was a bit concerned and I told both Mike and Marshal that finding a spot could be a challenge. We pushed off from the 3 mile ramp and I had plans on stopping early and trying to fish for some fish sipping on risers either below the snag hole or on the flat below Crow Beach. As we launched two boats pulled over into the Gravel pit and it put a total of 12 boats ahead of us and possibly stationed in the good holes downriver. The kick boats pushed off about the same time and fortunately they were more interested in fishing from the Kick boats than getting to a hole to wade fish, thus they were out of the crowd management picture as well. I put the boat in full gear forward and we ran into two more boats in the first on the right, 10 boats ahead it's looking better. As we spit out the bottom of the channel there were 5 more boats parked in various places around the snag hole. At this point I told the boys that we were going to take a gamble and head for the 3 rivers area of the river and setup camp in either Holly's Hole or across from Mikes. We were in for an hour boat ride and if the other boats had the same plan we might have to row out and go float the upper three in the afternoon. As we hit the car bodies another boat was pulled over wade fishing the slick above the Beaver hut. I rounded the corner and two more boats were pulled in at the Duck Blind and I got very excited because there were only two more boats ahead of us and we would certainly get one of the holes at Three Rivers. When we got to the Club the old guys who had been there for the past two days were parked and fishing. That left one boat which was right in front of us and they pulled into the pipe. I gave Matt and wave and kept front rowing with a smirk on my face. We pulled into 3 rivers and we pulled in across from Mikes house and setup camp for the day. I got the boys rigged with flies set them in their spots where they immediately started catching fish. For the next hour I went back and forth between setting up the table, chairs and camp in between netting fish. We nymphed fished all morning and then we sat to eat some lunch. After lunch they headed back out and I took a scan of the upper end of the hole to look for risers. The fish were starting to eat midge clusters pretty strong and when Marshal needed a break to warm up I rigged a dry fly rod for them to fish to the rising fish. By the time Marshal warmed back up there were a solid 30 fish rising in the hole. We waded out and I put Marshal to work on catching fish that he could see holding just below the surface and lazily sticking their heads up to pluck the clusters off the surface. Mike was back at it hooking fish every 5 to 10 drifts on the nymphs below. Marshal hooked several fish on the cluster and then a few baetis started to trickle in with the midges. Several more fish had moved in as the baetis started to drift and soon we had too many targets to cast to. Each fish was picking off both baetis and midges so I switched up to a biot comparadun # 18 and trailed it with a red miracle midge off the back. The miracle midge did take the majority of the fish but the comparadun was easy to see and a quarter of the time the fish choose it instead of the midge. After Marshal landed several nice rainbows and a couple of browns it was Mike's turn to take his shot at and become thoroughly addicted to fly fishing. Dry flies are the presuppose for why most anglers become addicts for using a fly rod, nymphs catch fish but to witness the event unfolding at this time is what causes the addiction. Mike took a few cast with the dry fly stick and it took him a few tangles and a bit of instruction in how to cast a slower shorter rod without the weight and strike indicator that he had on his stiff nymph rod. Once he worked out the kinks he started to see wherein the addiction lies. After catching several fish and missing a lot more his feet got cold and we sat back at our camp and watched as the parade of boats came floating down at the end of the day. We packed up the gear and they both finished the day off with a few more fish while I loaded up the boat and then we headed for the takeout and a wonderful day of turning rookies into fly addicts. It was a great trip and both of them made a ton of progress in the three days of being on the Bighorn.

Winter Like Conditions invade Armstrong's Spring Creek

Thursday April 5th.

As the snow fell last night I was wondering if I was going to have another early spring trip cancel due to the weather. I was confirmed for a full day wade/float trip through the Yellowstone Angler and I was sure that the Bozeman Pass would be a hair raising experience with the new snow on the ground. As it is in the spring the pass was slushy and trecherous due to semi drivers that drive to fast and act like assholes. The pass was slushy and one semi did pull a dipshit manuever passing several of us on slushy roads doing well over 75 mph in a full size semi. I stopped at the store and picked up the makings of the Hot Lunch that the clients would enjoy half way through their day. The clients were Jack and John and they were from Maine and Massachutes. Jack runs a non profit in Maine and John oversees a large bank in the Boston area. They were both experienced anglers who could handle themselves on the creeks just fine, but they enjoyed getting a guide once in a while to get a few pointers and pickup a few new tricks. We headed to Armstrongs with a selection of Baetis nymphs and dry patterns with hopes of having a good baetis hatch later in the day. When we arrived at the creek Peter was there with his two clients and they were heading into the diagonal riffle to give it a try. We suited up every piece of warm weather gear we had and headed for the holes upstream of Peter and his husband and wife team from New Mexico. The air temperature at 9 am on the creek was hovering around 28 degrees and the wind was blowing at a fairly consistent pace of 5 to 10 miles per hour, it was a little on the chilly side. Jack is 63 years old and he has had a few knee surgeries that require him to use a wading staff and a little patience in getting from spot to spot. I scurried John down the hill in the riffle above Peter and gave him his fly setup, which consisted of a Solitude Baetis nymph # 16 trailed with a # 18 Johnny Cash and a # 2 Split shot ahead of the two flies. Off he went to fish the deeper water and I headed Jack up to a spot where we could get down the bank. We got in the creek 50 yards above John and waded across to fish the Big Rock run. The stream work they did a month ago has helped concentrate the fish a bit since there is some deeper water that the fish can congregate in. There were about 9 fish in the lower end of the run and most of them appeared to be rainbows that were close to getting their game on. They were not sitting close to any reds but they most likely were either on the shallow water 25 yards below or heading to some above the long run. As I suspected Jack hooked into one on the third or fourth drift and it was a 14 inch bow that was turning black and getting ready for some romance. Jack had on a # 16 Sawyer trailed with a # 20 Red Heathen about 4 feet below a pinch on. The first fish took the heathen and put up a good fight. The next two fish that Jack hooked were close to the mouth but a little short of the corner of the mouth. Since I had Jack into a few fish I gave him some suggestions about how the proceed up the run and headed down to try and get John into a few fish to start off the day. He was fast to move up to the very head of the riffle and I arrived to him fishing in very shallow and fast water that the fish like in July. I moved him back down to the heart of the run and had him run some cast in the slower water. His fly setup was not producing from and area that I know has some fish in it. I changed up the Johnny cash for a # 18 pinkie and had him swing it down through the gut. On his second cast through the hole he hooked up to a smaller rainbow that we were able to land. After another ten minutes of going fishless we reeled up and headed for the run above Jack. I stopped by on the way to help Jack move up in the run a bit and sent John up the creek with my suggestions on where to stand. Jack hooked another fish and then I moved up to get John in the right postion. John made many good drifts through the deepest part of the hole and came up with one nice brown trout around 17 inches. He had changed up or lost the back fly and replaced it with a grey midge larvae. I showed him the inside of the seam, which he was not fishing and on his first cast he was onto another fish. After two more fish on the small fly he tied on the fly had been turned in little more than a hook with black thread. I changed him out to a # 20 Grey WD-50 and he took a fish on the first cast. I headed back down to Jack to change him up to a Grey Larvae and when I arrived at the head of the run there were some fish starting to sip something on the back side of the rock. We ran a couple of more nymphs through the hole and Jack hooked one nice rainbow that jumped and broke off. By then there were a couple of fish rising consistently enough to justify taking apart the nymph rig and putting on a dry. I put on a Black # 20 Cripple Thor and we decided to leave on the pinch on to help jack see the fly. His second or third cast had a take and he landed a nice rainbow on the dry. He was excited to get a fish on the surface and it helped to keep the cold wind and steam from making us ask ourselves what are we doing out here in the first place. It appeared the fish were eating midges but we were also getting close to the time that the baetis had been getting started on the creek for the past week. After several more misses and landing another fish the fish slowed to the offering of the Cripple Thor. I switched up to one of Zach's CDC emergers and we had a couple of takes right off the bat. During this dry fly frenzy John was steadily pulling in fish from the run above. Jack landed another fish and we decided it was time for some hot lunch. It was 1:30 when we hit the shack for Lunch and Peter was in the clients vehicle eating lunch and trying to warm up from the balmy 31 degree temperature at 1 pm. I got the hot Ham and Cheese on Sourdough going along with the soup that would help warm some cold feet, faces and hands. We ate a quick bite and John and Jack retired to the car for some time with the heater. After I got cleaned up and the gear packed in the truck I headed up to see if anyone was fishing the very upper end of the creek. When I got to the colvert there was a guy fishing from the new island and I headed back to fish below the hut on the lower end of the creek. As we headed for the lower end the sun burst from behind the clouds. I put John in the first run and headed Jack for the deep corner by the house. When we arrived there was a nice brown feeding on the surface between the downed tree and the bush near the middle of the hole. Jack had a # 20 Harrop Sparkle dun on and I had him through it at the fish. The baetis were starting to trickle down the creek and the fish was steadfastly feeding on the surface. It was a difficult down and across presentation that required a very accurate cast into the gap between the dead branches on the fallen tree and the bush. The cast was made tougher by a gust breeze that ranged between 5 and 15 mph. As the baetis started to pop I head for John so that I could have him fish the lower end of the run. Jack shouted out as he hooked and had a quick schooling from the brown under the bush. I rerigged John with a Comparadun and set him in place just above the fast water in the run below. There were 5 different fish feeding on the surface and I worked with John on the finer points of making a Winston IM6 perform a better more accurate cast. He managed to get several eats but was not able to put the steel to any of the fish. The hatch lasted for about an hour and then as soon as they started they were done. I gave them both new nymph rigs and put on Balloons for their indicators. They both liked them but we quickly began making bubba bass comments in regards to the silliness of using a balloon for an indicator. Jack hooked into the fish of the day in the deep hole and it was a nice rainbow that bull dogged Jack in the bottom of the hole for several minutes. Finally the fish turned down out of the hole and headed for Depuy's. I thought we were in business when the fish finally turned from the deep water but the fish went straight downstream and soon was far enough out that I was certain it was going to come unbuttoned. Sure enough it did and plenty of heckling came from John, especially when I was looking at Jack's setup and John hooked a fish that he joked was the one that Jack lost. The sawyer PT was the fly of the hour in the deep water for the next 45 minutes and then we decided to try and fish the upper end of the creek to finish off the day. I put jack in the new hole that comes off the log on the island and waded John across at the bottom of the island to fish the top end. John landed a couple of fish from the top of the island and Jack got bored and moved into the slough and stripped a bugger. The bugger took 4 fish from the slough and Jack was pretty wiped out for the day. John and I waded out into the muck below the island to run a spring creek scud and a Midge through the new dug out that bends back toward the culvert. The wading is mucky but it paid off with the biggest fish of the day comming on the scud. A nice 19 inch brown took fast and we had a couple of other smaller rainbows come to hand before the sun started to get low and the air temps dropped fast. It was a great day on the creek even with the artic weather.

Beth's Bows on the Gallatin

Wednesday April 4th. I had met Beth through a friend of ours who decorated the interior of her Mountain Home at Moonlight Basin. She had contacted me through Dana and we were scheduled to do two half day trips while she was out on a ski vacation with her kids. Our first day was supposed to be Monday the 2nd but we awoke to several inches of new snow and blizzard like conditions. I spoke with Beth in the morning and told her that there was no way that I was going to risk life and limb to get to Big Sky and go fishing. She was not excited about the prospect of standing in a river during a snow storm either so we made the call to put off the trip and give it another try on Wednesday. The weather was much nicer on Wednesday and I met her at the Hungry Moose Market at 10 am. When I left Bozeman the air temp was a whopping 27 degrees and I was concerned that it may be a short day with the cold weather. When I got to Big Sky the inversion was in place and it was a balmy 38 degrees with a bit of sunshine poking through the clouds. We stopped at Super Dave's Mad Wolf sports and picked up a license for the day ahead.

The first stop was a quick walk into the hole at the bottom of the Porcupine Wildlife area and we hooked a few decent rainbows and one beautiful cutthroat. After a couple of hours of fishing the run we walked back to the truck and headed back down the river to find a new spot to fish for the rest of the day. Guiding on the Gallatin poses some interesting challenges as the Forest Circus owns much of the land and with evil people in charge such as Becky Heath the ability for any new blood to get commercial Forest permits has become impossible. Thus creativity and some understanding of Emminent Domain can gain you access to the river via highway easements. We got into the Hog Hole by using the Highway and as we got to the river I gave Beth the rundown about what we were fishing for and why they were there. Once we waded to the other side of the river Beth made her first few cast with a Idlywilde Bead Head stone # 10 trailed by the Fluery Ugly egg. I had to adjust the weight and she was fast into her first hog hole fish. It was a nice fat healthy rainbow with no color that went a solid 19 inches. I managed to get a hand on the fish but my tippet lanyard caught the point fly and the fish made a quick escape before we could capture it's digital image. She hooked a couple of more fish and then she was fast to another Hog Hole Bow and we managed to get our hands on it and bring it to the hand for a quick photo before sending it back to the bottom of the Gallatin. The baetis started to come off around 2 pm and fish were really feeding on the opposite bank. We did try a few cast with a dry and we realized that we had better get back to her vehicle so she could be at the house when the kids got done skiing.

We had a wonderful time catching fish and we also shared some great conversation since we both have similiar views on what is going on in the world.

Scouting Day!!

Sunday began far to early with a 4:30 am wake up from the alarm clock and a trip to the airport to drop off my wife and son. We arrived at the airport at 5:15 for their 6 am flight and it was a mix of rain and snow. I dropped them off and hit the Truck Stop for some early morning grub. The Ham and Cheese omelet hit the spot and greasy hash browns were as good as they get, even though I would pay the price later in the day with all the grease and butter sitting in my stomach on top of the rest of the contents of my digestive tract. After eating breakfast I headed home and hit the bed to catch up on some more sleep. I finally got out of bed around 9 am and hit the fly tying vise to tie up some # 18 Soft Hackle copper johns and a few # 20 tungsten soft hackles for a day of fishing on the Gallatin. I was scheduled to take a trip on the Gallatin on Monday and I wanted to get out and fish it a bit before guiding on it the next day. My dad and Peter Penefold arrived at the house around 10:30 and we jumped in my dads truck with all our gear and my faithful fishing companion Trico the Spring Spaniel. We drove up the Gallatin Canyon all the way to Big Sky to check out the conditions of the river and to see how much it still looked and felt like winter in the Big Sky area. I had not been up the canyon most of the winter and I was surprised to see that most of the snow was gone from the banks of the river. When we got to Moose Creek it started to snow and the big wet heavy flakes were coming down at a moderate pace. We drove up to the top of the porcupine wildlife management area and turned around. There was a guy in the " Hog hole", which I wanted to stop and give a try so we continued on down the road to Deer Creek to check on the pod of risers that typically inhabit this deep hole. When we got to Deer Creek there was a mother and her two sons there who were from New Zealands North Island. They were visiting the area and her sons were attending school in Breckenridge Colorado for snowboarding. The one son had his fly rod rigged and was trying to fish in a pair of skater tennis shoes and a pair of shorts, all while it was snowing out. He did manage to catch a fish at the run above the bridge and we rigged up a dry fly rod for peter to go after the large pod of rising fish on the highway side, just above the bridge. There was conservatively 50 fish actively feeding on the surface, most of which were under 10 inches long. There were a couple of larger fish at the head of the pool but even these fish were not much larger than 12 or 13 inches. Peter headed down to the water and placed his first cast into the spruce tree behind him. After retrieving his fly from the tree he managed to hook several of the small fish on my light colored pullover midge # 20. After the fish stopped rising we jumped back in the truck and headed for Squaw Creek to fish a run or two and show them both the back road that gives you good access to the Gallatin away from Hwy 191. We ended up fishing the River Runs Through It rock and Peter and I did the death wade to the other side. It started off a bit slow as I had on a Idlywilde Goldenstone # 10 with a # 20 Tungsten Soft hackle on the rear. I hooked three fish from below the rock on the Stonefly nymph and peter hooked one rainbow above the rock on # 18 Soft Hackle Red Copper John trailed 2 feet off the back of a # 12 Royal Parwulff. I put on the Parawulff because I saw a large March Brown adult on the surface as I was crossing over to the other bank. Unfortunately there were not enough March Browns out to bring the fish to the surface but it will be very soon that we can get them to come up to a Wulff pattern. My dad nymphed up the road side of the run and he managed to hook one rainbow from the pocket water above the main run. Peter also headed upstream and I stayed in the deep run knowing full well that there was a ball of fish somewhere in the deeper water and all that I had to do was unlock their exact location and find the right fly setup. I moved above the Rock and changed my setup to a Brown and Yellow Rubberleg trailed with one of Fluery's half eggs that we did well on a month earlier on a trip at the Lodge. The Rubberleg was a # 10 and the Egg was a Mc Cheese Egg on a # 14 scud hook. I put on one # 4 split shot and bang the first cast I stuck a nice 12 inch bow on the rubberlegs. My second cast came tight to a 13 inch brown trout that ate the egg. I them proceeded to haul in a dozen fish in about 20 minutes with all most all of the fish falling to the egg pattern. Peter had returned from his jaunt upstream and I gave him my rod and the spot where he caught a couple of decent rainbows. We fished it for another 15 minutes and I think we sore mouthed most of the fish in the hole. We waded back across the river and jumped back into the truck. We made one last stop at the Kleinschmidt diversion dam where I stuck another dozen fish and called it a day. The bows on the Gallatin are starting to put on some color and they are definitely all over the eggs. One thing that I have come to the conclusion on is that a poorly tied fly generally works better than a archival quality one. The Fluery egg out fishes my perfectly round version much better and I have had to retie most of my egg patterns. The Fluery egg is your basic egg pattern that most tiers first tie up and it needs to come out looking like half an egg rather than a full round one. It is very quick and easy to tie, which is a huge plus when it comes to egg patterns. I sat down last night and whipped out 5 dozen of them in less than an hour and a half.
After scouting all day on Sunday I awoke to 4 inches of fresh snow and more flakes falling as I write. Beth did not want to venture out in the weather and I am pretty sure I do not want to drive to Big Sky in it either, so I guess I will spend the day tying up my commercial orders instead of guiding on the Gallatin. We will make it up on Wednesday and I can't wait to get back out on the Gallatin.

Bitteroot to the Bighorn !!!

On Tuesday morning the 20th we awoke to low level clouds, high winds and forecast of rain and snow for the Bitteroot Valley. The winds were gusting to well over 30 miles per hour in the morning and we made the decision to head back west and get closer to home in case the predicted snow storm amounted to a spring time Blizzard. We loaded all the gear into the truck and headed back towards the Madison to hopefully salvage a few hours of fishing in the afternoon. By the time we arrived in Norris the wind had picked up to about 40 MPH and we decided that it was just not our day to hit the water. We stopped along the Lower Madison and followed the Fish and Game guys as they ran their recapture of trout on the Lower Madison. I was interested to see what the electricity would pull out from the best section of the Lower for catching Big Fish. They netted a few nice browns in the short time we watched and all that Larry and my father could talk about was how hard of work it looked like to shock fish. If you have ever gotten the privileged to help out on a shocking crew you would be amazed at the effort and muscle strength that you will exert in a day, not to mention what happens when you fall in and the probes give you a bit of a jolt. I appreciate the effort of our fish and game officials and thank god we have them to keep track of the health of our waters.
I dropped Larry and my dad off at the airport to pick up Larry's truck and headed home for some reorganization and to spend a quality evening with my 4 year old son Reece. Reece and I had a stimulating game of baseball in the front yard and we spent the evening drawing pictures and working on his letters. I read him several books and off to bed he went. I unpacked my bags from the previous trip and repacked it with some nice shirts, more underwear, new fleece pants and reloaded my tying bag with materials for midges and scuds. My wife and I had a nice evening and we drifted off to sleep with the hum of the Television in the background.
The next morning I woke up and read the Bozeman daily comicle to see what had happened in the short time while I was away and when I finished the paper I fed Reece his breakfast and got him ready to head to preschool. I dropped him off and packed up the truck with my sleeping bag, grill, driftboat essentials and a few extra items to make the next 4 days on the Bighorn manageable. I was on the road by 10 am and headed 200 miles in the opposite direction from the previous days of guiding. There were a couple of stops that still needed to be made which included a stop for gas, food and or course beer for the Bighorn. I arrived in Ft. Fun at around 3 pm and headed to the park service office to pick up yet another permit for the years guiding. For some reason all of the different agencies are finally getting their poop in a group and setting up commercial use rules for their lands. I have no problems paying the fees and I am glad that they have finally come up with concrete rules and regulations in regards to my profession. It took about 30 minutes for me to find a ranger who could help me and he sold me my $80 National Parks pass and I was legal and ready to hit the river. I headed down to Cottonwood to see if Thor or any of the others were in the small cabin yet and Jamie was still in Hardin dropping off his son with his grandfather. Thor was no where to be found and I had a date with Peter to meet him at the 3 mile access to give him a ride back to his rig. I arrived at the river and put the boat, a 30 pack of Busch, my rod and my midge box in the boat. I launched the boat and rowed over to the Gravel Pit for an evening of fishing. Within ten minutes Peter came twirling down the river trying to fish and row at the same time. He pulled into the Gravel Pit and I quickly offered him up a beer. I quizzed him about the fishing on the Upper Three and he said that it was the same old game as the Bighorn has been for the past three years. There was a nice pod of fish rising in the middle seam and I pulled out my Winston 8 1/2 foot 4 weight, which already had a crippled thor tied to the end from fishing midges on the Lower a few weeks earlier. I took several cast and blew it on three consecutive fish so I handed the rod over to Peter and let him give it a try. He had several eats and broke off the fly just as Paulson and Weedmiller pulled up to the pit to BS and drink a few beers. We spent an hour or so in the hot evening sun and then headed to the boat ramp to load up the boats and get a bite to eat. Just as we hit the ramp, Jamie showed up and he gave peter a ride up to get his truck. We got all the boats out of the water and headed to the cabin to cook up some deer burgers and partake in a few more beers.
After getting settled into the cabin we ate our burgers and headed to the town of Ft Fun for a little bit of guide revelry and to spend some time with our good friends that call Ft Smith home. As usual most of the town stopped by Dave's trailer to share in a beverage or talk about the river. I have many great friends on the Bighorn and it was good to catch up with all of them and tell stories about how they passed their time during the winter. At around 10 pm it was time to head back to the cabin and whip up a few bugs and hit the hay. I for one was enjoying the beer and being back on the Horn so I stayed up a little to late tying up Pink Sow Bugs and Big Uglies while sampling one too many beers. I did have to make a few minor adjustments to the table in the room to get the vise to fit but that is a whole different story which I will post at a later date.
The alarm woke me from a dead sleep at 6 am and there was a heavy pounding in my head that came from the mountains of Busch beer that I drank the night before. I pounded down a couple of advils with a glass of OJ and headed for the shower to wash off the night of sleep. I felt pretty good after the shower and jumped back into my bag to warm up after the luke warm shower. As I laid in bead warming up my stomach began to feel a bit queasy and I headed out the door to the back of the cabin to relieve the sour mixture of OJ, Advil and beer. Once the evil demons left my body I felt much better and was ready for a toothbrush and a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles. I finished up the cereal and readied my equipment for the first of three days with the group from Southern and Central California. I put some ice in the cooler and took the short drive to the Kingfisher Lodge where the guest were eager to get on the river. Collett and the rest of the kitchen staff gave us our instructions for the days lunch menu of Buffalo Chili in bread bowls and I packed in a red bull and plenty of water for the day ahead. Brian introduced me to my two clients for the next three days and we packed their gear in the truck and headed for the Three mile boat ramp.
Typically I get the anglers who are less experienced, which I prefer because it is much more fun to watch an anglers skills grow before you than it is to try and teach an old dog new tricks. Andre and Rich would be with me for the next three days and I was excited to have one angler who had never done much fishing before. Andre would be my project for the next few days and his childhood friend Rich would have to fend for himself a bit as Andre needed some help with the basics of fly fishing. Rich was very competent and I gave him some bugs and a run down of the types of water to look for and he was off. Andre had taken some casting lessons and he had a cast that could get the job done enough to catch some fish. We put in on the first day at the 3 Mile access and floated to the Bighorn access, ten miles downstream. I let the guys do some boat fishing and Andre was the first to hook up with nice 18 inch rainbow on the bank opposite of the car bodies. It was his first trout on a fly and what a nice fish to start out your fishing career with. We landed the bow and took a few pictures for Andre and set the fish free to continue his feeding ways. As we rounded the corner the SBA hole was open so I pulled in and we spent an hour or so catching small rainbows and browns out the hole. The fly of choice was a # 16 pink soft hackle sow bug trailed with a #20 Silver and Black as well as a Big Ugly. After catching a handful of fish we jumped back in the Boat and headed down river. We did not have much luck finding a good open spot until we hit the Greycliffs shelf. We pulled over and I put Andre in the meat of the hole and sent Rich to the head to try and pull out a few browns out of the fast water at the head of the riffle. Ed Waddell and his high school friend John had mentioned they were doing well with worm trailed with a soft hackle fished in the fast shallow riffles. As is so often the case with anglers who fish the Greycliff shelf, Rich marched right up through the good riffle water and headed for the deeper drop off in the middle of the river. For some reason I never do very well out in the middle of the deeper water and Rich proved my theory of the fish not being in the deeper water. Andre did manage to hook up a couple of times and it was probably because some fish had moved in below Riches eddy to feed on the scraps that were being kicked up by Rich as he moved around. I do not condone the "San Juan Shuffle" but sometimes there is no avoiding being in the slip stream of your fellow angler as he wades upstream of you. We left the Greycliff shelf and were fortunate enough to get a crack at the vines hole just around the corner. We met up with Palumbo and Jamie at the Vines for a quick lunch and then Jamie and I shared the hole with out four guest. The fishing in the Vines was hot and heavy for a couple of hours with all four of the guys hooking fish one after another. The hot fly for the vines was the Big Ugly, primarily because the afternoon saw the fish really keyed in on the pupal stage of the midges. The vines made up for a lack luster morning of fishing. After putting the numbers on the board we headed on downstream and made another stop at the bottom of the "Bay of Pigs" and I put Andre in the honey spot and sent Rich up the channel to prospect for some fish in the skinny water. Andre did well fishing convergence and Rich pulled out a couple of very healthy rainbows in middle of the channel. We caught several more fish and headed for the take out since it was nearing 6 pm and the dinner bell. We made one last ditch effort on the back channel at the take out and Andre hooked and landed one small brown before we called it a day.
For the second day float I decided I did not want to deal with the race that takes place for the good holes on the 3 to B float so I put in at the afterbay to take my long and slowed float to hit the entire 13 miles of river. I like to do this float because it puts me on the good water near the 3 rivers area later in the day and usually I have better luck at getting into some of the great spots later in the day. We did get first crack at the Hot Dog hole which produced a dozen or so fish for us in a couple of hours of fishing. We also stopped at Karls hole and Andre hooked a couple of fish and landed a nice rainbow. Jamie and Peter floated by and we decided to eat some lunch at the Gravel pit. We all rendezvoused for some lunch and made the journey on downstream. Peter got the spot across from the Club and I pulled into the hole in front of the club. The other side was definitely hot and we watched as Jamie and Peters guys hooked fish after fish, while we managed to hook a couple here and there. After watching their assault on the fish, with flies that I had tied up for them the night before, we headed on downstream to find our own piece of angling nirvana. We lucked out and got into Holly's hole just as one a group of two were leaving. It was good fortune to because they had been up in Sniders channel fishing dry flies and Holly's was pretty much untouched for a few hours. I put Andre in the middle of the hole and sent Rich to the top. We were not having much luck with the Sow Bug, Big Ugly combo so I switched it up with the small black and white wire zebra midge and we immediately started pounding fish, the only problem was that Karl was on the island side and his guys were catching them a little bit faster than we were. Karl packed up and instantly Rich wanted to head to the other side and fish where Karl was at. I gave a little protest and mentioned that it was generally a bad idea to leave fish to find fish, but at the same time wading around in the meth mud in Holly's is not a lot of fun and the other side had a nice hard bottom. So we jumped in the boat and rowed to the other side. Rich new exactly where he wanted to be from watching Karls anglers and he headed to the head of the run to start the onslaught. Andre took up the bottom end and kept up a consistent pace as well, mostly doing it on his own. After making up for lost time earlier in the day we all jumped back in the boat and headed for another stop before calling it a day. It was already 6 pm and the guys had to be back at the lodge for the 8 pm dinner bell. Both Rich and Andre wanted to stop at the Bay of Pigs Channel again so when it was open I pulled in for one last stop. Andre jumped into his spot and Rich headed back up the channel just as we had done the day before. Andre was instantly onto a hard fighting Rainbow and it uped his fish count by one. In the hole prior to this Andre gave Rich some grief about catching almost as many fish as he had, until Rich put on a show and distanced the gap by double digits. It was now Andres time in the sun and he made quick progress in closing the fish count gap between the two of them. Andre was starting to feel the force of the angling addiction as he got closer to the fish count that Rich had been keeping tabs on. Rich hooked some fish in the head of the hole but Andre was hooking them on consecutive cast and his smiles and jabs started coming faster and faster as he approached the seasoned veterans tallied numbers. As the gap closed Rich started his assault on Andres spot. First he drifted his flies from above Andre trying to poached a fish from above, then he would reposition himself below Andre and poach a cast into the small bucket from below. He did manage to gank a couple fish from under Andre's indicator but Andre was still hooking up on a regular basis. It really made the trip for me to watch the addiciton start to afflict Andre and see him start to gain confidence and an understanding of why he was fast into the fish. We finished up at around 7:45 with Rich still in the lead by a half dozen fish, but Andre was a glow in his showing for the "Rookies" on this fine evening stop. I turned the boat around and made a power row for the ramp to try and get back for dinner. We hurried out of the water and I had them back at the lodge ten minutes late for dinner. Being late for dinner and staying out late was well worth it since I got to witness Andre's fall into the fly fishing addiction.
The last day of the trip was on a Saturday and I watched as Cottonwood filled with anglers on Friday night. I knew that it was going to be a busy day on the river for the last day and Rich was not excited about the number of anglers we saw in the previous days of fishing so I was concerned about floating the upper 13 miles again. Rich mentioned that he would pay money to try somewhere else and get away from the Bighorn but he also understood that there were geographical limits to traveling to another river. We did get lucky in the fact that the weeds were not bad this year on the river and Soap creek was running fairly clean leaving us the option of floating from Bighorn to Mallards and getting away from some of the crowds. Andre also wanted to get over to Custer to see the battle field so it worked out well to drop their vehicle at the St. X bridge so that Andre could leave after lunch. I picked them up at the lodge in the morning and we headed to drop the vehicle for Andre. When we returned to the ramp there was one other boat at the ramp and I knew that we would have some relative peace and quiet on the lower portion of the river. We started off with a couple of fish from the boat in the first run and the conditions could not have been better. As we approached the first section of faster water we came upon a nice seam on the bank and Rich placed the perfect cast into the seam and came fast to a really nice brown trout, pictured above. It was just what Rich was looking for in that I called out the spot, he made the cast and the fish was there just like it was supposed to be. We landed the beauty and put a tape to it for a real accurate reading of the size. Ed had told us a couple of days earlier that they landed a 27 inch brown and I had told Andre and Rich that most guys just guess and that estimations were usually way off from the real size of the fish. The Brown taped out at exactly 21 inches and I mentioned that this was a fish many would call 24 or 25 inches long. Rich has been around the block and he knew just what I was talking about. The fish made the trip for Rich because he is used to fishing the Madison and having to place cast into good looking spots that you can anticipate a fish laying in feeding. It was much more fun for him than pulling over and fishing a run full of fish. I am in total agreement with Rich on this aspect of fishing and I will take a good ole fashioned freestone river where the fish have to survive over a man made tailwater where the fish just have to exist. After catching this fish we pulled over at the bottom of the braids and did some wade fishing. I put Andre in the money spot and he hooked one fish after another for a couple of hours. He landed 8 fish out of the spot and lost another 6 or 8 from the same spot. One of them was a huge rainbow that he played for several minutes before it came unbuttoned. We did get a good look at the fish and it was probably around the 20 inch mark, but it was very fat and would have been a great fish to fondle and get a grip and grin shot of. We arrived at the St. X Bridge around lunch time and had a bite to eat and let Andre off to go for the tour to the Battle field. The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful with a few fish being caugth here and there but nothing was memorable, except for the rednecks in their jetboats. The one problem with floating the lower section of the river is that you do have to contend with the motorhead crowd, which is not a real big issue and on this day they were out in force. I am not sure what Rich thought of the big boats but it did take away from his experience a bit. Everyone does deserve to be able to use the river and I knew going into the day that we may have to deal with a few jetboats to get away from the fly crowd on the upper river. It was a good day all and all and I hope that Rich and Andre enjoyed getting to see another side of the Bighorn River. I know that Rich prefers other waters in Montana, just as I do and I hope that we get to fish some of the Freestone rivers in the Southwestern part of the state in the near future.
The Bighorn is a great place to catch fish and I do enjoy getting down there from time to time, however a big part of going to the Bighorn is also comming home. The Bighorn gives me even more appreciation for rivers like the Yellowstone, Gallatin, Madison, Boulder and Stillwater. Stroking your ego on the Bighorn can be good entertainment but getting schooled by fish on a Freestone gets my blood flowing even more than catching lots of nice fish on the Bighorn. I hope to see Rich and Andre again someday and hopefully we can give Andre the experience he deserves on a free flowing river in the Southwestern portion of the state.

Bitteroot With Mr. Rodgers

Today was the official kick off of the 2007 season with Larry and my dad. We drove over on Sunday morning, taking the longer scenic route up the Bighole Valley and over the top of Lost Trail pass. We arrived in Hamilton at just after 3 pm and checked into our room at the Bitteroot River Inn. Larry had yet to purchase his season fishing license so after check in we headed out to get him his license and try and sneak in a few hours of wade fishing. We stopped at Fishaus tackle first, which has become part of our annul Skwala hatch ritual. Bill was closed for the day so we headed down the street to Bob Mart to get the license, but on our way we saw new fly shop called " The Flyfishing Center" and low and behold they were open after4 pm on a Sunday. As we walked into the shop there were several people hanging out shooting the breeze. Larry purchased his license and a toilet paper roll holder made out of fake whitetail deer sheds for his rental house this summer. Of course Larry got into a conversation with all the guys in the shop and we had to discuss Florida snook fishing along with Elk Hunting, women and steelhead. We met a funny older "Bitterooter" whose flies were featured as the local seceret weapons. His name was Ted and he was fast after the steelhead addiction and was proud to share some smoked Steelhead that his buddy caught last week, they already had an 8 X 10 glossy picture of the fish and the dude who caught and smoked it up on the shop wall. We picked up a few of Ted's Skwala dries and headed out to check out the River. The flows were coming up and the river was still in great shape but fishing a rising river prove to offer up some slow fishing. We checked out several of the public access points on the river and decided we did not need to spend a couple of hours on the water and instead we opted to drive 30 miles to Guy's Lolo Steak House instead. Guys 5000 square foot log restaurant was built by guy and his family and they have turned it into a well know stop for Montana Beef. After the steak house we headed back up the road to the Inn and I tied up variety of Skwala dries to try out the next day.
We woke up fairly late and had breakfast at the Inn, which is a contenintal style breakfast with some mediocre omlets, Biscuts and Gravy, assorted danishes, ceral, coffee and juice. We finally got the raft ready and the gear in the car and we headed for the river at around 10 am. We stoped by the Fishaus to get a shuttle and check on the fishing reports and Bill told us that the river was up another 400 CFS and that the fishing on Sunday was very slow. Larry commented about the poor reports and we headed to the Anglers Roost putin because we were here and we were going to fish dries or catch nothing at all. We got on the water at around 10:45 am and by 1 pm we had finally seen our first fish come to net. Now typically you don't need to get started to early in the morning for Skwalas because the fish don't get active on the bugs until mid day but this was later than usual and I was worried the day was going to be very slow. My dad did some nymphing from the boat and we pulled over in one run and gave the nymphs a try as well with no success. He also gave a zonker, JJ's and bunny fly a run but we never even got a chase. By the time we got near the town park I switched Larry from a Foust Chernobly with a parachute Skwala to one of Ted's Skwala's trailed with a # 10 Royal PMX. Our luck slowly but surely started to change and most of the fish we saw come up to the surface came after either the royal or a peacock PMX. We did have a half dozen fish eat the Skwala dry but the other dozen ate the PMX's. We hit the Woodside boat ramp at ten to six and the days tally was a dozen fish for Larry and 5 for my dad. The fishing was not red hot but we did manage to squeak out a reasonable day from one that looked like it might be fishless at lunch time. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully the weather will be cooler than 70 degrees and the flows will have crested and started to drop. Rising flows on the Bighole and Bitteroot do make for tougher fishing conditions.
Flows on the root were 1010 C.F.S. at Darby and 2900 C.F.S. near Missoula.