Fly Fishing: Photo...Porn...

Big Spring Creek (Lewistown, MT) has been a favorite ever since the first time we fished it way back when. The photo is more recent, shot during our marathon two year odyssey desperate to at least wet a line in as many of the dozens of creeks, rivers and lakes we planned to include in Flyfisher's Guide to Montana. I can't remember what or how many we caught or did not catch that day but the highlight was all the wonderful stream improvement work ongoing. Successful changes such as these only serve to make great cricks even greater fishing-wise but fish and catch rates aside healing old wounds is just downright good for everything and every one...sort a like chicken soup for the soul...

The blue-winged olive hatch is among the best hatches at Big Spring Creek. Generally speaking the hatch comes off in March and April and then again in October and November. A couple sizes bigger in the spring, like #18-20s; the fall hatch is more like #22-24s. While I can't prove it bwos like pmds are trout candy and whenever the tiny bugs are around you can almost bet the farm trout are keying on them; at least some of the trout most of the time. Though it takes a keen and practiced eye sometimes to figure out just which stage the trout are relishing at any given moment...nymph, emerger, cripple, dun...and of course not all the trout are in tune to the same items and naturally trout being trout are apt to switch gears without notice. The good news is no matter how it all turns out all fun...Right? Right... 

Label this shot Gale captured high in the Beartooths: Yee intrepid reporter doin' his thing...in this case, as opposed to gittin' 'er done. Although it pains the ol' boy to confess, truth is the trout in this here pond done kicked my butt...Of the dozens slurping and swirling every direction, mad for some little itty bitty no-seeums I landed...oh maybe three or four...What's wrong with that you say? Well, nothing really just the trout were but a wee bit bigger than the nearly invisible hatch....OK maybe not that small but you get my drift, I'm sure...

 Not long after shooting this one at Cliff Lake in the Gravellys a whole herd of rainbows moved in almost on the beach, cruising around in plain sight, merrily picking off hatching callibaetis; an easy cast in any direction. Feeding with reckless abandon I think would about cover it.  Okay, we did not eat skunk but the licking those hungry trout put on us...But then as Gale said, Who cares about a slimy ol' trout when you're finnin' around immersed in all that wonderful blue water and a white sand beach besides...Hard to argue, eh?

Norhwest Montana...

...features one eye-popping scenic after another...Here are a few we captured on the aborted ruffed grouse hunt I posted previously...Not so hot eatin' wise but a for sure eye feast....

Swan Lake Fishing Access Site

Mission Mountain Wilderness

Placid Lake State Park

And before you sharp-eyed viewers scream foul...I must confess to fiddling with these a bit in Lightroom 3.5 which I am at the moment trying my damnedest to master...These were tweaked using the presets in the Develop Module...Not much to master there since all that is necessary is a mouse click and deciding whether or not you like what you see or...next preset...Oh well, to my eye these turned out pretty damn nifty...Right? Right...

Fly Fishing: Bugs n' Brookies

 

October 21, 2006 while fishing a lake in Manitoba this lucky angler landed what turned out to be the largest brookie ever...29 inches long, 21 inches girth, estimated weight between 15-17 pounds. Because the beast was later released it goes into the record books as World Record Catch and Release and since it was taken while trolling a Rapala on unofficially tested line it stands as the All-tackle record. Anyway you look at it tis one helluva brookie, eh? Photo courtesy Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame

No, that's not me drooling the record brookie. But now that I think on it perhaps the date 10/21, my birthday, really is an omen that someday soon...Nah!

More our speed, no doubt having much ado with our increasing devotion to pitching dries.

Truth is, in a career now spanning 6 decades and counting, despite having chucked first baits, then hardware and, for many years now, flies, to more brookie holes than the law should allow, having hooked literally thousands in the process, I can boast just two might...I repeat might...have gone an honest 18-inches. OK, honest is something of a stretch, since neither was actually taped. But 18-inches or whatever, naturally I recall both historic moments vividly (sort of) even though much water has flowed beneath the proverbial bridge since.

Small streams are just plain fun...and challenging...true story.

A Parmachene Belle, a classic wet fly supposedly first tied to fool the giant brookies once swarmed Maine's Rangeley Lakes region, accounted for the first. The catch could have been classic in every sense but...For starters it wasn't even caught in Maine but at the mouth of small tributary of Ontario's Lady Evelyn River. But what really makes the catch pale in the classic sense...I snagged it.

Beaver dams and fat brook trout go together like apple...well, you know

Sad I know but true. Trolling a big slow pool in the main river past the creek mouth, littered with beaver cuttings, Dick Byrem, in the bow (me in the stern) hung up. Nearing the end of a long trip and dangerously close to running out of flies, breaking off was not an option. Lines trailing, we bent to the paddles, turned the canoe up river, paddled like hell to where Dick reached down and pulled the flies free. As the canoe once again turned down river my line came tight and what turned out to be the trip's biggest brookie splashed the surface. Obviously other than the fly, classic, even bragging rights, hardly apply.

A few years later, again trolling (no idea what) behind a canoe, although this time in a Quebec lake (sorry the name too is long gone), I landed another bigger than we (Billy Eves and me) were accustomed.

Ingenuity helps...

As always no tape so, nothing left, Billy brought forth a dollar bill. For the uninitiated, a U.S. dollar bill measures a hair over 6-inches. Nose to tail he declared "3 bills" so...

I can't say how widespread this dollar bill trick but, in our case, it played a significant role. Early on, actually for many seasons, brookies made up at least 90% of my catch...truth be known really small brookies. Catch and release having not yet found its way into the Pennsylvania hollers, naturally we kept any trout of legal size; the idea of course bragging rights went with catching the daily limit, which I think back then was 8 per. Anyway the minimum legal size being 6-inches, the OM issued a dollar bill at the start of each adventure...As yes, where dollar bills were concerned C&R was well ingrained and indeed not an option as in...boy, make damn sure I get it back, ya hear.

Gale style, up close and personal, obviously pays off...

As any true blue trout nut knows the brook trout is not a true trout but rather a char. It is native in the northeast, down the Appalachians to Georgia, in the upper Midwest and in eastern Canada. But these days brookies swim just about everywhere trout swim; some say they have been transplanted to more places than any other fish species. Here in Montana, trout nirvana to many, " brook trout as natives" is a common refrain. Sorry, not so...

In the literature of fly fishing for brook trout it is de rigueur for the reporter to wax poetically on the beauty and allure of the fish itself.  For example, one breathless scribe painted them, "the aphrodite of the hemlocks." Sounds good, but...Mr.Webster notes, "Aphrodite" as the Greek "goddess" of "love" and "beauty."

Sorry my man, this is one case where in the category "good looks" the male, especially when bedecked in his spawning finery, wins hands down...no contest.

Why brookies, when there are far larger trout out there to be had especially considering in many of our best waters 18-inch browns and rainbows, while probably not dime a dozen easy, catching one certainly won't turn many heads. Well, one thing, we like a little solitude with our fishing, these days a really rare item. But the real reasons: brook trout and good country is a given; most rank high among the last best left on the planet.

Beauty (of the beast) and scenic aside, a typical day fishing the backcountry (wherever) bird and water song fills the clean, sweet-scented air, wildflowers and wildlife at times so abundant it takes real tunnel-vision to maintain focus on the task at hand. Realization on my part there simply was no hope, I no longer consider a missed take as call for despair.

In a typical Montana season Gale and me catch brookies by the dozens (hundreds probably but who's counting). After all we fish often; fish mostly brook trout strongholds; and brookies being notoriously easy pickings...how could we not?

These days the Parachute Adams is often the only fly we bother to tie on...Lazy? Yep. Effective? Usually so...

True most fall into the sub 12-inch category with a handful 13-15-inches and the occasional, maybe one every couple years, 16-17-inches. Still evidence abounds of far larger out there. The state record is slightly over 9 pounds (Lower Two Medicine Lake, 1940). While it seems unlikely the record will be broken anytime soon ( maybe not ever) breaking my personal record seems a definite maybe...more a matter of time than anything. Close to home (Dillon) the upper Big Hole and Georgetown Lake harbor such hefty individuals as do many others...I know of a couple 3-pounders mounted on local living room walls said to have been hauled from Big Hole tributaries. One day last spring my friend, Steve, buggered several 15-17- inches from a single run. So who knows, maybe if I just keep chuckin', eh?

Travel: Fort Peck Part 2

Fort Peck Lake is surrounded by the sprawling (1 million acre plus) Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge (CMR). One of most remote spots in the lower 48 the CMR is home to just about every animal species found in the U.S. With the exception of grizzlies and wolves most of the wildlife Lewis and Clark encountered still live here--elk, whitetail and mule deer, bighorn sheep and antelope draw hunters from around the country and around the globe. As do upland birds such as sharp-tailed grouse, sage grouse, wild turkey, pheasant and Hungarian partridge. Waterfowl hunting is also a big draw.

Travel is difficult within the refuge as there are just a few all weather gravel roads the rest are gumbo and mostly impassable when wet. Locals live by the mantra "never plan on staying within the CMR without at least a week's worth of extra groceries and above all bring plenty of water"--potable water here is scarce to non-existent. It also pays to travel in pairs just in case.

Off road travel is a no-no but camping is allowed just about everywhere.

The lake itself ranks among the best spots in Montana. While walleye, pike and smallmouth bass are the big ticket items the number of species available is mind-boggling. Obviously crowds are not a problem and given the huge variety something it seems is always biting. Below are just some of the less well-known species:

Because the lake lies generally west to east (the way the wind blows most often) it should go without saying but the lake also ranks high among the potentially dangerous small-craft boating spots on the planet. In other words no place for sloppy seasmanship. Anglers should keep one eye on the water and the other eye on the sky and be prepared to run for cover at the slightest chance the wind might kick up.

Stay tuned...



Montana Pygmy Whitefish Record Shattered

For at least the 7th time since 1982 the Montana pygmy whitefish record has been broken. Russ Geldrich of Kalispell caught the 0.36-pound (5.76-ounce; 9.84 inches in length) pygmy in Little Bitterroot Lake on February 13. The monster whitefish devoured a jig and maggot rig intended to nab kokanee.

Three types of whitefish live in Montana. Two, the pygmy and mountain whitefish (pictured above), are natives, while the lake whitefish is introduced. For its size the pygmy has a very large eye and lives near the bottom of deep lakes such as Little Bitterroot, Ashley, and Flathead. They feed on tiny zooplankton, bottom insects, and mysis shrimp.

By comparison the state record mountain whitefish caught in Hauser Reservoir in 2007 was 23 inches long and weighed over 5 pounds; while the record lake whitefish hauled from Flathead Lake in 2006 stretched the tape to 27 inches and weighed about 10.5 pounds.

For reasons escape me it seems many anglers, particularly fly anglers, loath even the idea hooking-up a so-called whitey; persish the thought actually having to take one off the hook. In worst cases, usually amid loud cussing, the poor whitey ends up in the bushes. In my boat every whitey in the net is treated with the same tender loving care given the biggest trophy trout...much to the dismay of many clients I might add. While I can't prove it my take is the worse the trout bite the brighter Mr. Whitey's star shines...nah, can't be...right?

As an intersting side note: When I first moved to Dillon a local guide told me (whispered and sworn to secrecy of course) his main goal in fly fishing was to one day own the state record. Diligently nearly every day off for at least an entire season he spent dredging the nearby Red Rock River where he said "the biggest damn whiteys anywhere swim." Alas, while he caught some dandys none quite measured up to the then reigning champ...Whether or not he's still at it is more than I know...