Tough Walking, Tougher Fishing, Troublesome Mosquitoes But...

...all in all seems a small price to pay for the chance to gaze handsome trout such this one. The best of the best of high country cricks is often found in the meadow sections. Many of the best meadows are wet, full of holes, some deep and large enough to swallow a moose and worse, hidden like land mines amid the tall grass. Little wonder Gale carries a big stick, eh?

Some meadow streams are wall to wall trout, many on the small side due I suppose to overcrowding a mostly sterile environment. Others, such as this one, hold fewer but fatter trout on average. 

Not many, however, produce trout quite so handsome as the cutthroat pictured above. 

Yesterday we spent a couple hours stumbling about the mud and hole-pocked meadow, amid a nasty swarm of hungry mosquitoes. All told we spied probably only a dozen or so brookies and cutts, managed to not spook and actually cast to about half and landed only about half those. No where near the sort of fast fishing we've come to expect from most high country cricks but you won't hear us complaining. For sure, the skeeters were thick and troublesome, the hidden holes frightening but check that trout one more time...I rest my case.       

Interesting But Tough...

One need look no further than the past couple days fishing the Big Hole River. Day 1 dawned cloudy, pretty chilly and as I recall thinking "A welcome change from the recent string of too hot for comfort days." Expecting the chilly start would make for slow fishing I was surprised when Harry hooked up just a few oar strokes below the launch ramp. When Erik hooked and I netted a pretty brown trout a little ways down river I thought, "Surprise, surprise not only are we in for a good day it's ramping up way more quickly than I at first imagined but...

Then it died and I mean really died. From there to the take out many miles and an entire day later the fishing sucked, big time. 

Yesterday, again barely out the gate Jim hooks up. The hot bite continues this time to around noon when we stop for lunch just below Maiden Rock but... After lunch pretty much same deal, maybe not so dramatic this time around but still pretty slow. 

The why in both cases is of course more than I know. Further reassuring the mysterious activity we call "fishing" is in no danger of being re-named "catching" at least not anytime soon.  

Or as Huck Finn might have put it: Interesting but tough.   

Mussigbrod Fire: 10 Years Later

Still today some areas burned hot enough to sterilize the soil. As this photo shows virtually no plants or trees have regenerated; estimates run as long a century or more before recovery can be expected. 

Other areas show dramatic regeneration, not only trees but wildflowers, grasses and forbes are lush and green.

But in many areas beyond the green remains a moonscape; nothing or next to nothing growing.

The creek corridors within the burn are green and lush looking but...in some cases looks are deceiving.

As shown in this photo of Tie Creek; Once a healthy, vibrant mountain creek full of life today much of the bottom gravel and rocks are impacted with suffocating silt, the result of runoff from the hotspots within the burn. Here we found very few trout; on the other hand Johnson Creek just over the hill appears to full of trout. Unscientific I know but to me the results are telling. A classic mosaic burn some spots got hit hard others fared pretty well considering.

Still more good news is some big old boys such as this giant old growth Doug Fir did survive and should provide a welcome seed source for future tree growth.

Some areas are currently being salvage logged; why the hell it took so long is more than I know. No doubt the dastardly deeds of a few whackos whose twisted brains think even harvesting burned trees is somehow evil...

Lightning strikes the night of July 31 ignited fires near Mussigbrod Lake, 12 miles northwest of Wisdom. The Mussigbrod Fire burned largely unabated until snow put them out in late September. Nearly 85,000 acres were torched, including 4 structures and threatened homes on the East Fork of the Bitterroot River east of Sula.

Eventually the fire merged with fires in the Bitterroot and formed the so-called Valley Complex burned a total of nearly 215,000 acres. The Valley Complex had the distinction of not only being Montana's largest during the summer of 2000, but the nation's largest as well. More than 1700 fire fighters, 80 engines, 12 bulldozers, 24 water tenders and 9 helicopters were involved. Despite all the VC consumed 66 homes by far the most costly Montana fire in recent years.