Fall Is Here

We're starting to see rainy, overcast days with the forecast for perhaps some snow accumulation later this week overnight.  While I do hate to see winter start to show up as it will be a long 6 months, I'm excited at the prospect of potentially finding some big, nasty browns on streamers and quality fish sipping tiny Baetis mayflies. 

This one went 20".  I hope to get some considerably bigger than this before winter sets in but this was the first time I've caught a legit 20incher from this freestone river so I was pretty excited.

This fish did not sign the waiver to reveal its identity, hence the obscuring of his face

Reunited And It Feels...OK

I paid a visit to my Spring love to see if any big Browns had moved in with spawning on their minds.  I did not have high hopes as I knew the water would be low and fishing wouldn't be easy, if there were even any good fish in the stream. 

As I pulled up I was happy that I would be the first and probably the only angler on the water.  With this stream having a reputation for being prime grizzly habitat I decided I'd take two bear sprays with me.  Funny enough at the first spot I stopped to fish I found a brand new can of bear spray in the grass.  There was no decaying body attached to it so I was pretty happy to find a can of $50 bear spray.  Now armed with three cans of spray I figured I was as prepared as I could be for an encounter.

The water was low as expected and many weeds had grown high in the stream, making fishing even more challenging.  I fished a couple of likely spots with not so much as a fish being seen.  Then I watched a 20" Brown follow my streamer not once but twice.  I think he probably bit it once or twice without me feeling it unfortunately.  At least I knew there were a few good fish in the system. 

Shortly after witnessing that fish chase my offering I watched a Brown that would have gone 5lbs race down a run.  Now I knew I'd make a day of it here, even it meant getting skunked.  Luckily that didn't happen.  The first fish was a 17" Rainbow,  which surprised me a bit.  I don't know if it spent the summer in the stream or followed the Browns up out of the lake recently, but it was great to get on the board. 

I kept hard it with no success for a couple of hours.  I got to the spot where I lost a huge Brown in the spring and unfortunately it looked like an entirely different piece of water.  It was so low and slow that I didn't have high hopes I'd move a fish in it at all.  I cast towards a willow and made a few strips, actually taking my eye off what I was doing for a moment.  When I looked back a good Brown was eating my streamer. 

19.5" Brown

She was a beautiful, thick fish.  Surely there would be a few males fighting over the right to spawn with her in the coming weeks. 

As I fished up a little further I hear water being displaced rapidly upstream and look up to see a huge wake in the water.  I wondered if that was a huge Brown or perhaps a beaver.  As I stood and watched, two huge Browns swam by, nipping at each other.  Unfortunately they wouldn't slow down or stop and were gone in an instant.  Each was 22-25". 

Fishing my way out I caught one more Rainbow of 18".  A nice fish and nice to get another one for the day but not what I had come for.  I'm sure the allure of those few big fish will bring me back to see my love again before the season ends in 5 weeks.  While the chances of getting one of the few pigs in the stream are small, I can't resist the challenge...bears and all.

Wyoming Part II

I headed back down to Wyoming on Friday to enjoy what was possibly the last of our Indian Summer fishing my favorite freestone. 
Fishing was good with plenty of 15-19" fish landed and one Rainbow around 21" that broke off just as I was going to net it...oh well.  If you won them all it wouldn't be as fun, at least that's what I'm telling myself. 
There several Rainbows taken on hoppers like this one.

19" Rainbow

On Saturday morning I fished my new switch rod and swung streamers for a few hours.  It was great fun to practice this method of casting and fishing even if the catching wasn't great.  I only got two fish but this one was a beautiful male Cutthroat that was just under 20".  Believe it or not the Cutts in this drainage don't know they are supposed to roll over.  This fish actually put a bend in the 6wt switch rod. 

Big Cutt taken on the swing

I was fishing through some good looking water and not moving any fish kind of wondering what was up.  The shops in town claim that the fish are highly migratory in this river and sometimes just aren't where you expect.  I was guessing perhaps this was the answer until I saw this.

I've seen a few otters while fishing but never one this big or even this color.  Usually they are gray and about half as big.  This guy saw me, got in the water and keep popping up to take a look at what I was doing.  I suppose he was bigger than average because the river is full of bigger than average fish. 

All in all it was another successful trip and left me wanting to try and get back one more time before the snow flies.

Wyoming...Montana 50 Years Ago?

I spent a few days in Wyoming fishing my favorite freestone river and once again wasn't disappointed.  After having traveled to Canada recently, where the outfitters advertise that the fishing is like Montana was 50 years ago, I'd have to say that I'd rather fish Wyoming.  It is surely an overstatement to say that it is as good as Montana before it was discovered, but there is some fantastic fishing in Wyoming. 

Unfortunately the memo was leaked and there were plenty of other anglers on the water this time.  I fished the same water last September and found nothing but solitude and big, hot fish.  There were still plenty of good fish but I bumped into more anglers that I would have liked.  Unfortunately the two biggest fish that I hooked up were both lost.  One was a beautiful, technicolored Cutthroat that was 21-23" and thick.  I've honestly never had my butt kicked by a Cutthroat...until this guy got a hold of me.  I fought him for perhaps 2 or 3 minutes before he came unbuttoned.  He didn't break off, my drag was set stout, and I made him work for every inch of line he took...he just won the battle.  The other fish was a Rainbow of over 20" or so that I fought for several minutes and couldn't seem to get the upper hand.  I decided that rather than kill the fish by playing it to exhaustion I'd put my tippet to the test and shape my rod like a taco shell.  Unfortunately my tippet broke after 15 seconds of this and off he went. 

I did land this 20" Cuttbow on a hopper, which was cool.


20" of Fun

 If the weather holds I'll try to make another trip or two down that way this year.  Until then enjoy some random shots.

First fish of the trip 18" Cutt

This caterpillar was colored just like a tiger

First fish on the new switch rod--19" Rainbow

The only fish I was in a spot to lay down for a good picture...17" Rainbow

Wardner/Fernie British Columbia

I spent my birthday with my wife and dogs in Wardner, British Columbia last weekend.  I spent one day fishing the Elk River and one day fishing the Bull River.  I've read for years about how great the fishing is in this part of Canada with it often being described as what Montana was 50 years ago and had wanted to check it out for some time. 
This area is certainly beautiful and the fishing was good.  However, the reality didn't live up to the hyperbole.  The Elk was good fun and delivered up plenty of Cutthroat with a few being 17-18".  However, I had four guide boats cover the water I was on, including one who anchored across the side channel I was on and ate lunch, putting off the vibe that he would wait all day with his clients to fish this water.  I moved on as I had already taken 7 fish from the spot anyway.  There are many spots I fish regularly in Montana that I never see a guide boat on, let alone 4, and certainly I've never had a guide be such a douche bag as to anchor on the water I was fishing.  It was funny that when another guide floated by and asked this db how it was going he muttered, "Not good".  I doesn't surprise me that a guide who would park on a wade angler would also be so poor at his job that I would be catching lots of fish while he couldn't get his clients on any....but I digress.

On Saturday I fished the Bull River.  I was told it was a smaller river and gets much less traffic so thought it sounded good.  The river is beautiful and freezing cold.  It was smaller than the Elk but flowing at a steeper gradient and clearly colder.  I hiked up a canyon and found some beautiful water.  The Cutthroat were plentiful and willing to rise but unfortunately were not large.  The largest fish were 15" or so. 

All in all it was a good time but certainly it's no "Montana 50 years ago".  Fifty years ago it didn't cost $100 in license fees to fish for two days. 


First Canadian Fish--14" Cutthroat on a hopper



Spot where I started fishing the Elk



Elk River



Moreof the  Elk River

Nice 17" Elk River Cutthroat

18" Elk River Cutt

Underwater shot

Bull River

More of the Bull

It Was Great While it Lasted

Yesterday I headed up to see my love, hoping to finally be able to fish some dry flies and perhaps get another crack at a big Brown.  As I drive down the dusty road to the parking area what do I see?  Is that dust being kicked up from someone driving ahead of me?  Not only is it dust from a vehicle, the vehicle is clearly a douchebag mobile.  You know the kind, pickup truck with a lift kit, aftermarket wheels/tires that cost as much as a used car but are worth nothing, altered muffler specifically designed to produce so much noise so as to guarantee that everyone you ever come in contact with hates you.  As I saw this monstrosity I could have waxed philosophical about what things are wrong with a human being who would purchase such a thing or be the sidekick to the owner of this POS...how self loathing would any woman have to be to be with such a person...but I didn't.  Instead I thought of how I was going to defend the honor of my early season love. 

I got out of my vehicle (the anti douchebag mobile if you will) put on my driving cap and said good morning.  I alerted them to the regulations in force that I could tell they were going to try and violate by letting their dogs run wild.  As the sidekick reached for his waders, (the mercury reached over 90F yesterday, perhaps he died of heatstroke, or maybe I saved his life) the head duouchebag says, "Let's go somewhere else...I don't feel like fishing with anyone else today." 

Mission Accomplished!  I didn't even have to get creative to keep these clowns off my stream.  They drove off, probably sending every bear and moose within 5 square miles fleeing in terror at the sound of their obnoxiously loud truck, an added benefit for me. 

I geared up and headed down to the water.  I was able to witness by far the most prolific spinner fall I've ever seen as the water was virtually covered with PMD spinners.  The potential was there to have a fantastic day.  I watched and fished and watched and fished and never once saw a fish rise.  I switched to a nymph setup to see if I could pick some fish up off the bottom and found nothing.  I kept fishing and finally found a handful of decent fish along with some small brook trout.  On most other streams this would have been a good morning.  However, after what I'd experienced on this stream over the past two weeks this was sad.  Clearly the migratory fish have started to leave as the water is down considerably from just three days prior.  I suppose three days in a row of 85F temps has a profound affect on a stream like this. 

I could have kept at it and found a few more fish but it just didn't seem right.  Staying would have been Michael Jordan playing for the Wizards, still better than many but not what it was.  I chose to go someplace else and say goodbye to my early season love.  I might come see her again this summer or fall, I might not, time will tell.  When I got back to my car there were a few anglers gearing up.  My timing was perfect, if I had showed up later in the day there would have been a crowd and I would have gone somewhere else believing I was missing out on a great day.  Instead I got to fish her first yesterday and determine that her best days were behind her.  The guys who fished there yesterday might have got a few fish, might have gotten skunked but went away at best saying, "it was ok".  They probably won't be back in light of that. 

So as to provide something visually interesting.  Here's a sight from another river.  I saw this once last year on the same river, on the same bank but never got a picture of it, a garter snake eating a sculpin...enjoy.

Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime

Exact location of my assault

So yesterday I went to spend some time with my early season love.  On the way I saw my first grizzly of the year, a surprisingly big bear in light of the long, harsh winter we had.  Perhaps that long winter provided enough winter kill that the bear has already gorged him/herself and put back on the weight lost in hibernation. 
It's always nice to see a griz from a safe distance. 

Got to the stream and once again she wasn't cheating on me.  I'm sure that I'll break down and cry when I finally show up and either she's hosting other lovers or she just stops producing for me.  That day is coming (at least the day when she stops being so productive) but it wasn't yesterday.  Fishing was outstanding again and I had a fantastic day of fishing all by myself.  I didn't bother counting fish, but I'm sure I landed no less than 30 fish. 

Fishing got to be so easy that I started to feel like I was bullying the weak kid.  Of course the fishing universe has a way of evening things out when we get too cocksure.  At the next piece of good water I land a couple of average Rainbows in the 16-18" class.  I make a cast to the head of the run/bend (to the left of the water pictured) and hook up with a freight train that heads down stream towards a huge undercut that has some debris that has already eaten a few of my flies.  The fish rockets out of the water and shows itself to be no less than 20".  It happened so quickly I can't say for certain if it was a Brown or Rainbow...I think it was actually a Rainbow.  I tried my best to get it out of that area and had my rod doubled over.  It was still doubled over but there was no longer any movement.  I give it a tug and pull up a branch.  The fish had got into the debris and the second fly had caught the branch providing for the fish to get off.  Barbless hooks will do that, of course if it were barbed it likely would have been able to break itself off in the same scenario anyway. 

As  you can see in the picture the water is moving at a good clip in front of me but there is a back eddy on the far side under the willow.  I make a few casts into the back eddy but it is difficult to get any sort of drift.  I decide to go for it and put my flies into the willow and try pulling them back to drop right under it.  This is one of these casts that your expectation is either your flies can't be pulled out of the willow and you have to break them off, or you drop your bugs into the path of the best fish in the area as the water under the willow in the back eddy provides a conveyor belt of food and the ultimate protection from predators.  I hit the willow, pull the flies back and they drop right in, I lift as much line off the fast water as possible and get a couple of seconds of drag free drift.  The fish takes and I set the hook.  Out of the water flies a huge Brown.  As I've landed a couple in the 4-5lb class lately I'll say it was every bit of that size.  If I had to guess I'd say it probably was 23-24" and closer to 6 lbs but since he robbed me I'll never know.  As he flew out of the water out came my flies and the screaming began. 

I guess I should be satisfied to have hooked up on a fish that 99% of anglers could never touch.  Fishing barbless hooks gives a big advantage to a fish that can rocket out of the water 2' and shake it's head, so again I should probably be pleased that I did all I could and the fish was just better than me.  There isn't a damn thing I could have done differently, there isn't one mistake I made.  However, I'm not satisfied and I'm not pleased.  In fact I laid in bed thinking about that fish last night.  I'm contemplating how I might get him to take again.  I don't doubt he'll be in that spot but I do doubt he'll take any flies resembling what I hooked him with.  Perhaps a mouse pattern...or perhaps I hike my ass up to see him in a month with a hopper....if that doesn't work I'll have to make a hike in the fall and pitch a streamer under that willow for him.

As bummed as I am that I couldn't land what was a world class Brown, I can't complain as I've hooked up on more world class Browns on this creek in the past 2 weeks than I might see the rest of the summer.  Best of all, it remains the best kept secret around and is all mine.