Saving the Best for Last

Winter has arrived in full force in the Northern Rockies.  Correspondingly opportunities to spend time on the water have decreased accordingly.  Lately I've been able to get on the water one day a week it seems.  On Friday the mercury hit the mid 30s and I spent a couple of hours on one of my least favorite waters in the world.  Unfortunately it also happens to be one of the most convenient waters for me to fish as it is close to home.  Needless to say it was more of a reason to spend some time outside on a nice day than it was fishing. 

The forecast for Saturday was likewise conducive to wetting a line so I headed over to a quality winter fishery.  It's been an interesting year of fishing as we experienced  record high water that really made for relatively disappointing fishing this summer.  I did have a great run in the spring that resulted in a few big Browns, but the summer didn't produce any particularly memorable fish and the fall produced some 20" fish but nothing truly large.  The water I fished on Saturday does hold the potential for big fish.  I've hooked a few that were 4-5lbs or more and landed some fish in excess of 20" over the past year. 

Upon arrival the wind was blowing pretty good, which is all too common on this piece of water.  My hands,  along with my guides, were frozen and the fishing started off slow.  I worked some water that normally produces and didn't find any willing fish.  I headed upstream to another likely spot and got a respectable 15" Brown to get on the board.  From there I headed up to the make or break spot for the day.  There's a bucket that has been holding lots of fish for the past 6 weeks or so.  I've caught upwards of 20 fish a day in this spot at times so I figured if this didn't produce it was going to be a long, cold, frustrating day.  After several casts I hooked up a small fish that ended up being foul hooked.  I was a bit concerned that my honey hole was going to be relatively barren.  I made a few more casts and saw a slight pause in the indicator.  It was the subtle indication that most anglers, even relatively experienced anglers, would not set on.  Usually when these subtle pauses are set on there is nothing there as it is just an indication of the weight or fly bouncing on the bottom.  The flip side is that when the indication is actually that of a fish taking the fly it is often a larger fish.  I suppose that is because the bigger, dominant fish exert the least amount of energy possible when they are feeding opportunistically on food in the drift. 

I set the hook, with little expectation that it would be a fish, and felt a fish on.  The fact that the only fish I had hooked in the spot so far was foul hooked had me concerned that I had possibly foul hooked another fish.  There was no doubt that the fish was strong and heavy, but a 16" fish hooked in the tail can at times feel like a 20+" fish hooked in the mouth.  I got a glimpse of it and realized it was a very, very nice fish.  At this point however I still couldn't see if it had eaten one of my flies or if the hook was embedded somewhere on the fish's body.  I kept my cool and tried to get control of the fish and keep him out of the various weeds that could spell disaster if he dove into them.  I got another look and saw that he had eaten one of my flies and it was sitting right in the corner of his mouth.  At this point I start to get very concerned that I was not going to be able to land this fish.  If it were foul hooked and it got off or broke off it really wouldn't be that big of a deal for me.  Sure I'd like to see exactly how big it was, but ultimately landing a foul hooked fish isn't satisfying.  Now that I was sure it was fair hooked I'm contemplating how in the world I'm going to land the fish.  My indicator was set a good 10' or more from my bottom fly meaning that was as much line as I could reel in.  On top of that my net isn't all that large or deep. 

I worked the fish with all the finesse I could while still keeping it from getting wrapped up in the weeds and finally was able to lift it's head and reach with all I had with my net and scoop it up. 

24 Inch Brown

After landing it, then began the mad scramble to get my camera and measuring tape out with my numb, frozen fingers.  I worked as fast as I could in order to reduce the stress placed on the fish as much as possible.  The pictures correspondingly aren't as great as I would have liked but will work.  It measured 24" on the button. 

With 21 days left until the end of 2011 I caught my largest fish.  Anything is possible but I would suppose this will be the big fish of the year for me.  It wasn't in the fall like I had expected and it wasn't on one of the big rivers that I picked up the Spey rod to be able to fish, but it was big and it was fun.

Quality Browns

In between snow storms I was able to spend a couple of days on one of my favorite late fall/winter fisheries this week.  For reasons that I'm uncertain of, the Browns in this stream spawn considerably later than any other water I'm familiar with.  While other waters I fish have seen the completion of the spawn, the fish in this stream haven't even started in earnest. 

The first day I was by myself and enjoyed a great day of streamer fishing for a couple dozen Browns between 14-20".  I did foul hook a fish that would have probably gone 5lbs, but after being drug 50 yards he came off.  The fish are at their physical peak right now and are heavy and powerful. 

20 Incher

Upon hearing how good the fishing was, my friend asked if I'd go back the next day as he'd managed to wrangle a hall pass.  It didn't take any arm twisting to get me to agree.  I figured we should fish a different section of the stream so we headed downstream.  For reasons I'm not quite sure of, this lower stretch can be quite good, but is not as consistent as the upper reaches.  It started off fine with some fish being caught like this one.

Unfortunately it went downhill from there and fish were hard to find.  We eventually abandoned the plan and headed upstream.  It was liking fishing a different stream as fish were big and plentiful.  The biggest fish was only about 19" but was especially thick.



19" Brute



It's Coming

The picture sums it up, winter is rearing it's ugly head.  Monday, fall was in all it's glory with leaves of gold, orange, and red.  After two hard frosts since then most of the leaves are off the trees or brown.  Snow isn't falling yet but yesterday my guides were iced up for the first couple hours of fishing, even though I didn't get on the water until 11:00am. 

Fishing was good with several Browns in the 14-18" range landed and one Hog Johnson broken off.  I got a good look at it and it probably would have gone 4-5lbs....that one hurt.  The fish below were two of the better fish landed for the day.

Bass Boatin'

On Wednesday I got an offer to join a friend of a friend on his bass boat for the last trip of the year to one of his favorite fishin holes.  I've never fished from a bass boat, let alone fly fished for native Cutthroats and non native Lake trout,  from one so I figured what the heck. 

The day started with meeting at 6:00am to try and be on the water by 9:30am.  I was warned to bring plenty of warm clothes as the wind chill is pretty intense zipping across a lake of 42F water at 30mph with ambient temps in the 30s.  I complied and piled on layer after layer, including snow pants and my winter parka as we headed out on the lake. 

My host had been given a tip by an old timer as to where we could find spawning Lake trout.  These fish get very large...30lbs would not be out of the question if we could find them.  Unfortunately the area he pointed us to was devoid of all life and all necessary elements to host much life.  No rocks, no weeds, no contour to the bottom of the lake, no fish.  We trolled around the area for a couple of hours, landing one random Cutthroat before neither of us could stand it any longer. 

My host took me to a cove that often has plenty of fish in shallow and clear water that provides for exciting sight fishing.  We found a few and were able to get some to play.  We worked our way around his usual loop and caught quite a few Cutts like this one in the 2.5-3lb range. 

We worked pretty hard to try and find fish and ended up landing perhaps 25 total between the two of us with a few better fish in the 4bl-4.5lb range like this one.

As we headed back to the marina the chop on the water got pretty intense and the corresponding spray resulting in me being bathed in 42F water.  It was much like I would imagine a Disney ride from hell.  All in all it was a good time and fun to experience something different. 

The juxtaposition of the sparkly bass boat on trout lake at over 8000ft is priceless. 

Fishing is Heating up as the Weather Cools Down

While I haven't yet got the big fall Brown trout that I'm looking for, I keep getting 20" fish from water that I've never got one that big from before.  Yesterday I took plenty of fish between 15-18" like these two.

All the fish were taken on streamers, these two were taken on the Mr. T starter set flies.  I've been tying articulated streamers lately and I'm pretty sure I saw Mr. T wear earrings that looked just like these flies in Rocky III.  As hackle feathers have become a fashion accessory of late in women's hair, perhaps I can make a killing bringing Mr. T earrings back in fashion....hmmm.

Had I just got lots of Browns and a handful of Rainbows in this range it would have been a great day.  However I was lucky enough to have finally corralled a legit 20 incher on this small fishery.  The pictures don't really show just how magnificent this fish was, but you get the idea. 

It Finally Happened

Today it finally happened.  No, I didn't run into a grizzly, that will eventually happen but not today.  Today, fishing the switch rod was exactly what I had hoped it would be when I picked it up. 

It was cool and raining at my place this morning so I headed out with the intention of hitting a big river that I normally don't fish very often and swinging streamers.  This was the exact scenario I envisioned when I picked up the switch rod.  Autumn weather, overcast, rain, big river...I started my day a little lower in the valley than I had originally planned and fished for a couple of hours, getting an ok Rainbow and a Whitefish before heading further upstream. 

I headed up to spot that I've fished before, having never hooked into any good fish.  It wasn't long before I landed this 20" Brown on the swing.

Energized after landing a good Brown, I pressed on.  I actually ended up getting the grand slam, several Cutts, a Rainbow, and a few Whitefish.  The second Brown was a good fish as well.  I didn't measure it so I'll call it 19". 

A Good Ending to a Rough Week

The past week has seen fall show up to Southwest Montana with a significant amount of snow falling on the mountains and nights starting to dip below freezing. 

I fished hard all week, sometimes in rain, sometimes in heavy winds, and for the first time in months was actually cold a few times.  I fished large rivers, a huge tailwater, a tiny tailwater, a freestone, a famous river that is supposed to be full of lake run fish right now.  Basically I put in a lot of hours hoping that the change of weather would put fish in an aggressive mood. 

Magazine articles and book chapters all speak of fall in Southwest Montana as being the time to get big fish and the time to see huge fish rush streamers.  As I've never really given myself to fishing streamers in the past I decided this year I would get serious about it.  For the most part I spent my week fishing streamers, both with my new spey set up and my 4 wt.  I picked up the spey rod with two goals in mind.  The first is to force myself to start at ground zero learning new skills.  Casting and fishing a two handed rod is a completely different animal than anything I've done before and I am, for the most part, enjoying the learning process.  The second goal in picking up the two handed rod was to be able to fish bigger water more effectively, particularly with streamers with the ultimate goal of getting some bigger fish.  Over the past week the two handed rod was a bust, producing very few fish and none of them being impressive in the least.  I'm beginning to feel like a true steelheader...that is a guy that spends all day casting with no fish to show for it.

On the other hand, the best fish of the week were actually taken with the 4 wt.  Yesterday I fished one of my favorite winter fisheries, a small tailwater that has been nearly unfishable all summer.  It still looks terrible with less than 8 inches of visibility and tons of floating moss to contend with.  However, I convinced myself that it would still be good fun if I could force myself to stick with fishing streamers all day.  Fortunately, I was correct and caught many fish.  The fish still aren't as aggressive as one would think with fall setting in and their time to spawn coming within weeks but enough ate the streamers that it kept it fun.  I landed a couple that exceeded 18", one Brown and one Rainbow.  I did see some larger Browns follow the streamer but wouldn't commit.  Theoretically, this will change in the coming days as the big fish become super territorial and start to actively chase space invaders.  We'll see..

Nice Brown