Salmon fly fever

Pteronarcys californica!

Pteronarcys californica!  Otherwise known as a salmon fly.  Just the word is enough to make many a seasoned fly fisher wet his (or her) pants in excitement.  Every spring on some of the west's great freestone rivers, monster nymphs begin to crawl out of the river onto rocks trees and bushes, where they un zip the larval coat that they've worn for the last three years.  Turning into winged behemoth that fly fishers try to imitate in hopes of tricking a trophy trout. Late May through early June is when the salmon flies start appearing on the rivers I fish in Western Montana. Unfortunately this time of year also is the time of spring runoff, so some years the rivers are high and muddy, (which is probably good for the future californicas, but not for that days angling success)

salmon flies doing their thing

The Thompson river is usually where the salmon flies are first spotted in mid to late may. Rock creek comes next in early June. The Big Hole pops in mid-June.  Then finally the Blackfoot in late June. I'm sure there are other rivers around here which have hatches these are just the ones I am familiar with.

golden stones usually hatch at the same time as salmons

Its Saturday night, which in my world is Friday night, if you catch my drift, my wife is in New York in an attempt to avoid the usual Montana "June monsoon". I'm slinging vodka cokes and Caesars to the Canadians, and telling anyone who will listen about how I am off for the next three days and am heading for the Thompson. Its been cold, but the Sundays forecast calls  for scattered showers high of 60, then Monday and Tuesday has highs in the 80's.  just what those salmon flies are waiting for I tell myself. the night is winding down and Lisa is getting ready to leave and says "bye, see you tomorrow" My first thought is cool, are you fishing too?  no that's not it. you're on the schedule tomorrow. What? it was like punch to the gut. Oh well, Sunday wasn't going to be the best day anyway. 

The salmons just had to pop with the warm up on Monday, didn't they?  They did.  Bugs were everywhere, not just salmon flies, there were monster golden stones, grey drakes, yellow sallies, and caddis too.  It was one of those days that you almost felt sorry for the fish, they just couldn't help themselves,  they saw a big bug and just had to grab it.  Any place the water was deep enough hungry trout were waiting ambush any bug that was unfortunate enough to be in the water. 

"Salmon ball"

The next weekend I knew I should make the trip to Rock Creek, for Montana's most legendary salmon fly hatch, but the 3 and a half hour drive made me stay closer to home.  Besides in two weeks my friend Drayton (you have to say his name with a Georgia accent),  is guiding trips Wednesday through Sunday on the Big Hole river   So he wanted to float Monday and Tuesday to check it out.  Since I also had Sunday off I figured to fish somewhere on the way down. Drayton said "upper Clark Fork", but the allure of the salmon Fly got the best of me.  So Maggie and i drove down the Seeley Swan, past the Big Cow, past the Blackfoot, to Phillipsburg and on to Rock Creek.

Rock Creek is one of Montna's coolest rivers!

The salmon flies were still flying, but I think the fish had eaten their fill, I did manage to catch a few fish but certainly not what it would have been a week before.  Still Rock Creek is one of my favorite Montana rivers, and a day fishing it is always a treat.  So Maggie and I headed for Stony Creek Campground where I dined on Chicken Mole and Maggie had her usual, Purina one.

If you want to rent a fishing cabin of Rock Creek.....................

On to the Big Hole!  

The Big Hole River is one of Montana's best trout rivers. From its headwaters in one of Americas coldest spots, Wisdom sits in the in the bottom of the Big Hole Valley, and is ringed by the Bitterroot Range to the west, the Pioneer mountains to the East, and the Anaconda Range to the North, the Big Hole drains some of the most rugged country in the lower 48.  I meet Drayton in Melrose, two fly shops, two bars what else do you need?  Let's go fish!  But first we have to go get a camp site at the river access appropriately named "Salmon Fly". Its gonna be a party, I hear as all sorts of our fishing guide friends and other partially professional fly fishers are coming down for the same reason we are.  We wait for Adam, who is Drayton's client for the 5 day trip he is doing, and who drove two days straight from Texas to get here.

A nice Big Hole  Brown

First float is the standard Maiden Rock to Melrose, which has the highest fish count on the whole river.  We start throwing the big bugs since this is what we came to do.  There are some salmon flies in the air, but our results are spotty at best. We catch a few miss a few, not the non-stop action we were hoping for. As a matter of fact the biggest fish I caught all day was on an October Caddis that happened to be on Drayton's Orvis Helios rod I wanted to try, go figure!

Day two thunder storms and cooler temps. I am excited, We are going to try up higher than we have floated before. East Bank to Dickie Bridge. when we get to East Bank I see lots of salmon fly shucks on the bushes, Maybe a sign?  I start with a nymph rig, Adam starts big with a salmon, first cast he hooks a 16 inch brown, that's all I needed to see time to go dries.  That was the start. Maybe not the hugest day ever but excellent fishing, I missed a couple big fish, but did manage to net five species, grayling, rainbow, brook, brown, cutthroat. 

  A good day had by all (except Maggie who spent the bulk of her day cowering from thunder and lightning.)

believe it or not, grayling are native to the Big Hole

Mission pteronarcys californica 2013 complete