The second weekend (don't you wish you could have it all?)

        I'm sure most anyone who fancies themselves a fly-fisherman has seen "A river runs through it"  The river than ran through that movie they called the "Big Blackfoot", I guess so as to not be confused with the Little Blackfoot, even though I heard it was mostly filmed in British Columbia.  One would think with all the pub the Blackfoot would be overrun with sage-wielding dry fly purists, and movie critics alike.  That's what my fishing friend Jim and I figured would be happening, so in order to avoid that, and the "tuber-hatch" downstream, we opted for a lesser known float to do an overnight trip on the Biggest Blackfoot.  

get out of our way if you see us coming!

       More on Jim later (Julie calls him my "rich boyfriend")  suffice to say he is usually game for whatever hair-brained idea I come up with.  Most times we catch fish (Missouri day 1), sometimes we just enjoy the scenery (the Smith river sure is pretty), sometimes we get stuck in a blizzard (Missouri day 2), but it all works out in the end (MNF at the bar at Clearwater junction). So floating his monstrous pontoon raft through uncharted (by us) waters was par for the course. 

still for sale, not the cow the store

           One advantage of floating the Blackfoot is as far as drives go it is one of the nicest in Montana, highway 83 through the Seely/swan and then to Ovando. Once we get to Ovando we check with the fly-shop to see if they knew anything about this float (they didn't), then call Leroy for a shuttle, they were awesome, even parked the truck overnight in their yard so it didn't have to stay for 2 days at the take-out. time to go to cedar bridge.

you sure all this is gonna fit?

We loaded the already heavy raft with about 500 pounds of gear (beer is heavy, even bud light, which Jim prefers)  We have done the first section, Cedar Meadow to Potter bridge before. It's about 3 miles on the road but 6 on the river. Fishing was slow but, Jim did hook a nice fish nymphing and while he was reeling him in another fish ate his second fly! Now he has two fish on. He did manage to land the smaller one of about 17 inches.  Don't get me wrong,  I have seen doubles before but never two fish that big.

The Blackfoot is awesome!

As we float past Potter bridge, I am just hoping we don't have to portage our big old boat too far.  Once you get out of around the corner from Potter bridge there are a few good holes and one of the most picturesque farms you will ever see. then it's into a canyon section that is one shallow riffle with big rocks to dodge, unfortunately it was getting towards evening and it was hard to see the rocks just under the surface so we spent quite a bit of time out of the boat pushing and pulling.  This section was also not the best fishing ever. Glad I did it, don't know if we'll back. 

You sure thats a fish , I can barely see it.

Finally we saw a couple of fisherman ahead, usually not a great sight, but this time a sure sign we were getting near River Junction. Here, the Blackfoot picks up the North Fork of the Blackfoot, and it will be easier to float with almost twice as much water.  Woot Woot we made it! Kinda feel like Lewis and a Clark....... kinda. We set up camp just below the junction, ate some tasty camping food, then tried to catch one of the fish that were rising all around our boat. Didn't have what they wanted, however. Oh well I'll just have to drink one more Double Haul IPA and turn in, could be worse.

Fish on!

 

         Day 2  We are out with all the guides,  the first boat passes our camp at 8 am.  Almost makes me wish we were back in the unknown section dodging rocks......almost. There is a super cool canyon section of the river between river junction and Scotty Brown bridge. I was rowing, Jim was nymphing (he loves to nymph, and will tell you that fish eat 90 percent of their food underwater anytime you ask), when all of a sudden I see a ginormous bug splash into the river, Salmon fly!  He struggles on the surface for a few seconds. then, chomp! Gets eaten! That's all I needed to see. We rig one of the rods with a big bug. First cast... fish. then another. for about the next two hours it's on!

we caught a few like this!

The Blackfoot is one of my favorite rivers in Montana to fish, because it flows through an area while not remote is definitely rural.  As my friend (and world famous folk musician John Dunnigan says, "through pastures heavy in hay" in his song about swimming, he means fishing, holes) This stretch is super fun to fish, because the river bed is basically bedrock. Over the years cracks have developed in the rock, and anytime you float your fly over these cracks the fish will come up and eat it. We land a bunch of nice cutties, then we are out of the canyon and its over as fast as it started.

After that we had to switch to small mayflies and of course the nymphing rod in order to catch a few more fish, if we wanted to stay out until evening it would probably get good again, but our beer supply is running low. as in no more, so it's time to call it a day and the end of my awesome four day, double weekend.

Whitefish range Montana

       You know, sometimes I get stuck in a fishing rut, and go to the same places over and over.  Now, when the starting point is Montana, almost any place you choose is way above the average river in anywhere USA.  The advantage of going to the same places often is one becomes familiar with the river, hatches, and watering holes of the familiar zone. 

sure is purdy up there in Montana!

 Well this is a story of my balancing act between two loves.  First of course, is my beautiful wife Julie, and the other is second best thing in the whole wide world.......... you got it fly fishing. 4 days off... Montana... summer... What to do? Gotta keep the missus happy..... but fishing would be cool, What to do....?  I know I can do both!

         

I call it the Montana double weekend, not to be confused with another of my favorite Montana doubles.

The folks at kettle house do it right! 

         Back to the rut thing I started with, it seems most of our camping weekends are spent on the Thompson river. this is because it is one of my favorite places on the planet, and Julie doesn't hate it because it is beautiful and there are good places to hike and run. (not to mention, but my fishing friend Jim just bought a cabin on the

Thompson, but that's for another time).  But this time we pack up the family truckster and head north instead of southwest.

On the divide

The big loop, up grave creek over the divide, down trail creek (yakinikak), to the North Fork

       First weekend an overnight into the Whitefish Range.  Camping at Tuchuck campground, up the North Fork of the Flathead, then 20 miles up trail creek road. 5 miles as the crow flies to Canada, this was the staging ground for many a mountain bike adventure in my younger days. A sort of young-life crisis of mine. When I tore my meniscus in my knee skiing, the doctor put the scope in my knee, and told me I had the knees of a 50 year old. And to make them "last as long as you can" So what was my answer to this news? well after the percodans ran out I decided I wanted to ride my bike (or sometimes carry it) to the top of every peak in the Whitefish Range. with people like Chris "tele" Miller, Crazy Joe (always the favorite for the "first blood award"), and Jon Pyle.  At least three of these rides were accessed from Tuchuck campground.  These included, Tuchuck Mtn, Review Mtn, and Mt Thompson Seton. I do have lots of pictures of these rides, but it was pre-digital days, so they won't be in this post.

since no one else was there we really spread out at Tuchuck Campground.

      
     Talk about isolated we saw no more than 3 cars once we left the semi-main road, and not one other person at the campground.  Since this is usually a fishing blog, I will say that of course I always pack some sort of rod, my big fishing moment came on day 1 when I caught a bull trout on a size 18 elk hair caddis in Grave Creek, unfortunately he was  under six inches. Still counted though.  

Fishing Grave Creek with Maggie.  

headwaters

  
 Generally tiny creeks = tiny fish

        At the campground Trail creek was closed to fishing, presumably to protect the Bull Trout. But, all I saw was cutties that time of the summer. I normally stop using waders in June, but I wished I would have packed them as trail creek couldn't have been more than 45 degrees.

who would want to fish here anyway?

         The next day we headed back to the North Fork, and decided to take a side trip to Canada (only about 5 miles out of our way), to the now defunct North Fork border crossing.  Which has been closed for a long time. I remember reading an article in the local news paper titled something like; "the loneliest job in America" or something like that. This article said some days zero people would cross and a busy day was six or seven.  All in All it is still very cool at the end of the road. My favorite is when you stand on the border you can look in either direction and see where they have cut down all the trees, maybe a 50 foot wide swath all along the border.

"Road don't go nowhere"

    

Don't even think about sneakin' into canada they have infrared sensors. Notice the swath in background

        As far as a "no-fishing weekend" maybe not quite.  But certainly nice to go explore the beauty of Montana off the beaten path and hopefully keep harmony in the family.  Oh yeah, we also had to observe another long standing tradition when adventuring in the Whitefish range. That is to stop at the Polebridge Mercantile for a wonderful fresh baked pocket sandwich and a beer, (we chose the Tamarack Hat Trick Hop, mmmmmm beer). 

Maggie, saving her energy for the next adventure.

stay tuned next time part two of my double weekend a seldom done float on the Blackfoot river.

Hermit out

          

Will There Be Beer?

A tale of two fishing styles

Americas symbol? or "rats with wings"?

 I need to get one thing straight. I know this blog is the Montana Fishing Hermit, which is a little misleading.  I USED to be a true fishing hermit.  then I met my lovely wife Julie and the days of loading my personal pontoon, mountain bike and camping gear into the car and heading out to the rivers of Montana changed a wee bit.

"Clay style" fishing

One constant is maggie, she has logged more rivers than most people I know.

Those days are not completely gone, and actually now I have two fishing styles:  there is fishing "Julie style" and fishing" Clay style".  Most of my posts have been of  Clay style fishing, which involves putting in a lot of hours driving to rivers and floating and fishing, basically an all day affair.  I can fish for 12 hours straight and not really think anything of it. Julies limit is maybe three or four hours.

yours truly with a North Fork Flathead cutthroat, montanas state fish

Julie style fishing is bigger production, and can involve as many as 20 adults and children. Not exactly stealth fishing mode.  Needless to say this involves a little more planning than just throwing my rod and vest in the car and heading for Rock Creek.  Don't get me wrong Julie loves floating, and as I like to say "trout don't live in ugly places" (except maybe the Missouri).  Julie has even become a good rower and even enjoys it. The only problem is one shouldn't bark orders at ones wife.  Saying things like "slow down" or "you're too close" or "lets cross and fish that other shore" have to approached delicately.

A "Julie style" fishing expedition

A "Julie style" river expedition usually involves our neighbors Nate and Jenny, and their two kids Chloe and Riker, The Foxes and their four kids Barret, Cale, Burke, and Campbell, and an assortment of out of town guests and whatever friends she has seen recently. Suffice to say stealth mode is not an option. Also, a perfect Julie day is about 90 degrees and cloudless, not usually thought of as trout weather.  

Julie and Campbell

help, pirates have taken the ship!

Barret tests the South Fork

Jr entemologists discover a stonefly nymph

Cale discovers a Flathead River hot tub

I remember talking to a guy where I work and lamenting about all this before a trip to Polebridge to float the North Fork.  His reply was one of the wisest things I can remember, he said                                                                                          "will there be beer?"                                                          and I thought to myself of course there will be beer, lots of beer!  

    

            Lets Go floating!

Burke models this years favorite river beer Tamarack brewings Hat Trick Hop

Maggie launches after a stick, if she had thumbs i would teach her to row.

Kevin Fox and son Cale in their boat

See you on the river. you will hear us coming!

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

Rites of spring Montana style

 

What does one do when your local river looks like this? Leave town of course!

Spring in Montana......... Always the same. my never ending search for clear water to fish, so of course my obvious place to start was the Clearwater river.   

sometimes it is the "notsoClearwater River

The Clearwater flows out of the Swan range in North West Montana and runs through a series of lakes on its way to the Blackfoot River.  Locals will tell you how good the fishing used to be before some #$@hole introduced Northern Pike into the system.  Once I got below Morel Creek, Like its name the Clearwater was running high but clear. 

One good thing about spring in Montana

If you read my last post you would know what my choice of flies would be.  Rubberlegs worm right?  You know it. 

Like peanut butter and jelly, the rubberlegs/worm a great combo!

 

 Right off the bat, strike! miss. Then another, I feel the weight of a big fish, I play him for a few minutes and get my first glimpse, light underneath dark on top. Brown trout! then I get him closer not Brown trout, but Sucker, not exactly what I had in mind.

 

everyone's a "sucker" for the rubberlegs!

 

 

 

 Ten more fish and I had ten more Suckers between 3 and 5 pounds. Time to move on.

The Big Cow, a Montana Landmark

 

So I head to a famous Montana landmark, The Big Cow (as in go to the Big Cow and turn right). I do turn right at the Cow and then  a quick left and, head down to Clearwater Bridge, which is the confluence of the Clearwater and the Blackfoot.  The Blackfoot was a raging torrent of muddy water and logs and trees, while the Clearwater was a raging torrent of.........well Clearwater.

The confluence of the Clearwater and the Blackfoot

I walk down to the river  and cast my Rubberlegs Worm into some swirly calmer water near the shore. First cast, fish, he goes straight to the middle of the river and feels big against the current, another sucker? Maybe, if so might be a state record!  This guy feels big,  and he's heading for the Blackfoot. So chase him downstream working my way around the willows on the bank , and barely avoiding filling my waders. I get to the end of the line, a pool right where the two rivers come together. Finally I see him for the first time, doesn't look like a Sucker at least, then he sees me.... back to the current.  I finally get him back to the calm water and land him.

 

 

 Bull Trout! (on the San Juan Worm)  I'm guessing 5 or 6 pounds. I need to hire a photographer trying to take good fish pictures solo is hard.  It takes awhile to revive him but he eventually swims away.  As I'm heading back upstream I hear voices coming down, two guys from Missoula they say they were told that the Bulls were "stacked up" at the confluence. That so? and I showed them the picture. After that it was back to sucker fishing for the rest of the afternoon. but at least my one trout of the day was one to remember.

 

 

Next to Blackfoot Single Malt IPA, I like Doublehaul the best!

 

So after a day of searching out the clear water, I was off to my friend Chris Millers Cabin In Ovando, to get rested up for my next adventure and to tell him the big news......... THEY HAVE DOUBLE HAUL IPA IN SEELEY LAKE!  Next installment another springtime event in Montana waiting, and waiting and waiting for the salmon flies to come out.