Hey guys finally made it back. I did try my hand at some steelhead fishing in Idaho, but I didn't know what I was doing and lost my persistence after only 2 hours. Hard to have confidence the first time out in a state never been too. Also, I tried for an hour to post photos to this post, like I do my blog, and couldnt get Flickr and the site to behave sorry.
So I only had one real day on the water but it was awesome. Stopped in Missoula for some advice a week before Christmas. There hadn't been much snow and while temperatures were below freezing, it was unseasonably warm, and the guys at the fly shop were impressed a newbie from California was willing to give it a shot in the middle of winter.
Let me say if life were only about trout fishing, I would live in Montana.
So first let me say that I have the most giving wife of all time. As we pass through Montana we are passing one blue ribbon trout stream after another. My wife gives me permission to fish after our night of comfort in the Dillon Guest House Inn (we are traveling in a 4WD VW van). Bannack Ghost town was a major attraction here, and we missed a couple hot springs and ski resorts, but we’ll do that another time (hopefully). Bannack is between the Big Hole river (which apparently is revered as the countrys most perfect trout stream (at least in Montana)) and the Beaverhead river which glides along some side roads but generally interstate I-15 heading South toward Yellowstone/Grand Tetons. Big Hole was covered in snow and too ambitious, but Beaverhead is singing the sirens song because its so accessible, and I has a hot tip from a fly shop in Missoula that the water is open in certain sections and a fly suggestion or two.
The word in Missoula is that everything south is productive, there are so many rivers and streams its unbelievable. I pick up a license to fish in Hamilton after lunch yesterday at a fly shop where everyone was from the Bay Area which I thought was really odd, but they were all really nice. Flies cost $1.75 each here and are tied by locals, I cant believe it. So anyway I end up on a small river called Beaverhead south of Dillon.
The rig is a double nymph tied with a golden stone (my favorite in any stream) with pink scud, imitating any juicy pink tidbit passing for an egg or small crustaceans. The Fly Shop guys in Missoula explain that its hot, and that enough for me. The fish in winter are slow, and you need to put it right in front of their nose without spooking them (or so I read). The river here is small, and prior to arrival I had pictured it like a Northern Californian stream with granite boulders in steep canyons covered in Pine. This river is more like a clear version of what I might see in the Midwestern plains, surrounded by ranch lands, scrub brush, and yellow grass. The Beaverhead appears largely shallow at this point, but the mountains in the background are spectacular.
Im kind of bummed, immediately concerned about what I said I was interested in and what the the fly shop guys (who were amazingly helpful) perception of what I was interested in matched. I cant fish shallow, additionally I am using a 5 weight pole with a 6 weight reel and sinking line. It was my ...could use for steelhead... can still use for trout rig but it seems way over-sized. Im pretty sure I have no chance of catching a fish, but as I walk along the river I see a ripple across the water that can only be caused by a substantial fish. So I immediately get excited but its in the shallows as the entire river seems to be at this point, and its full of grass and no real cover for the fish. Dragging my 2 nymph rig through the weeds seems a waste of time. I know I have 2 hours from my wife so I just keep walking. I stop briefly at a pool under a railroad trestle, and see the flash of a fish but get no bites.
Its then I continue my hike down toward where another road crosses the river. Along the way multiple flocks of Canadian geese go overhead and despite fishing near roads; Im feeling the outdoors. I stop at the pool below the bridge, it looks large, and similar to one described by the fly shop guys. It seems too small to catch any large fish, but I am anxious to try my luck some place, so I go start undoing my line for a stab at this down stream pool. As I am doing so, as though sensing my anticipation, a large trout breaks the surface and gets all the way out of the water and splashes ahead of me. I am excited because I know there are reasonably big fish here. I am concerned because they are feeding off the top of the water, and I am set up to be nymphing subsurface (sinking line to boot).
Given I dont know what else to do.. I mean what the heck hatches on the surface in December in a place I have never been? Im guessing its small, and something I cant locate or present well. So I decide rather than try to match whats ever being eaten on the surface Ill stick with what I came with and fish subsurface. After five minutes or so a another fish jumps, then 2 muskrats swim by. I’m wearing gloves and the mini digital camera Kali has given me is in a plastic bag, which I drop twice. They are cute and dont see me until they are past me, each of them separated by 15 feet, and each stops to look at me after swimming by. I worry they may have scared whatever fish I havent with my fishing attempts.
Just when I get ready to give up I get a big take and connect with a huge fish. Given it might be my only fish, Im trying to cope with all my extra unmended line that I am holding to get the fish onto the reel. I know the drag is going to be essential. Whatever it is, its massive, obviously the biggest trout Ive ever hooked. I almost get it onto the reel, and I see a big flash near the surface, its a big brown and my 5 weight is doubled over. Im so psyched I nearly wet myself. and then like all tales like this it breaks off. Not my knots, just threw the hook. If it had been on the reel the whole time might have been a different story. I am crestfallen, not only was it huge, I did not get it to hand. But stoked at this point it is not all wasted effort. After that I connect with another brown, and get this one all the way to my hand, its about 18 inches and a pound or so. It is the largest brown I have brought to hand to date. I catch one more small brown.
After this I have been gone about 2 hours. I go back to the van, Kali has been reading in the heated van. I grab some snacks, and I suggest we go upriver about 10 miles to a portion of the river I suspect is deeper channeled. It takes about 25 minutes, I hop out again at a place called Pipe Organ.
I’ll spare the gory details, but I have round out the day with my best trout fishing day ever in terms of total fish!! ; I bring in 6 fish to hand (one better than my prior personal best). I catch my first cutthroat trout, what I believed to be a rainbow/cutthroat hybrid, 2 more rainbows, and another brown. Of the four not brought to hand 3 were almost there and were 2 rainbows and another cutthroat.
I had a blast despite the cold. It was about 25 in the first spot and went down to about 15 degrees toward the end. I was wading up to about lower thigh level. Cold but the fish took that small pink scud like I couldn’t believe.
If you want to see what the river looked like, here is a shot at Pipe Organ.
http://www...ifragilistic/2132895826/
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