Departing from Dillon, the Labor Day traffic on I15 or even the old highway did not exist. Even the carnival associated with the rodeo beat us out of town over night as well and was no where to be found. The run north then west of Missoula some 40 miles to stay on the Clark Fork and tease some cutthroats on stonefly nymphs and dries in the foam/scum lines of eddies. Fished the next day with outfitters from the Missoulian Anglers on the Clark Fork for cutthroat and a bull trout for good measure. The lodge was empty with the exception of the cook/caretaker. He was a drug and alcohol counselor for his church, while one of my buddies heard he was a minister. I didn’t realize that the church would drive folks to drink. Do we break out the Bobbie Mondavi cab magnums or respect the fellow's belief system. We chose the latter and it helped us get up in the morning. Fishing the lower Clark Fork was very nice. We only saw one raft drop down to the take out below the lodge for our stay. Otherwise, it was a solo beaver, herons, mergansers, eagle, osprey and family of otters that we had to contend with. The caretaker would drive down to the gravel bar below the cabin after dark to see if we were alright. Cutts to 20 plus inches both on top and below. Sad to say, we were sad to leave good fishing. The outfitter left an impression on us with his opinion of tail waters at dinner,
Those tail water fisheries are kinda like going to a whore house, you don not really want to talk about it. We did not know whether to laugh or apologize to the caretaker. What the heck, I laughed inappropriately.
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