I fished a few creeks in Montana and quickly felt at home on the smaller water. Flows were low everywhere, an ideal time to gain access to the better holding lies. The first day I arrived, I was barely off the plane for 2 hours and we were rigging up on a small creek. This creek held mainly cutthroats and rainbows, which were quite aggressive. We hiked along a precarious ridge overlooking this small tributary of a much larger river. I fished up from the confluence, and quickly found some hungry cutthroats. The fish were six to eleven inch West Slope Cutthroats. In the deep pools the water was so clear I could see the bottom down to ten feet. The fishing was just what I hoped for after hours of travel. The fish were easy to fool, and numerous. In about an hour and a half I landed a dozen trout before we headed back to Missoula.

One of the more popular creeks, Rock Creek, was also one of the largest I fished. On my first full day I drove along many miles of Rock Creek (pictured above). I moved from section to section, targeting the best looking runs where the diversions all converged. I turned over rocks before fishing and noticed the rocks were covered with cased caddis and trico nymphs. I rigged a spun deer hair cased caddis and trico nymph to start. The first drift through a choppy riffle produced my first whitefish of the week. Numerous drifts yielded nothing, so I moved up into the best looking diversion. A dozen drifts and no strikes prompted me to switch both flies. I tied on a small rubber legged nymph, and sparkle pupa that worked well for me in Colorado. I stung a decent brown on the first drift. On the second drift I came tight to a bigger fish, which took line towards an undercut bank. I busted the 5X tippet trying to drag the fish away from the roots. I did land one fifteen inch bow, and a small brown before moving up river. It took a few hours to drive up twenty miles of creek, taking photos and video. I stopped on the way back, fishing the best looking areas with tandem nymph rigs. The majority of fish I caught were rainbows and browns between eight and sixteen inches.

On the last day of fishing we picked a distant fork of a big river we floated earlier in the week. Matt and I were joined by Nick, who just flew in after a Summer in Alaska. Our destination held the possibility of browns, cutthroats and rainbows of decent size in small water. This fork of the river was quite small, and shallow in most sections. We found fish holding in the deeper runs, and they quickly hit huge rubber legged nymphs and sparkle pupas. In a few of the better pools we rotated through, landing a few fish before the next one of us worked different flies in the same run. The day went by fast, and we all caught fish on some scenic water. The sun dropped behind the mountains, the air was cooler and the light was fading. I worked one last logjam with a streamer before putting my fly on the hook keeper. In that moment all the fishing possibilities of Montana ended for me, since I was flying out the next day. The week flew by, but there were moments and places not likely to be forgotten anytime soon. The latest video post features a mash-up of fishing smaller rivers and creeks in Montana.

The last float of my trip came after a few days wade fishing on my own. Matt and I drove a short distance from his house to the Bitterroot River. The weather had changed, and air temps dropped ten degrees from the previous days. The wind blew hard, pushing clouds across the sun, casting us into ten minute intervals of cold or warmth. The trees along the river were a bright yellow against the gray mountains, and the river, as silver as a mirror. This section of river had good numbers of big browns, and I felt confident fishing one particular streamer pattern. We both had nymph rigs ready, but I fell into cast-and-strip mode, almost second nature after numerous days streamer fishing. One bank in particular was known to hold a lot of trout, and I watched trout spook from the shallows as we approached. A few passes with the streamer brought mainly chases, and one light hit. We saw quite a few big browns, so we pulled off to wade for ten minutes. I missed the first good hit of the day, caught off guard in between strips. Twenty minutes later, I cast into a riffle where the rod was quickly jerked down before a big brown shook the hook on the surface. The strikes for the most part were subtle, a slight resistance on the line. Cast. Strip. Pause. Strip. Swing. Bump. Was that bottom, or a take? Throw in a few big Pike Minnows, and there was enough action to keep things interesting.

We changed from streamers to nymphs, and took turns at the oars. We fished a variety of rubber legged nymphs, big and small. I even drifted some tiny size 20-22 BWO and trico nymphs. I noticed thousands of the tiny nymphs crawling and swimming over the river bottom. I kept switching back to the streamer when nothing else produced. I was rewarded with a decent rainbow, and Matt mentioned they get huge in this section. It proved to be a bit of foreshadowing. After fishing for a while I offered to row, and Matt took the bow. He fished a hopper/mahagony dry combo along the banks until he got snagged on a submerged stick. I passed off the streamer rod, and he started casting into some great looking oxbows. One oxbow was filled with fallen trees, and deep churning water. I looked up just as the rod bucked violently, and Matt yelled, “Big fish!” I could see a large fish thrashing on the surface as he slide the big rainbow to the net. It was his biggest rainbow of the Summer/Fall, measuring 24 inches.

Once he released the rainbow, I walked up to the head of the run. On the first cast I had a good hit, and on the second cast I landed a cutthroat. We moved on the towards the take-out, fishing the streamer in deep pools. The river changed dramatically from wide sweeping riffles into deep, narrow sloughs with a lot of woody debris. We covered many miles of river, and only stopped a few times to wade. The sun was setting as we reached the take-out. The day was similar to the other days where the river yielded quality fish over quantity. In this video post I filmed floating on the Bitterroot River.

On the second float of the trip we decided to hit a section of the Blackfoot River. This section of the Blackfoot river was remote, and hard to reach on foot. Matt and I crept along on uneven back roads, before dropping the raft in by 9:00 am. The river was relatively low and clear, which was a major change from the float on the Clark Fork. The clear water wasn’t always good, since it was easy to fall into “aquarium watcher” mode, as I often did. The rocky bottom was interrupted by dark swaying forms that held until the last second, and spooked as we floated over them. In a shallow tail out I spotted a Bull trout, a fish easily over thirty inches. The regulations don’t allow targeting Bull trout, so we floated past. I fished big rubber legged nymphs and small pheasant tails while Matt rowed down the first half mile. The indicator moved a few times, but aside from a couple missed strikes I only landed a big whitefish. Once we reached a good spot the action picked up quickly, and Matt landed a few cutthroats on nymphs. I caught a chunky fifteen inch brown on a streamer in the same run.

We were clearly in a good stretch of river as I watched pods of trout and whitefish scatter when the boat’s shadow passed over them. Big trout and whitefish over twenty inches would suddenly become dwarfed when a massive Bull nearly twice their length spooked under the boat. Between the scenery of the landscape and the bottom watching, it was tough to concentrate on fishing. We switched up on the oars as the canyon walls closed in on us, and Matt decided to nymph from the boat. The river changed from meandering oxbows to a steeper gradient, with swift riffles dropping into bottomless pools. Large bluffs and rock formations jutted up from the dark green water, and created a reef type appearance. Matt ran a drift over a slot in the submerged formation, and was immediately into a big fish. The indicator and line kept moving upriver with no sign of stopping. After tiring the fish out in the fast current, he swung it towards the boat and lifted its head. Whitefish! Big whitefish. Our hearts sank briefly before almost stopping altogether when the gaping maw of a 36-40 inch Bull trout inhaled the whitefish. It didn’t swipe or T-bone the fish. Nearly twenty inches and 3-4 pounds of whitefish disappeared into its mouth in one bite. Not so much as a few fluttering scales were left in the water. The huge purple and black form with vivid yellow spots dissolved into the depths of the dark green water. Gone. It was an unforgettable moment.

By mid afternoon tricos were dancing in the air in addition to clouds of mahagonys. I was casting a small black zonker, and caught a pretty seventeen inch cutthroat. The canyon opened up and I started taking pics and video of the distant mountains. I put the cameras away as we neared a nice looking logjam. Matt cast the streamer into the structure and caught two big cutthroats in quick succession. We moved down river to another good looking spot. It was my turn on deck, so I tossed the streamer into a deep riffle. I was rewarded with a hard strike, and the big cutthroat above, my biggest of the week. I handed the rod to Matt, and he quickly hooked into a fat rainbow. The sun was setting, the takeout was around the corner, and we spent a day on water both scenic and productive. In the latest video post I filmed fishing and floating on the Blackfoot River, Montana.

I recently fished in Montana for a week near the town of Missoula. I met up with my buddy Matt, who usually fishes with me in Maryland a few times a year. He relocated to Montana, put me up for a week and showed me some of his favorite spots. We floated a number of bigger rivers in the area, and waded some choice sections of other medium sized rivers. After a few days of fishing smaller stuff, we dropped his raft into the Clark Fork for a long float. The sky clouded up and the air temp was cold with a light wind. The sky threatened rain all day, but only drizzled for a few hours in the afternoon. I fished streamers and nymph rigs from the boat as we floated through wide riffles and deep green pools. The river was huge, and I had limited time to hit the good spots. I switched from streamers to nymphs and had a few hits on both before we shored up in a nice riffle. Matt suggested a big rubber legged nymph he tied and we were both into rainbows right away. I hooked a nicely colored sixteen to seventeen inch bow with shoulders that leaped out of the river three times. The fish eventually threw the hook, but we landed a few smaller bows and whitefish before moving on. I switched flies and tactics frequently until a steady rain started to fall. In a long flat BWOs started to emerge everywhere. It didn’t take long for the fish to start rising, so Matt slowed the boat as I cast to fish. The fish were pretty eager to to eat the size 20 snow shoe olive pattern, but I stung many more than I landed. We kept searching for larger heads in amongst the pods of smaller bows, but never found any bigger fish. I wanted to shoot some pics and film the hatch, but feared the rain would ruin my camera. One camera bit the dust the previous day for reasons unknown to me. The rain eventually stopped and we waded a big run, both fishing nymph rigs. We asked the normal “head or tail,” deciding who wanted to fish where. I chose the tailout, and was quickly into a whitefish. Matt hollered something from up river, and I scrambled to get the net and camera. He was hooked up on a big brown, and we quickly got the fish into the net. This was one of his bigger browns from this stretch, which was not known for producing browns. I snapped some shots and video before he released the fish. The sun had dropped far behind the mountains, so we moved on to the takeout. In this video post I included some footage of the Clark Fork, and Matt’s big brown.

Cooler air temps and changing leaves are here, so the Fall fishing has begun. The larger wild brown above is also indicative of Fall fishing on the Gunpowder. This brown measured over fifteen inches and didn’t take a big streamer, but instead took a size 20 midge larva on 5X tippet. I fished a few hours in the rain, and the day after the big storm. The browns were aggressive in the mid-river areas (stained water) after the storm, especially on caddis larva and pupa patterns. A variety of brighter nymphs like copper johns, green weenies, and SJWs also produced trout in the off color flows. The recent heavy rains mainly affected water levels in the sections outside the Catch and Release area, so the upper miles of river remained low and clear. In the next few days the clarity in the lower sections of river outside the C & R will improve quickly. The Gunpowder has a lot of feeder creeks, so the farther down river will equate to higher flows. In the upper sections of river tricos, olives and caddis are fooling trout in riffles. Nymphing small flies is also working well in riffles, and deeper pools. The shop received a large midge order, which included a variety of RS2s, WD-40s, and zebra midges. Small flies can be the most effective patterns through the Fall and Winter on the Gunpowder. In the latest video post I filmed a few fish on my first days back on the river.

On my third day on the Frying Pan I fell into my routine of catching the morning midge hatch up in the flat below Ruedi Dam. On the previous days I found success with zebra midges, RS2s and DMC (embroidery floss) midge patterns. There was a ton of shucks floating on the surface from the hatching midges, including some midges still trapped in their shuck. The adults were large, a size 18 black body midge, with a gray wing. I captured a few wriggling larvae to inspect them closer. The larvae were big, much bigger than the size 20-22 midges I caught fish on the previous days. I decided to upsize to a size 18 blackfly larva pattern I fish back East in the Winter months. The pattern I tie features stripped peacock herl wound around the hook shank, and 3 coats of Sally’s Double Duty (nail polish) for durability. The pattern has a natural rib with the dark edges of the peacock strip, translucency from the nail polish, and has one bulbous end tapering to a thin end. I rigged one size 18 and one size 22 blackfly larva behind a tiny split shot, under a thingamabobber. The flat riffle ranged in depth from thigh deep to ankle deep, so spotting fish was easy. Once the action began I had as many as twenty to thirty fish visibly rising or flashing in front of me. The majority of trout I’d estimate between nine and sixteen inches, but the occasional larger trout could be seen holding in deeper water. I landed two rainbows over eighteen inches, as well as a bunch of browns and bows between eleven and sixteen inches. The switch to a larger midge pattern lead to the best two hours of fishing all week, but I had a difficult time filming while standing in the middle of a wide river, trying to hold out a chunky fish for the camera. A number of anglers (8-10) were fishing above, below, across or behind me, so at times I couldn’t move back to shore without walking through someone’s drift. The hatch stopped right at Noon, and I left with everyone else for lunch.

In the afternoon I was close to completing my goal of fishing all the public access points along the road paralleling the river. I knew I’d never know them intimately, but felt that each area had obviously different characteristics. On the previous days I fished through some rough water, and tough wading, but on the third day I found some nice long riffles and shallow pocket water. I rigged my nymph/caddis combo and fished up into the first few miles below the dam. There was a lot more pressure in these areas, so I walked the road to leap around the anglers and guides. It was interesting as I progressed up river, my patterns became less effective. Trout were rising in backeddies and slow pools to small size 20 baetis, and I started switching out nymphs. I got a few fish on trico nymphs, bwo nymphs and small pheasant tails, but the fish were keyed into something about the real nymphs I was missing. The evening midge hatch hit just when I got back down river to my car, so I fished some dries for my last evening on the river. The latest video post features some shots of the flats below the dam, and some of the fish I caught on day three on the Frying Pan River.