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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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