10-10-10 Lower Madison

So it has been awhile it seems since I've been out on the river. Soccer season is done and fall fishing season has begun. I've got my buddy Matt coming out in a couple of weeks so I thought I better brush up on my skills. Landed this nice brown on a crawfish imitation on the lower Madison today. Hooked a bunch landed a few. It seemed they liked a little action on the crawfish since most of the fish took it on the strip rather than dead drifted. Got the day off tomorrow and it sounds like it will actually be fall since the forecast is for some rain and overcast, hope to fish streamers.

Big Hole Dairy Cows

Fished the Big Hole River yesterday after going to a work meeting in Butte. I wanted to fish dries but had to switch over to the nymph rig and immediately started catching fish. Caught plenty of browns and white fish. The browns seemed to hold high up in the run with the white fish in the tail of the run. It was a beautiful day after having some early fall weather the days before. The mountain rages all had new snow on the peaks contrasting with the blue sky of the day. When I stepped into the river I was met with a big bird with a white head in the cottonwood above me and two of the strangest dairy cows I have ever seen. Good day to get out.

Glacier Two Medicine

Spent a 4 day weekend up in Glacier within the Two Medicine Valley. Man that place is awesome. It was a nice break from the stresses of work to relax, take in all the senses of this amazing place. No wonder the Blackfeet consider this place to be good medicine. Devun and I did some hiking, a little fishing, and lots of Huckleberry pickin, since the berries where just starting to ripe. Saw lots of bears this trip too, starting with me almost taking out a griz cub driving into the park. Skidded and scared both me and the cub. We also saw a pair of black bears above our camp in an avalanche shoot foraging and then on our way home had a huge black bear and two cubs cross the road just outside of Big Fork along the Flathead River. I know these are the trips I hope Devun will appreciate as he gets older to recognize the great wonders of our planet and the need to preserve them.

Upper Two Medicine Lake

Full bag of Huckleberries

Ripe for the Pickin'

Casting on Upper Two Medicine, check out the head turn on the back cast, I feel it is just as important to watch your back cast as it is to watch your forward cast. It's not hard just turn your head.

Nice bow I picked off in addition to a nice brookie of the same size I got before him. Devun was not ready with camera on the brookie. It was cool though, I watched this rainbow come charging at my spent spruce moth after I gave it a little twitch on the water. The twitch triggered the take.

MT Small Creek Tour

Devun, my Dad, and I headed over to Big Creek today and we had a great time on the creek with another big emergence of Grey Drakes. Since we fished Grey Drakes last weekend my box was a little low on Grey Drake sparkle duns. So we improvised and used some other big sparkle duns that work pretty good. The day started pretty gloomy with rain and low clouds but the sun broke out for a nice day. Devun is getting pretty spoiled with all this good dry fly fishing. We were all amazed how big the fish were for how small the creek was. I had a nice cutthroat on but I could not stop him with my glass 3 weight from taking me into a log jam and then broke me off . We are going to head to Glacier next week, hope to do a little fishing too and pick some Huckleberries.

Devun sportin the Gill's Guide Service Hat

Fish on!

Grey Drake Macro Photo

Another Grey Drake

So Devun and I took off Friday morning to camp and do a little fishing on the upper main Boulder River, for Devun's Birthday. He is ten now, which is mind blowing. First time ever fishing this place, it is amazing that I have lived here in Montana for 8 years this fall and I am still finding new places to fish and explore within a days drive of my house in Bozeman. The Boulder drainage is a neat place, very diverse and beautiful. Devun had one of the best days fishing ever he said, totaling about 8 fish and loosing many more. We had a nice emergence of big gray drakes in the afternoon that brought up many cutthroats. He out fished Dad today, which I am sure will be a common theme in the future. Here are a few pics of our adventure.

So I decided to see if there where any big bugs further up the Yellowstone and hiked into the black canyon from the Black Tail Trailhead. The hike was 4 miles down into the Canyon following Black Tail Creek and 4 miles back up. They had the bridge closed across the river right now doing some improvements. I walked up stream and had plenty of good water to fish. The fishing was good, fish eating both my big dry and occasionally the dropper like this guy bellow. Most of the fish where cutties, however a few I think were cutbows. Saw more golden stoneflies than salmon flies. Also saw caddis and a few little olive stones.

Big River, few people.

Shedhorn along the trail.

I hiked into the Yellowstone River today in the park from the Rescue Creek trail across the Gardner River. Awesome day, did not see another sole all day. The fish were willing to eat the big dry today, but I did catch two on the dropper. Caught a brown, rainbows, cutbows, and yellowstone cutthroats today. I threw a amy's ant that I tied that was black and orange. Saw a few big Salmon Flies today, but mostly saw lots of tan caddis. First time I ever fished this part of the river, it was really nice and wild. Hiking from the Gardner river over to the Yellowstone there where plenty of hoppers allready. I guess the plague has started. I predict the hopper fishing will be great from now till October. Here are a few of the sights from today:

Cuttie with his mouth full with my fly.

Elk skull along the Yellowstone

Nice day along the Yellowstone down from the Black Canyon.

What a weekend, from fishing the opener of the Park to floating the MO, you can always find a place to fish in Montana. Right now many rivers in Montana are off color and flowing high. Except there are always spring creeks and tail waters to be had. So I fished the world's most famous spring creek the Firehole River and the MO a tail water that fishes a lot like a big spring creek.

Fished the Firehole river off of Fountain Flat Drive near the Nez Perce picnic ground. Started off slow, had a few grabs on the soft hackle. Then about 12:30 started seeing the first emergence of BWOs. Put on a dry, and started catching fish. I ran back to the truck and grabbed my new fiber glass 3wt I built this winter. It was great, a very fun rod for the firehole. The nastier the weather the larger the hatch, which sent the fish in a feeding frenzy. You name it we had it for weather that day. I lost count of how many I caught that day, however I'm not really the counting type. I can just say it was enough to break in my new 3wt.

Here are a few pics from the Firehole:

Headed out of Bozeman on Monday around 7:00 am and dropped the boat in the MO around 10:00 a.m. Every time I fish the MO I am amazed how strong and big the fish are. I did see plenty of BWOs, however it did not get to many noses up. So the nymph rig was the setup for the day. Here are a few pics from the MO:

Mothers Day Caddis 2010

Got the boat out on the Yellowstone River today and slayed the whities. We did catch a few trout, I actually caught one cuttie and brown and about 25-30 white fish, mostly on dries. Here is a few pictures of the float. Cool weather, a little breezy but not bad for the Yellowstone.