Grayling Tour 2012

So the big rivers are feeling the heat of late, so I took to hiking in to some mountain lakes I have not been to before.  Tried out Deer Lake and Moon Lake just north of Big Sky in the Spanish Peak area.  It was about a 6 mile hike in up hill and you can guess a 6 mile hike down hill.  Great day, it did get a little smoky later in the day with smoke blowing in from the south.  Good camp spots up here, would be a great place to come back to and camp.

Deer Lake in the Spanish Peaks, full with Grayling.

Cork excited to swim after a 6 mile hike in.

Grayling, kinda like a white fish but way prettier.

High mountain fish always fall for the ant.

Moon Lake just below Deer Lake, caught a couple Rainbows here, no Grayling though.

Trail side snack, Huckleberries. 

A young cow moose, probably a little to close.  Cork notice her first and froze looking at here.  Then I noticed her and told Cork to stay until I could get her leash on her.  The moose watched us the whole time with her main spike up.  I was a little worried there for a few, but Cork was good and we just walked on by her.  I took this picture as I was feeling safe that we got by her.

Emerald Grayling

Fished Emerald Lake today. Nice hike and good fishing.  Cork enjoyed it too.  Caught my share of grayling today with an ant.  I also had a first at Emerald Lake catching a West Slope Cutthroat I believe.  It was a wet hike down with continuous thunder and lighting.  

Mouth Full of Chubby

Rainbow with Chubby

Summer is finally here in Montana!  Here are a few pictures of my last weekend journey on the Yellowstone just inside the Park.  The Salmon fly hatch has been awesome this year on the Yellowstone with the water shaping up perfect for fishing.  I have been floating the last week just above Yankee Jim and just below as well with great fishing.  I have been using a golden brown chubby with a little yellow sally stimi trailing behind with great success.  We should transition perfectly from the stonefly hatches to hopper season within the next couple weeks if not now.  I'll be in Truckee next week for some mid-summer fishing, probably going to be a morning and evening thing. 

This stretch was very good.

Cutthroat with Chubby

Varney to 8 mile

Devun had the day off from school so I took off from work as well. Had a nice spring day in the Madison Valley. The fishing was good. They were eating pretty much everything I threw; golden stone, micro-may, and of course the worm. The water was perfect, a light breeze and partly cloudy. Hope to get over there again soon, while it's good.

The Snake

So Devun had a soccer tournament down in Jackson Hole, WY. So I thought I had better bring my rod as I did not last year and wished I had. We had sometime in between games so we hit up the Snake in Grand Teton National Park. The Snake has one of the most scenic backdrops ever, with the Tetons towering over the landscape. I was told it is a tough river to wade fish, but we found and nice mellow channel of the river, which was more like fishing a creek. I noticed we had a nice hatch of the area's fall drake called the Hecuba. I then I saw a few fish rise. It was game on. Devun had tangled his line, so I gave him my rod and with a few casts, I heard a big gulp and Devun's rod was bent over.

I could not get a good grip and grin of Devun, but I think this picture turned out better. Devun's nice release of a 18" Fine Spotted Snake River Cutthroat.

I finally got my rod back and was able to catch my first Snake River cuttie, not as big as Devun's though. For only fishing about 2 hours and a $14 Wyoming day fishing license, I think I got my money's worth.

If only I could fish more.

Wow, If I could spend more time on the water right now I would. The fishing has been awesome, the weather has been awesome, flows are great and so is the water clarity. Its terrestrial time! Well, the few times I have been out lately, the fish have been on the dries from hoppers, ants, and beetles. Been using the dry dry setup of late, with a bigger hopper trailed by either a beetle or ant. It is amazing how many fish will pass up the hopper to eat the smaller beetle and ant. Here are a few images and a video from the last month. Oh yah, these pics and video were all taken on Devun's new GoPro. Pretty cool device, Devun can't wait to use skiing.

Devun and I on a Backpacking Trip, Hidden Lakes

Hiking in.

Wolf Print, Soda Butte, YNP

Good times, Fishin' Soda Butte

Devun is getting good at the catching, now I need to work with him on the release, it looks like this little cuttie did okay on getting back to his hole.

Beaverhead

Had some free time to spend so I took off to the Beaverhead. I fished just down from Pipe Organ Bridge. The water was a little dirty there but not bad and the parking lot was empty when I pulled in at around 11:30. The fishing was not bad using an indicator with a worm and a variety of flashy small beadhead nymphs. Good day for me and my old dog Acacia who had fun too. Seeing the Jefferson at close to record flood levels on the drive over there was a sight to see as well, man there is a lot of water everywhere right now.

Yellowstone River Pre-runoff

Fished the Yellowstone yesterday, probably the last time before it blows. There were a few caddis coming off but not the typical floating mats of caddis with fish rising everywhere. Saw some aggressive rise forms signs of the fish were onto the emergers. I had a couple nice fish grab my soft hackle caddis on the swing that I was stripping in with short strips. My best fish a seen below took a size 10 tan wooly bugger I had above the caddis. It was a nice night just wade fishing for a couple hours before the sun set below carter's bridge. I guess at this point I hope it cools off some so maybe we could have some more pre-runoff fishing. If not I will have to join the crowds and hit some of SW Montana's tailwaters.

Start to the MT Fishing Season

First day out for the Montana fishing season, which started March 1. Picked up my fishing license and headed out with Devun to the lower Madison. It was a little windy below the Bear Trap so we headed up river below the dam. We were hoping for some midge action, but not enough midges on the water for the fish to start looking up. None the less we did good on the nymph rig with the best fly being the pink lighting bug. Devun hooked a bunch and landed the first fish of the day, which ended up being the biggest brown caught all day. On the way back we stopped and fished below the Bear Trap and the wind had calmed enough for some more action with plenty of fish to hand on the small cray. Here is a little March montage of some of the action today.

There she blows

The wind that is. Crazy windy day on the lower Madison. I found you could only really cast in one direction. The nice thing was it was not too cold. I had about an hour to fish and landed three and lost two nice bows. I was only using one fly because of the wind. That one fly was my tan cray. I was glad I got out despite the wind.

Blast then Cast

So since I was able to get my Elk on Saturday, I was able to pretty much relax and enjoy the rest of the three day weekend. So I took advantage of the warmer weather (low 40s) and headed over to the Lower Madison River for the first fishing of the new year with my Dad. We found the fish were into eating the crayfish more than little nymphs. Here is a video of two nice browns that both crushed the cray.

MT Right of Passage

So I got my first Elk today. Have lived in Montana for just over 8 years now and on my second season of hunting Elk. One shot was all that I needed to put her down,which hit her in the neck. It was an awesome day starting with watching the sun rise over the Sphinx mountain in the Madison Range as I walked the field towards a huge heard of elk. It took a little while but finally I was able to get close enough, which was I think about 200-250 yards. It was all that I imagined and was made easy by some fellow Montana hunters that helped me drag my elk out with their 4-wheeler. I was very pleased that I field dressed her without any complications. I have heard too many horror stories about people screwing up field dressing. So I know I will have to pass on the karma sometime dragging an elk out for someone else or help in dressing the elk for them. I was able to drop her off at the game processor and hope to be barbecuing next week. What a day, I'm tired and will sleep good tonight.

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.