Roxk Creek - Montana

[JohnScott]

Golden stones, caddis, PMDs and yellow sallies. Not a lot of them, but saw some of each. More caddis than anything else. The water is still fairly high with run off, but it is clear - stained, but clear, and kind of cold, too.

Fished the LF's Golden Stone for about two hours this afternoon wet wading in the National Forest Section of Rock Creek. Just drove the road until I saw some promising water, got out and got to fishing. Got a hit almost immediately. Always a good sign. That was followed fairly quickly by a small rainbow. That was it for the first place I fished.

Drove up the road a way looking for another spot to try. Got a bigger bow and then a brown about the same size. Both in the 10-11" range. Close to shore under overhanging foliage. Had several fish hit the fly at this spot and not hook up.

Another short drive brought me to another place that looked pretty good. Not so good. Although I did catch a beautiful 9" cutthroat there. Saw several fish rise for naturals right in front of me, but I didn't have my pack and flybox with me and the fish weren't interested in the stonefly, except one that hit it lightly. Probably would have had a better chance with a caddis emerger, or maybe even a caddis dry.

Walked upstream a little way and tried another spot. Nothing.

Drove on a bit further. Caught another cutthroat, a small one, and had another something on but lost it. That one felt pretty much like the larger bow and the brown. Had several more fishies hit the fly and not hook up at this spot.

Ended up with five in hand - two bows, two cutts and a brown - with another one hooked decently, but lost. Somewhere around eight or nine hit the fly but didn't eat it. This was the same fly that I fished on the Henry's Fork a couple weeks ago. It floated for another couple hours today and still looked great at the end of the day. Looks like it will be good for another go tomorrow.

Took some pics, but since I'm not on my home computer, I can't post any. Maybe when I get home I'll edit the thread to include some pics of Rock Creek, a really neat foot bridge across the river, and a couple fishies.

John

Must be a famous trout stream. Haven't seen so many fly fisherman on one piece of water or in one area since I fished in YNP on opening day a couple years ago. Maybe the upper Bitterroot, which is on my agenda for tomorrow, will have fewer folks hanging around ??

[Beaver]

John,

Good to see you out and finding new water. Looking forward to seeing the pics. Thanks for the report.

Beaver

[ScottP]

Must be a famous trout stream. Haven't seen so many fly fisherman on one piece of water or in one area since I fished in YNP on opening day a couple years ago.

Salmonfly run tends to draw crowds (I heard hatch is moving upstream pretty quickly). Great river but that road gives me night sweats. Hope you have fun on the 'Root tomorrow.

Regards,
Scott

[JohnScott]

Salmonfly run tends to draw crowds (I heard hatch is moving upstream pretty quickly). Great river but that road gives me night sweats. Hope you have fun on the 'Root tomorrow.

Regards,
Scott

I didn't see any salmonflies at all today. A few golden stones and the other flies mentioned. It was pretty chilly and cloudy. May be the salmonflies, and more golden stones, were just hunkered down waiting for some nicer weather ??

John

[Grubb]

Thank you for the report, glad you are already on the water there< I look forward to all post from your neck of the woods...

[jimsnarocks]

Hi John,I'm glad you got your feet wet today and got a triple to boot. Thanks for the report. Jim

[MontanaMoose]

Yep, I too was glad to hear yer out and about checkin' new water John. Go get 'em !

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

[JohnScott]

So I'm standing on a big rock at the edge of the creek tying on a fresh fly. About six feet above the water's surface. My feet, that is. I'm thinking I don't want to drop my 2.5 power magnifier glasses. Wrong thing to be thinking. I drop them, they bounce off the rock, and sink quickly to the bottom of the creek. By the time I can get down to the water, they are gone.

Moved on upstream a way to another fishy looking spot. Sat on another rock squinting to tie on a new piece of tippet with a double surgeon's knot. Knot all that hard to do, actually. Then came the size 16 caddis pattern. That took some serious squinting, and maybe it got done more out of habit and routine than by actually seeing the tippet go through the eye of the hook ??

Anyway, that was the real accomplishment of the day. Put that fresh little caddis on the water, got a good drift, and hooked up almost immediately with a small brown. Then another. Then another. Nice way to end the day.

Rock Creek was really rocking today - with insects. Salmonflies - got a couple trouts on a JC's Salmonfly. PMDs - got a few trouts on a CDL bodied parachute PMD. Green drakes - my best fly of the day, a furled antron extended body green drake with the tails incorporated in the extended body ( kind of ). A fly that I tied for the Western Greek Drake hatch on one of my favorite cutthroat trout streams in SE Idaho late last summer. Caddis - a couple fishies on an oversized caddis pattern, and then the last three on the deer hair wing version of Harrop's Henry's Forik Caddis. The next best thing about today, after getting a fresh fly tied on without glasses, was that all the flies I used were original patterns, given that the smaller caddis is a variation on a well known pattern.

When all was said and done, had one rainbow, first fish of the day, three or four cutts, and a dozen plus small brown trouts. Had a lot of hits, and turned a couple really nice fish that wouldn't eat the fly. The fishies today were on the small side. The browns and the bow were in the 7" to 10" range. A couple of the cutts were pushing 12". One of the fish that turned looked somewhat bigger than that.

Beautiful early summer weather. The water level has dropped noticeably in the past couple weeks. Almost perfect water temp for wet wading. Now all I have to do is figure out where the bigger fish are in the forty or fifty miles ( maybe more ) of Rock Creek. That could take some time.

Actually left the camera in the truck today. Kind of regretted that after happening on an absolutely spectacular white water stretch that pretty much says is all about ROCK Creek !! Next time I get up there, I'll get some pics of the river for a slideshow.

John

[jimsnarocks]

John, Sounds like you had a pretty good day on the water. Thanks for keeping us posted. Jim

[JohnScott]

Started a couple miles further upstream today than I had been before, just after noon.

Put on a JC's Salmonfly. Turned a fish on the second cast, and a couple casts later had a nice brown on. Fished a nice variety of water with it. Best action came in a fairly shallow slower riffle off the main current. Mostly smaller browns like the other day. For the two hours I had the salmonfly on, hooked and landed about eight browns, lost another four or five, saw several refusals, and watched a bunch of fish splash rather than eat the fly.

After working out the salmonfly, decided to give Joe's Foam Back Royal Humpy a different experience than it got on Nez Perce Fork yesterday. Started in a little corner just above a drop. Got a hit, but didn't hook up, almost immediately. A few casts later, got the biggest fish of the day - a 13" brown. Fished a pool just down from the little corner and caught several more fish and had some more looks and splashes.

Fished three other spots with the Humpy. Kept catching fish with it, all browns except for one cutthroat, in different types of water. Had one good size fish come up from a fairly deep and fast riffle for it, but I pulled the trigger a nanosecond too soon and missed him. But more fish than not were faster than me and got themselves hooked. In about two hours, landed about a dozen trouts, and lost about half that many. With the refusals I actually saw and the misses, saw well over twenty fish while fishing the Humpy.

Not so much going on with the insects today. Did see several salmonflies earlier in the afternoon, and there was a pretty good green drake hatch midafternoon on. Later on, I saw several large stoneflies, which looked to be golden stones, but could have been salmonflies.

Took quite a few pics today, and will post a slideshow wrapping it up early next week.

John