Montana Sept 2008

[sagefisher]

Montana September 2008

Seven of us left Puyallup on Friday, Sept. 26, 2008 for Montana. PJ & Al, Bill & Howard, Duffy & Bruce, & myself. We arrived in St. Regis in time for those without Montana fishing licenses to buy them at the Clark Fork Trout & Tackle Shop and have a chat with Brooks Sanford, the owner. Later on that evening we drove 19 miles north to Quinn's, a resort & restaurant that serves spectacular food. We had a great dinner and relaxed.

The next morning Brooks and the other three guides arrived at the motel to pick us up. Brooks and I took the Dry Creek to St. Regis drift, two of the other boats took the Superior to Dry Creek drift and one boat took another drift. That day was my best day of fishing out of all four. I caught some nice Rainbows and Cutthroats and a few smaller Browns. I cast dry flies all day on the Clark Fork, I never did any nymphing. The fishing was a little slow and the fish were not keying in on any particular fly. I cast a variety of flies including foam hoppers, Mahogany Duns, Royal Wulff?s, October Caddis and Para-Adams.

On all four days we all caught fish but as fishing goes, some days were better than others for each boat. I guess you could say it all evened out. We never had bad days on the rivers but some were better than others. The weather was not typical for the time of year. We had bright sun and hot days, well up into the mid to upper 70's. On all of our four days of fishing we saw only spotty or no hatches coming off; the bugs were waiting for cooler and cloudy weather.

We got off that river that evening, loaded up our gear and drove to Helena, MT. We hit the rack around midnight and got up early to head for Craig, MT. We arrived at Arnie Gidlow's Missouri Riverside Outfitters & Lodge at around 8:30 AM. We were introduced to our four guides and headed up the Missouri River to do a drift. It was another hot and clear day. I nymph fished most of the day with some dry fly action around lunch time. The Missouri River in that area is a 28 mile tail water coming off Holter Dam. It had a strong steady flow and tons of weeds. The water was starting to cool off and many of the weeds were dying. That dumped a whole lot of salad or weeds that were floating on top and in huge balls under the water. About half the casts were wasted because of weeds, and you had to look for small areas of no or only a few weeds before you could cast. But, I did catch fish, some nice Browns, Rainbows and Whitefish. Again the fish were not keying in on any particular nymph so we tried a wide variety. For me the best nymph of the day was a small orange bodied Caddis nymph.

Again we got off the river and loaded our gear. We headed out that evening for Dillon, MT. We arrived in Dillon and hit the sack around midnight. The next morning we walked over to the Frontier Angler said Hi to Tim Tollett the owner. I teamed up with my guide, Leon Sagaloff. I have been fishing with him for many years; he is one heck of a good guide. On the Big Hole River, each guide service is restricted to no more than two boats per section, which I think is a great rule. Leon and I did a drift in the farmlands, two of the other boats also fished different sections of the farmlands and one boat went way up into the mountain for a drift on the Big Hole. Duffy and Bruce did that drift and they had the best day of any of us. They caught Rainbows, Browns, Cutthroats, Brookies and Grayling, plus a few Whitefish. They had a great day of fishing.

For me, I started off nymphing and I was catching a few but they were not many taking the flies. I ended up dry fly fishing and managed to catch a few more that way. I caught Rainbows and Browns and some Whitefish. Again, no particular fly was catching the fancy of the fish so we went through a lot of different flies, searching for the magic bullet, but it evaded us that day.

We packed up and left Dillon at 7:00 PM, arriving back at St. Regis and hitting the rack at 1:00 AM. However, because it was getting cooler in the mornings we were not going to be picked up by the guides until 9:30 AM. That allowed some to sleep in a bit. It was another hot and sunny day. No where on the river were any hatches coming off. Brooks and I did the St. Regis to 14 Mile Bridge drift and we were the only ones in that section. Bill and Howard did the 14 Mile Bridge to Paradise drift, one that none of us had taken before. Their guide told them that there would be fewer fish but larger fish so that sold them on the idea. Bill caught a very nice 22 inch Brown and Howard caught a large Rainbow. Both of them actually caught a lot of fish that day and had a ton of fun. The other two boats did a drift farther up the river.

For me it was my slowest day, with mostly smaller fish, but that is fishing. I had fun and the action was just enough to keep me alert to the possibility of a hit. Again I did dry fly all day, no nymphing.

The day consisted of longer drifts so the last boat got back to the motel at around 8:00 PM. We had a decent dinner in St. Regis and hit the rack early, trying to catch up on a little sleep.

The next morning we loaded up and headed for home, having a leisurely drive back home.

Fall is in the air but the only river that really reflected that was the Big Hole. The trees were in full color and it looked great. The other rivers were still a week or two from being adorned with fall colors.

The great part about fishing the Clark Fork is that St. Regis is only 420 miles from Tacoma, a short 7 hour drive. Very doable and you usually get great fishing. It is one of my favorite rivers in Montana.

In all the trip was 1,540 miles long and we used two rigs. Everyone shared on the cost of the gas and the boats that had two people in them also shared on the costs of the boats and the motel rooms. For the price it was a great trip, fishing with really good people and having fun. We also created a new lover of Montana; Bruce is sold on fishing these great rivers.

Larry ---sagefisher---