ROCK CREEK ADVENTURE (part 1)
We arrived in Missoula late Sunday evening and stayed in the city for the night. After getting my license squared away early Monday morning we took our time driving up the creek from the Rock Creek Road exit off I-90. The creek is gorgeous, even in the pouring rain. We got our things to the Hogback cabin and suited up for some scouting. It has been a very long while since I have fished a river that large. A long time! The water was definitely up but it was clearer than anything in Nebraska.
I spent the first hours of the morning fishing two rubber-legged stonefly nymphs in tandem on the bottom. Most of the time spent was working out the kinks in my cast, the anxiety and excitement that had me rushing my casts. My casts were inaccurate and heavy on the water, too. I was so excited to be there that I wasn’t in the groove I should have been for setting the hook when my indicator would hesitate. I hooked a couple browns and lost them in the current – playing the fish wrong in the fast water.
I got out of the water when the wind kicked up a bit, re-rigged my leader and took a few deep breaths and hit the water again. This time I was a little calmer. My casts were smoother. My eye was more focused on the indicator and I was looking for fish in “fishy” spots. I was successful in getting a few browns to hand. They came around mile marker 32 (on the road) from a nice deep run created by an intense log jam.
We headed back to the cabin with a few hours of daylight left and began to warm up and dry off. I spent the majority of the evening tying rubber-legged nymphs and Yellow Yummy streamers by lantern light. My first night in the cabin for sleep was rough. I was excited for a sunny day with less rain.
Tuesday morning my father-in-law and I headed up above the Stoney Creek Campground and began fishing the banks, deep runs, “fishy” riffles and eddies. I was on the hunt for cutthroats! I spent the majority of the morning fishing and not catching. I didn’t see any fish move or flash. I was starting to get frustrated since it was such a beautiful day and the bugs surely had to be moving around more so than the day prior.
I got fed up fishing my indy rig so I re-rigged with a big Chernobyl ant and a rubber-legged nymph below it. I focused on fishing the shallow, warm riffles. At the slightest hesitation of the Chernobyl, I set the hook. First fish was a 12 inch cuttie. A few yards up the riffle a 14 inch cuttie came to hand. A few minutes later fishing the confluence of two runs creating a stellar riffle even a few yards further upstream, my Chernobyl chugged and I set the hook. This long, slender fish turned and ran down stream in fast water. About 50 yards downstream the fish tired out and came to the net. It was this beautiful 16 inch Westslope. It had gluttonously inhaled the nymph and quickly regretted the sting. I was smiley from ear to ear and I could have just sat on the bank the rest of the day watching the river flow by.
The rest of the morning was filled with Whitefish since I switched back to an Indy rig with a small Copper John below m y rubber-legged bug. Learning fly fishing in Utah, whitefish were considered subpar fish and, for some reason, I have a bit of a fish prejudice and whitefish are on the receiving end. Sorry, no whitefish pictures even though several were 15 inches or more long and chunky.
We headed up to Gillies Bridge where I could make the phone call to JohnScott. I hung up the phone, buckled up the waders and made use of the generous rancher’s permission to access his land to get to the Creek. About a dozen whitefish later, we headed down to the Windlass Concrete Bridge just upstream of mile marker 35.
Not ten minutes on the water, I landed a stellar brown that was eager to eat a big meal. He came right off the bank and headed for safety in fast current. I was able to match his pace downstream and find some slow water to put him in my net. We finished off the sunlight with some smaller rainbows and browns.
Continued in Part 2