Montana Moments

Fishing Fishing Reports
1

Thought about calling this thread “It ain’t just about fishing.” Decided that was not quite the right title for something on the Fishing Reports Forum. But it ain’t, so I opted for a title that reflects my real intent - to share the places, the wildlife, the fishies, and some activities other than attaching a fly to a tippet and going after trouts.

So live in the moment whether it is here in Montana, my new home, or Idaho, where I learned most of what I know about fly fishing, or Wyoming, 'cause that is just one darned beautiful place to spend some time. And maybe Alberta, if I remember to get a passport before next summer.

Having said that, it was a rather modest start. Probably a good thing. Threatening skies, a chill breeze, and new water. A mid November day on the Bitterroot not far from home.

Decided to go with a PSC streamer fished off a full sinking Class II 5 wt line using a fast action 9’ for 7 wt rod. That combination lets me cover more water, and the Bitterroot at the point I chose for my first day out is a pretty good size river, even with the low fall flows.

First fish up, and officially my first trout in hand as a Montana resident, was a chunky 14-15" rainbow.

Spent a fair amount of time covering a bunch of water downstream of my starting point. Nothing. Went back up to where I caught the first fishy and ended up with another bow, about 12", in hand, another one on and off, seemed to be about the same size as the second one, and a couple solids hits. The first hit was real, but not real hard, and the second felt like one of those big browns from the South Fork of the Snake. The kind of hit that will bring you back wondering what you might hook up with one of these days.

Not bad for my first couple hours on new water.

John

In my previous threads, I’ve been quite willing to name the waters I fished, with the rare exception of a few places that seemed prone to ruin if too much attention and pressure were put on them. Already, I’ve been told about a few places in this neck of the woods with the expectation that I would not name them in any fishing reports. I expect to honor those confidences.

2

John,
I would call that a nice start in a new place!
Pics, as always, are wonderful. Looking forward to more.
Thanks for sharing (and I DO agree with NOT divulging some locations).
Mike

3

John,

Way to go. I ALWAYS enjoy your reports, your pix, your knowledge, and your just plain fun attitude. Thanks for sharing.

John

4

John, good to see you’re getting out again. Thanks for the report.

Kelly

5

Great report, John! But you can tell US where … we won’ tell anyone … :rolleyes:

6

Lucky you, you don’t even have to drive very far any more. Beautiful spot.

7

Lovely Fish and a lovely spot! You do not have to name them John, but we do expect some reports and pics. :lol:
All the best.
Mike.

8

Ah, all is right again.
So glad we will get to hear and see from you regularly again. I hope the move wasn’t too painful. (except for the local fish lips) :lol:

9

john,

im sooo glad you will start a new thread! glad the move went well and now you can get busy fishing (and entertaining me).ive got the popcorn ready…roll out the reports! take care my friend.

10

Hi John: You’re right, it ain’t all about fishing. Good thoughts and nice report. When I’m fishing, hearing the river is enough to make it a great day for me.
Bruce

11

Thanks guys, and Betty and Karen.

It’s really hard to predict where and when this thread will go. Fishing the same waters over the winter down in Idaho for six years, I could pretty much tell you what would be happening when. If nothing else, there is GREAT fishing for mountain whitefish on the South Fork of the Snake from now until spring - dries for the little guys and big stonefly nymphs for the grownups - just about any day conditions permit fishing, along with some great streamer fishing for trouts through the brown trout spawn ( not, of course, fishing over redds ).

Need to double check the MT regs, but I think all the big rivers around here are open year round. Not sure I’ll be up to my old “25/25” rule ( temps over 25F and wind speed under 25 mph make it a day for fishing, all other things being equal ), but I’m thinking there will be plenty of days to explore a lot of the water in the immediate area.

I’ll do my best to keep it fresh, and if it seems I’m taking it too seriously, somebody hit me upside the head.

John

P.S. Speaking of wildlife - we were speaking of wildlife, weren’t we ?? This little forkhorn buck mule deer is from the herd of a dozen or so deer living in the hills just behind our new home.

The big boy in the herd is a prime six point buck. Most of the rest are does, with a few yearling fawns tagging along.

12

Beautiful water John. Very healthy looking 'bow.

Yeah, I could most assuredly enjoy fishin’ there, or just hiking the banks and taking in that wonderful country and wildlife!

bobbyg

13

Great report again John! Good to see you back on the water. I read a fellows report where he never gives the official name of the stream or river, but he has his own names for them. Things like “the fishless stream” and “Riffles and runs”, and so forth. Helps keep us readers informed about when you’ve returned to a location. Since most of us aren’t close, the names are random to us anyway. It may take a bit of time to for you to capture the persona of the water in a name, but once you do, you could adopt that for your nameless waters?

  • Jeff
14

This was a “32/5” kind of day - freezing with only a light breeze. The first place I fished still had some ice on the slow water near the bank.

Looking upstream ( south ) into the winter sun put a bit of glare on the water. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any hungry fish in this good looking stretch of river.

Headed on upstream several miles to where I fished the other day. The upstream view takes in some of the Bitterroot peaks. The further up the valley you go, the more dramatic the peaks are, at least the ones you can see from the road.

Just out to midstream from where the above pic was taken, a nice cuttbow jumped the brown PSC streamer. True to form, the cuttbow felt much bigger and stronger and fought harder than his size would suggest. His cutts were rather faded and his bow colors were more prominent, but he was one pretty fish.

A while later, just downstream, near the far right edge of this downstream view, I got a fat little rainbow.

The cuttbow went about 14"-15" and felt like 18" or more. This guy was fiesty, but pulled more like the 12"-13" trout he was.

Hard to believe that there was ice on the river and backwaters - but I guess an overnight low around 15F will do that. The forecast is for warmer, which means there might be a few hatches to work around, or more active fishies, maybe ??

John

15

John,

Great pics and reports as always. VEE wants to know if we can bring Ghillie when we come visit?

We’re already looking at winter storms and river flooding here, so keep the reports updated often. It helps us get through the hard times.

REE

16

It’s dark and cold, and raining …
Think I’ll just stare at John’s pictures and whine a lot!!!

17

Very nice report and pics. Sage FLi, good choice. I knew the rod from the first pic, I have a 8’ 4wt myself.

18

Headed on upstream several miles from the last couple places I fished. The temps were nice at a record setting 65F, and the scenery was beautiful.

But the fishing conditions were brutal, with a 20-25 mph wind out of the southwest. From the right. Which made casting not only difficult, but dangerous. Did the best I could with sidearm casts and offside casts which basically put the backcast on the water. For all the work involved, there was no reward. Moved on downstream and the views to the northwest improved some.

At high flows during runoff, I suspect that entire gravel bar is covered with a LOT of water. That will be interesting to see next spring.

As it is, I just followed the gravel bar as it swung around to the west, and soon enough I had the wind coming off the left side which made casting awkward and not at all accurate, but at least not dangerous.

Finally came to a little side channel with a very slow current. At the lower end, I had a couple hits on the PSC and finally hooked up with what looked like a medium size, maybe 13-14", brown trout. Had him on briefly before he took a long distance good bye. All three were near the lower end of the channel, close to where it came back to meet the main channel.

On the way back to my access point, I tried several interesting pieces of water, still with a strong wind from the right, and again with no results. With favorable casting conditions, I’m pretty sure I can reach some very good lies. May have to go to a faster sinking 7 wt line to maximize my chances in that deeper water.

Decided to go back to the place I have caught fish the last couple days. By the time I got there, the wind had died down and conditions were pretty favorable. Ended up with a light hit on the PSC, and then hooked up with a smallish rainbow and promptly lost it.

Thought I would try nymphing for a while before packing it in for the day. Still hadn’t caught a trout on the REE Whitefish Slaying FEB Salmonfly Nymph so I put that on, under an indicator. Lo and behold - got a hit on it. And a while later, a little further downstream, a rainbow ate it, but didn’t much like it, and spit it out after chewing on it for a short while. Maybe the fishy just didn’t like that whitefish slime that REE always talks about ?? Whatever. The pattern took a Bitterroot Bow !!

About the time the bow spit the nymph, the sun dropped behind the mountains and it cooled considerably. And started getting dark quickly. Headed back to the truck, a quarter mile or so across the gravel bar, and then through some woods. A whitetail doe greeted me just as I got to the parking area, but she didn’t hang around for long.

Supposed to have a cold front come through tonight. Tomorrow could be interesting - a lot colder, if nothing else, and maybe some precip to lighten ( errrr, whiten ) things up.

John

19

Is that a spinning outfit or just a super long leader??:confused:

20

John,

Thanks again for the reports and pix. And talk about small world… I was standing in those waters in August with my brother. Fun fishing!

John