Roxk Creek - Montana

Articles Trip Reports & Travel
1

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 ??

2

John,

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

Beaver

3

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

4

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

5

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…:slight_smile:

6

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

7

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

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

8

John,

Lower Rock Creek always has a heavy hatch of Missoula Anglers on it.

I really prefer upper Rock Creek. The best way to get to that and not drive that Rock Creek Canyon road is to head east on I-90 to Drummond, make a right and head up Hwy 1 to Philipsburg then make a right on 348 in Philipsburg and continue to drive until you get to the upper Rock Creek area. Make a right and start working your way down towards the canyon. There are all kinds of designated parking areas for river access once you get to the main creek. There is a small population of Golden trout up there that sustains itself after having been planted way back in the early 20th Century.

Larry —sagefisher—

9

Good to see you back on the water and having fun.

Kelly.

10

Larry -

Thanks for the suggestion. I had heard about that approach to the upper section, but had not heard about golden trouts. That alone is worth the trip by the route you described. Won’t be have time to get up there on this trip, but next time for sure.

John

11

Click on the picture for the slideshow.

12

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

13

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

14

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

15

We were out exploring yesterday and ended up on the Skalkaho Highway between Philipsburg and Hamilton. Would you believe that it runs right along the West Fork of Rock Creek up in the mountains ?? And would you believe that I just happened to have my 3 wt rod and other gear with me ??

Fished a few spots with Joe’s Foam Back Royal Humpy over the course of maybe half an hour. Little cutthroats. Landed three, lost three more, and had several hits. Lots of action on a really pretty little creek in the mountains ( elevation about 6,000 ").

Talked to a fellow from Bozeman and his wife who were fishing just upstream of where I was. They had fished several spots further downstream and had a lot of action. He mentioned mostly rainbows, but I really wonder about that ?? The juvenile cutts look a lot like bows. If you don’t look closely, you might miss the cutts and mistake them for bows.

Odds are I’ll be getting back to that stretch of water when I have a bit more time to fish it.

John

16

…but now I do and I certainly know how to get to Hamilton ! Thanks for a great report John, oh and maybe that ‘upstream of you’ guy was catching cuttbows. I get a lot of those here on the N. Fork, though day before yesterday I c&r’d the prettiest cutt I’ve seen in a while up there…a nice 12-13" full bodied, distinctly coloured west slope. Thanks again John.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

17

Fished a number of different spots today, some new and some familiar, for about four hours. The big surprise was how few people there were camping back along Rock Creek. Some folks, but lots of empty campsites and lots of empty spaces in the developed campgrounds. Quite a few fisherman, but pretty well spread out.

The mix today was three cutthroat and ten brown trouts in hand. As has happened every day up on Rock Creek, saw a number of fish refuse the fly after rising to it or following it. The cutts were bigger than the browns, which has been the pattern every time I have fished this creek.

Took fish on a number of flies - JC’s Salmonfly, a gray drake spinner that I tied a couple weeks ago for Henry’s Fork, the original CDC version and a deer hair wing variation on the Harrop’s Henry’s Fork Caddis, and Joe’s Royal Humpy. The most productive fly was Joe’s Royal Humpy. One brown even jumped on it when it was dangling at the end of the drift while I was messing with some gear. Another one, a 13" cutt, refused the fly on the first pass, but ate it on the next one.

All those flies and the only naturals out in any abundance were the green drakes. That seems to be the major hatch on this creek this time of year. It has come off every afternoon that I have been out, and there have been good numbers of flies, and the fish do get up for them. Unfortunately, I lost the only green drake dun I had in my fly box. Fortunately, Joe’s humpy seems to be a very good substitute for a green drake, or at least gets the fishies going after it while they are in the feeding mood. Later in the afternoon, there were a few golden stones around.

The fish of the day was a 12" cutthroat. Because he chased down the humpy from about five feet away, maybe more, tearing downstream to catch up with it and eat it. Saw him the whole way, from the time he came off the bottom to the time he caught the humpy - what a great sight !!

That will be it for Rock Creek for a while, at least. Going back to Idaho Monday morning. Tomorrow is a hiking day - Blodget Creek west of Hamilton - and Monday will be a driving day, with maybe a “rest” stop on the Big Hole.

Sure have enjoyed the fishing here in Western Montana this week. All dry fly fishing. Probably the best dry fly only fishing for brown trouts that I have had anywhere, even if they have been rather small fish on average. Kind of wondering what will happen if I ever get around to tying on a nymph or going to straight nymphing ??

John

18

First time I ever fished Rock Creek I mainly used nymphs - real effective, but the number of Princes and Hare’s Ears I lost still gives me night sweats. For me now, fishing dries is too much fun, although I will hang a beadhead or an IPW off the back on occasion.

Regards,
Scott

19

Great report John. Nice looking stretches of water. Sounds like the fish are all looking up right now. A 3 weight rod or lighter might be just the ticket though.

  • Jeff
20

I almost used the 3 wt yesterday, but since I planned to fish the JC’s Salmonfly, which is a pretty good sized fly, I went with the 5 wt. And there are a few places reqiuiring a longer reach and enough breeze on and off to want the bigger gun. When the creek skinnies down as run off ends and it is strictly small dry flies, I’ll definitely go to the 3 wt.

John

P.S. Forgot to include this in the post yesterday. I had been fishing off the upper end of a gravel bar and happened to look downstream about 100’. A ruddy duck with her seven ducklings were at the edge of the water working their way slowly upstream. I just put the rod at rest and stood quietly for several minutes as they approached. They got within about 50’ when some folks stopped to take a look ( the road runs quite close to the creek at this point ). That got mom’s attention, and she headed out into the creek. One big duckie and seven little duckies bobbing along across and down with the current. That was a real treat.

Not to mention the large band of bighorn sheep that hangs out at the edge of one of the large meadows on the way up the creek. Must be about thirty of them, more or less. They are all but tame. Yesterday, I had to come to a stop while they wandered up the road toward and then past me. A bunch of lambs in the band. Seven or eight really little ones. Cute as can be.