Some Time in the Mountains

Articles Trip Reports & Travel
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That would be Red Rock Creek framed with bunches of wildflowers and backdropped by the Centennial Mountains on the south side of the Centennial Valley in southern Montana.

I had only fished here once before. Skunked. But last week, I was talking to a friend who had fished it the day before, and he mentioned grayling. As in he and his friends had caught some.

Catching a decent grayling has been on my list of things to do for quite a while. I did catch a small one on the Gibbon in YNP a couple years ago, but had a hankering to see one that had grown up some.

This guy hadn’t - he’s about the same size as the one I caught on the Gibbon.

This one had.

He took a good look at the FEB Hopper on the first pass. I saw him on the refusal and kind of … well, you know. Next pass, I saw him coming to the fly and kind of held my breath. Got him. Hard to believe how soft the take was when he finally took the fly.

Grayling really are a beautiful fish. Glad I got one that was so happy to turn to the camera for a better pic. Actually, the most surprising thing about this one was how calm he was in hand. No squirming, no twisting, none of that. He just kind of rested in my hand for the first pic and then turned to the camera and held still for the second one.

Caught one other grayling and had a couple more small ones on but lost them. Did end up with a triple - brookie and cutthroat to go with the grayling. One really good sized cutthroat went for the fly, but our timing was not quite right. Either he was too slow or I was too fast. Since the fish are always right, I guess it was me being too fast.

The scenery in Centennial Valley is outstanding. The mountains. The meadows filled with flowers. The creek which is quite different than most I fish. The clouds today just topped it all off.

Won’t be targeting grayling after this. They are a wild and native inhabitant of Red Rock Creek. The number of little ones bodes well for the future of the grayling fishery there. But they really don’t need a lot of pressure, so I’ll just thank the ones that visited with me today and wish them well.

For some additional pics from the day, including the two trouts filling out the triple, click on the pic.

John

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John, AWESOME!!! As you know a decent Grayling is on my list also. I fished Red Rock years ago and was skunked, never had a chance to go back although it’s just over the hill from Henry’s Lake. Maybe we can exchange notes and you can tell me how and where, and I can tell you … tell you what, you are getting out and going everywhere and I’m as jealous as can be! Keep it up and thanks for sharing.

Kelly.

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John, Another nice report. Those graylings are really nice looking fish. That’s a great valley you stumbled onto. Thanks for sharing. Jim

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Great report and pics, as usual, John. Besides the great fish you find some of the most beautiful scenery. I’m jealous.

REE

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Great report. Nice to see the grayling added to your hopper list. I’ve never caught one, and have only seen them in photos (I’ve not even fished where any are supposed to be!) Anyway, that looks to be a decent sized one, and the scenery is wonderful yet again.

  • Jeff
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Jim - Jeff - REE -

Easy to get great pics when you have country like that on the other side of the lens.

The grayling really was a beautiful fish. If they were plentiful in lots of places, the places they swim would be high on my list of places to go. But they’re not. The memory, and pics, of the one I caught yesterday will last me a loooooonnnng time, for sure.

I do hope to catch another one on the upper Big Hole some day - as part of a quintuple there to include grayling and brown, bull, rainbow and brook trouts. I think that might stop the watch function on my Suunto. Of course, I don’t think I would have a lot of trouble remembering the time and date if I ever am that fortunate.

John

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John, Bruce, Fred, and Gary are all fishing buddies, and now I’m a bit put out that I didn’t get a call from them. Guess I’ll just have to invite myself next time:rolleyes:
Once again, thanks for a great report.

kelly.

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John,

Great report, as always; that’s one of my favorite places to fish. I hit Red Rock Creek last year, above the lakes and caught a number of small brookies, but no grayling or cutts; year before on another stream in the area had better luck Sent you a PM with results of on-stream trials of the FEB hopper on upper Rock Creek, and around Yellowstone. No surprise, it worked great. Thank you so much for the flies; only lost one, the others to be saved.

Regards,
Scott

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To amplify on the efficacy of the FEB hopper - used it over the past 6 days on upper Rock Creek, Flint Creek, Madison, Lamar, Gallatin, Ruby and Big Hole rivers, in a side-by-side comparison with some hoppers from Walt Wiese at Parks Fly Shop and my old favorites: Al Campbell’s Foam Hopper and Charlie Craven’s Charlie Boy Hopper. All were very effective, but the FEB seemed to work even when it wasn’t “hopper time”, often in the morning (maybe the fish thought it was a cricket?). Must admit it didn’t work during the evening caddis hatch on the Madison, but I won’t hold that against John (lol).

Regards,
Scott

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Great report and photo’s as always John. You have really been some places with that hopper pattern.

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what fly is that hopper pattern you are using? I’ve never tied one, and thinking about tying a few of those in the intermediate section on this site.

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Follow the link.

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?t=29639

Note post #16 in that thread for a slideshow and an outline of the tying sequence. If you don’t like the slideshow, the same pics will be shown when the fly is featured as the Fly of the Week, possibly as early as this coming Monday.

John

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great looking fly - I don’t tye much except nymph’s & streamers I’m not that good yet. this sounds like a very productive fly I need to experiment with.

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John,

Great report as usual. Congrats on the beautiful grayling. You just keep coming up with some unbelievable places to fish. Thanks for the report, keep up the fantastic work.

Beaver

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John, nice report on Red Rock, especially since that is one we are planning on fishing in September. Nice grayling!
Glenn

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Fished my home water for about five hours today. Very eventful day.

Started with Lizzie’s Stone, my latest creation which has been named in honor of and dedicated to my friend, Liz. Things were a bit slow most of the day, and it took a while before I started catching some fish on the new pattern. First fish up was a 7-8" cutthroat, pretty as all get out. After catching that fishy, I stored the first fly so I can send it to Liz later this week. Fished another specimen of the same fly for a while longer and caught another four or five cutts and bows with it. Then I lost that fly and decided to change patterns.

Over the next several hours, I fished the FEB Hopper for a good part of the time, and decided to give the FEB October Caddis a chance, also. Did best with the hopper, picking up a total of about fifteen fish with it and getting to see another eight or so fish taking a good look at it. The October Caddis took about a half dozen fish also, smaller rainbows. Even at that, maybe it should be renamed the August Caddis ??

Took one of the wettest spills I’ve had in a long time. The streambed on the Lochsa is one of the more difficult that I wade. It is a jumble of different sized rocks, and a lot of them are very round, smooth, and slick. The water is so clear that it is difficult to judge the depth from one step to the next. The new Simms River Sandals did their part, for sure, but they can’t keep a real misstep from turning into a dunking. The water was a very comfortable temperature, and cushioned the fall nicely.

Can’t say the same for the tumble I took while climbing the bank headed back to the truck. Nothing to cushion that fall, which is probably the nastiest one I have taken hiking or fishing EVER. Ended up falling backwards, hitting hard and rolling a couple times, and then slid to a stop on a downed tree trunk. Did I say that all happened very FAST ?? Wow. Like headed up the bank to checking all the moving parts in a nanosecond or two !!

Everything works just fine. Nothing broken. Nothing out of whack. Got a few scrapes and will likely have a bruise or two, but nothing to write home about. Deborah told me that I’m gonna gross out a bunch of people with the scrapes oozing blood the way they are, but I figure that is their way of cleaning out. Little neosporin and good to go !!

Yep, a very eventful day. Did I mention that I took another minor fall just a few minutes after the really nasty one ?? Don’t think I will.

John

Click on the pic for a slideshow from the eventful day.

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Hey John, hope you heal quickly, 3 falls in one day that’s a hard one to beat!
Hopefully that’s your share for the year in one trip.
All the best.
Mike.

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Congrats on still being with us John and not to worry, your new home water
will adjust to your style of wading and hiking … soon i hope !

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

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Thanks for the report John. I was on that river last week, had a great time!

Z

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John, Makes me wonder if you are using a wading staff/walking stick? I hope you are OK. Jim