The Montana Marauders: Two Bamboo Rods At The Trout Petting Zoo

It's always hard to pick out any specific day of trout fishing from a gruelingly long guide season. As present and aware as we are to be able to get the rod bent everyday the individual fish seem to get lost somewhere in the mix. The rocks are the same day to day, the flies patterns change with the slow seasonal cycle of weather and water conditions, and the trout. . . . . .. well the trout start to look the same. There I said it. Maybe it IS the same fish day after day after day after all! I have no idea after mid July: Not enough data storage under the ol' straw hat to keep all the trout straight. And I have a pretty steel-trap-esque mind for fish and angling moments and it still gets a little worse every season. That is generally the trend, that is the general rule. Rules that usually hold water until, until something changes . . . ..

The river comes alive with bugs. The fish materialize behind every rock stick and shelf to chase them down. A dreary day in the canyon is transformed into a shooting gallery of large trout or as my boys from last week termed it "a dam petting zoo full of trout". How good does it need to be to make two 30+ year fly fishermen start yelling like that?? Very, very good. When client and guide are both throwing hands up praising the river god like this it is a special day indeed.

BLUE MOON INTERLUDE

Needless to say the last four days will be etched into my mind for a very long time. A specific hole on the upper river produced for us some of the best angling moments I have seen in my last 10 years of stalking Montana rivers. Quality fish is what its all about in situations like this, sometimes you land em' and sometimes you don't. Maybe even get a second shot at a giant Brown. Seeing is believing some days and the trout lately have made believers of us all. I was just glad to have hit such good fishing with a couple of my favorite summer visitors to the Bitterroot. Always fun time with this motley crew but this was a trip that we will be talking about for years to come.