Sunday Morning Steelhead

As the guiding season is winding down, and I am getting my fill of Montana trout, I get an itch that just needs to be scratched. It starts as just a thought while rowing my boat down the river in late summer, but by the first bitter cold days of October I have a nagging urge to drive hundreds of miles to stand waist deep in rivers casting to fish I may not see for weeks at a time. Maddening yes, but once you get the first steelhead grab of the season, they have you hook, line, and sinker.

 

Steelhead are a fish like no other, running hundreds of miles upstream from the pacific, past predators and dams, in their quest to reach the spawning grounds. Beginning in late summer, steelhead migrate out of the pacific moving through rivers like silver ghosts, slipping up fast riffles and resting in slow tail-outs. Some days they chase and eat flies with reckless abandon, while other days you can't buy a bite. O the joys of fishing for steelhead.

It is hard to beat working a good steelhead run. Cast and step, cast and step, repeating till you hit the end of the run. Often times it takes an hour plus to hit every little bucket and sweet spot, allowing you to be in tune with the water as you slowly swing away. When your fly drops into the prime buckets you can feel the line almost come alive, dancing with the hydraulics of the river. You hold your breath when you hit those sweet spots, hoping that your fly's swing is interrupted by the pull of big wild steel.

As we are leaving the grips of the first major winter storm of the season I am getting pumped for another steelhead trip this coming week. New flies are tied, the truck is filled to the brim with camping gear, and food is prepped. This time tomorrow I will be off to Washington in search of new water and hopefully some steel. 

Can a Brother Get a Brown?

Another gorgeous week of fall fishing in western Montana. Winter may be right around the corner but your wouldn't know that from the weather recently: Cold snaps yes but generally super pleasant conditions for this our closing month of Bitterroot trout fishing. Afternoon hatches of Mahoganies and BWO's are keeping the fish consistently on the feed while the big boys are staking out territory for the spawn. Once the weather finally takes a turn to winter we'll break out the 9-weights and start looking for a Steelhead or two. November anyone?

Around these parts it has been lights-out knock-down drag-out fishing for the normally elusive Salmon trutta, aka Bronw trout, aka "man in the brown suit", aka Andre3000. That last one is not actually a euphemism for brown trout but when a big one finally engulfs my streamer i am liable to yell just about anything, such as"Geronimo!" or  "F*ck yeah randy!". Enthusiasm and persistence are good traits for any kind of fishing but especially so for the intermittent action you get from big browns: Some runs have em', most runs do not, and by golly i'm going to cast to every single one of them. Add a little bit of non-trout wildlife and you have yourself a postcard Montana autumn day.

Power eagles

Powereagle!

Snowing 

October Missouri Trout Camp USA

Of all the rivers in Montana that i have fished, the one i daydream about by far the most is the Missouri. With its outstanding numbers of large fish, phenomenally dense hatches, technical angling conditions, and a lifetime of fishy water to explore, i never tire of fishing here. It was only natural then that our end-of-season / back-to-back birthday blowout party should be held here: Fly, walk, float or drive to Craig MT. cause thats where the party is.

With hot flies in hand from  Headhunters  we set out for 5 days in trout fishing mecca. From Holter dam all the way to Cascade we fished it all, every fishy riffle and run worked to the best of our addled abilities. The fishing was sometimes methodical sometimes absentminded: You can only keep your serious game-face on for the first several miles of insanely perfect trout water, after that things start to look the same and you find yourself miles from the takeout and its getting dark fast. Things at this point can get sloppy. Very sloppy. Like "looking for rafts midnight boat rodeo style with headlights" sloppy. A story for another time. . . .

Other Man In The Brown Suit

We experienced the whole range of fishing conditions over this past week. We had snow so thick you could not see your fly period, let alone figure out when a fish finally got around to slurping it. We had blue-bird clear skies and WIND like only the Mo' can deliver. Gotta love the W coming in strong and making the fly flicking a gordian ordeal. There were also periods of calm with light snow in which the river fished better than any of us had ever seen. A whole run worth of fish all deciding to feed at the same time? Special stuff. More evidence to suggest that you should only bother fishing when the weather is damm near inclement: If i'm not wadered up with gortex on top whats the point of going out at all!  We gave the Mo' all it could handle this trip and we will definitely be back again next year. I hope that next years stories turn out just a little bit milder. Mahalo.

Red White & Blue All The Time

BRG Post and Streamer Thoughts

Bitterroot River Guides blog getting some new material up today, good stories and pictures from the past month or so of Montana trout fishing. Time flies when you are out on the water everyday, it can take awhile to get the pictures off the ol' camera and edited into flyfishing gold. Check it out here!

Bitterroot River Guides Post: Team Meadowburke




Streamer Thoughts:

Chris, Jed, and I are all major fans of throwing the big ugly bugs. This is not a secret and should surprise very few people.  Many a day I have to commit to flicking the dry flies with the thought of thundering streamer hits luring me back to the dark side. All it takes is one big subsurface fish to keep me throwing the junk and only one tiny little baby Cutthroat on a hopper to make me GO BACK to throwing the junk. Despite this blatant prejudice in favor of streamers there are some variables that complicate the decision somewhat. What Are They???

Fooled by the Bugger

Weather:  "Can't fish streamers today, too sunny". I have heard this sentiment many times on the river over the years and . . . . .. Well some hunches turn out to be largely true. Trout are definitely less inclined to chase / hunt / annihilate other fishes while x-rayed by direct sunlight. Not such great conditions for a predator fish to sneak up on unsuspecting prey, huh? This does not mean, however, that they will not chase the bugger at all. Patterns tied in subtler shades (brown, dark brown, brownish green, seafoam brown, Wood, Habenero, Pesto, and Hot Cucumber are good ones) can get the bright day bite where the flashy Krylex doesn't get a look. Sometimes backing off the flash is all it takes to convince the fish they are sneaky predators regardless of sunshine.

Season: While many streamer enthusiasts consider Fall to be the golden season for fishing the big bug it is hardly the exclusive season for the streamer. The Browns are definitely more active this time of year and have their feeding patterns set on 'kill' but what about the same fish two months ago? Is he just going to let that sculpin pattern limp feebly past his logjam unscathed? Probably not a chance under high heaven. And what about those voracious Rainbows in the riffle corners? Damm straight they are up there FEEDING and whether its a grasshopper or a sparkle minnow makes no difference. Strip strip strip BOOM!

Hatches: Far more important than time of year, in my experience, is the presence of some kind of heavy aquatic insect hatch. A great Spruce moth hatch, flotillas of Green Drakes, or active Goldenstones will attract the trouts attention so much that they will largely ignore even the best presented minnow pattern. Can't really blame the fish for this acute pea-brained decision: With so much helpless pasta n meatballs floating on the surface its not worth the effort to chase down and kill able-bodied fishes. While this happens infrequently it is not something for us dirt-dredgers to resent: Fishing dry flies to rising trout is what got us into flyfishing in the first place, dammit! Get rid of that yellow gummy and the fast sink line and go pick some heads out of a pod! Do it!

Fooled by the Dry

A-T

Autumn River Notes

Well its about gosh dang time: After a long hot summer the changing colors of the cottonwoods are finally marking the beginning of Autumn. Whats not to love about fly fishing in the fall? The changing colors , the cooler temperatures , fewer folks to share the river with, and plenty of big fish making the most of their last chance at easy pickins. Whether flicking dry flies during the wee morning hours or stripping the big silver foxes at dusk the trout fishing is as good as it gets. Warmer rivers like the Clark Fork really come into their own with active fish and strong hatches, while ice cold headwaters of the Bitterroot get a rest from boat traffic and the lower stretches come alive. Lots of days left before steelhead season drags us away from the trout water, just enough to find the fish of the year maybe?

Labor Day BBQ & Review

Fall is right around the corner in western MT. these days: Mornings are crisp enough to warrant the hoody and make the need for waders a real possibility. That means Labor Day BBQ and the end of summer, a chance to reminisce (briefly) on a summer worth of trout hunting and set the sights on the flyfishing bonanza that is Autumn.

Lots to look forward to in the closing season all around the state, like knock-down-drag-out streamer fishing on the Big Hole, pods of hungry Rainbows chugging BWO's on the Missouri, and explosive October Caddis eats on the Bitterroot. And you can't forget the two weeks of steelhead trips and hunting for elk around every mountain in the state. We have the recipe for another extremely busy month and its totally worth it: Gotta get as much outdoor time as possible before winter hits and its back to the great indoors and restocking the fly boxes for next year. Until then, wader-up and streamer on!

"in heaven there ain't no beer, gotta drink it here"