Montana Fishing Report

[Fly Guy Dave]

I just got back from my annual(ish) trip to the Rockies and I had a GREAT time! If you’ve noticed from previous fishing reports, I’m pretty vague about the waters that I fish (for good reason, in my opinion) but I will break a custom, because some of the streams that I am going to mention are in NO WAY secret spots, and are well known to anglers all over the globe.

First stop: the Madison River. The water was higher than usual, but still quite fishable. I got there right at the end of the salmon fly hatch, so the crowds thinned out a lot and the caddis started to pop right about the day I got there.

A nice Madison River caddis hatch at dusk…

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/dderuysscher/MadisonCaddishatch.jpg


…leads to nice rainbows (and browns) that smash your fly and then take of into the strong current once they feel the hook. Here’s one that didn’t get away:

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/dderuysscher/Madisonrainbow.jpg

I spent several days there, also sampling some smaller (and yes, nameless) streams in the vicinity. My best fish story of the trip was on one of these small streams, when I cast Dave B.’s “Big Ugly” streamer into a nice hole and came up with a nice 14” Arctic Grayling

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/dderuysscher/Grayling.jpg

Pretty cool, but on the next cast (with the same fly) I caught this thick 22” Yellowstone Cutt. It pretty much blew my mind. I know that the Big Ugly works well for Cutts, but I guess grayling like it too. Thanks, Dave!

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/dderuysscher/BigCutt.jpg

Now before I get any guff for laying these fish on the soft, muddy bank to take their photo, I want to let you know I played these fish into the net really fast, took a quick pic and both fish swam off quickly and STRONG when I released them. I think some of you might know how difficult it is to take a decent picture when you’re fishing solo, and I don’t normally do such things, so just relax… :p

I explored another local stream, this one just inside the park, but I didn’t even get a bump from any fish at all. However, I did find this relatively fresh pile of bear scat when I was a ways off of the trail, checking out the creek. For perspective, my can of bear spray is 8.5 inches long, so this was a pretty decent sized bear, but I (fortunately) didn’t encounter it in person.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/dderuysscher/BearScat.jpg

I eventually migrated west to Rock Creek and fished some of my favorite spots there for nice rainbows, WS cutts, and browns, like this one:

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/dderuysscher/Brownie.jpg

Ya gotta love Rock Creek!

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/dderuysscher/RockCreek.jpg

I also fished a lesser-known stream further west that I had neglected in the past, but I spent one day there and saw how really good it was, so I stayed a few more days. A typical WS cutt from the ________ River:

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/dderuysscher/WSCutt.jpg

On my way home, I stopped off in Nevada to catch a few tiger trout from a remote stream, as well as a few hatchery rainbows.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/dderuysscher/TigerTrout.jpg

A beautiful eastern Nevada sunrise on the way home.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/dderuysscher/NVSunrise.jpg

Good times!

--Fly Guy Dave

[NCL]

Dave,

I always enjoy reading your reports and the photos are exceptional as usual.

[EricO]

Right on Dave....superb report and pics.

That's a pretty nice size grayling compared to other pics I've seen. How did it fight? I've heard they aren't so great on that front.

Thanks for sharing....good stuff.

Eric

[Fly Guy Dave]

Hey Eric-

Actually, this grayling did put up a decent fight, I thought it was a trout at first, until I saw it's big dorsal fin. The water on this stream was still pretty off color, so I was using heavier than normal tippet and I was able to get him to the net quickly, so a good tussle, yes, but I didn't want it to last very long.

--Dave

[EricO]

They sure do look pretty with the purple-ish coloring and that huge dorsal fin.

Quite a variety of fish you caught....the pattern on that tiger trout is cool!