Montana Adventure

[mems]

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Aloha, went to Montana after baja for some trout action. This is the Westfork of the Bitterroot. It is Luke and my favorite stream to wade in the bitterroot drainage. It was higher water than normal, about 1200-1000cfcs while we were there. Salmon flies were around, and we had fun fishing the big bugs.
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This was my first fish, a nice cutbow. I had to land it myself and take the photo in the net, no hero shot. Thanks Luke!
He was busy finding his own trout
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He got a nice one up stream. My wife joined us in Montana and she had fun hooking the trout. Landing them proved more difficult.
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If you could find soft water you found fish. They liked logs and log jams.
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We fished a variety of feeder creeks as well. Black buggers worked well in the high water conditions.
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My favorite rod for these little creeks is the TFO 1/2 wt. What a fun rod! I love the colors on the westslope cutts
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We headed over to Rock Creek for a couple of days. I stopped in at Grizzly Hackle shop and met Dan Sheppard. Cool guy, we swapped stories from Christmas Island.
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My wife got into the fishing and got this little brown on a dry all by herself! Purple haze are the best dry fly to use in Montana.
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Rock Creek was high as well, but we had fun fishing for the browns and cutts. Fisherman's Mercantile is an awesome little shop and we stayed in their inexpensive cabins.
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All you need for fishing. Notice Jay's koa fly box! The Partagas is a cuban I smuggled in from Baja.
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Jay's box in action, nice brookie.
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Morning wood. Squirrel's escape route.
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Luke's last fish, a nice rainbow. I hooked three fish over 20 inches but with the high water got broken off when they went down stream. Luke would do a River Run's through it and chase them down. I just tried to get em back up stream and lost the battle. It was fun to fish trout again, and we really enjoyed the fishing, but I think I will wait for lower water conditions next time.
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I kept seeing these horses in this meadow on our way up the west fork. Last day I stopped to take their picture in a rain storm. It ended up being a fuzzy kinda of impressionist type picture. I love Montana and trout. We will be back, Mems.

[Fly Guy Dave]

Very nice! A sweet TR and trout porn. I'm glad the West Fork worked out for you. I got a few there, but I had to work WAY too hard for them. The water was still kind of high, off color, and it was really cold, which I think put the bite off a bit. I think I was on Rock Creek a couple of weeks after you and the water was quite a bit lower and it was fishing well. Sounds like a great trip. Montana is a wonderful place, no doubt.

Cheers!

--F.G. Dave

[jbird]

Fantastic Don! What a trip you had between Baja with trophy pez gallo and Montana's nice trout! It would seem youre the king of making lemonade from lemons! you posted the best Baja report Ive seen this summer (A positive attitude goes a long way!) And came out smiling despite hi rivers in Montana. Bravo amigo!

would you mind if I post your pictures with the fly boxes on my facebook page? ;)

Jay

[mems]

Na no problemo. Sorry I didn't have more shots of the box. I didn't want to let it drift down stream.

[Mark Kranhold]

Nice report Don! What great summer fun you are having fishing from one extreme to the other. Family and fishing , what more could you ask for! Thanks for sharing the beautiful photos.

[SeanO]

Good looking fish and water there!

Did you hook any bull trout?

[mems]

Yeah Luke and I both caught a couple of small bulls. They look a lot like the brookies, but have that rounded head. Very aggressive fish. I will look for a picture of one for you, Mems

[EricO]

Ah yes, that's the report I was looking
for Don! Great stuff and one kick ass
report!!!

EO

[Randy Lee]

Love Rock Creek. The box canyon effect in some places makes for some intimate fly fishing. Can be a bit intimidating in a lightening storm though. The shot on the log looks as if your son was going to bust in to some "Shadow Casting". Great presentation. Thanks for sharing.
Randy

[steveg137]

Lovely report thanks for sharing