Fishing during the summer (smoke) season.
As I was planning my annual fishing trip to the Rockies, I was hearing tales of warm water, hoot owl restrictions, big forest fires and tons of smoke. I was deterred a bit at first, but I figured that there wasn’t a whole helluva lot I could do about any of it and I went anyhow.
I did bear in mind that warm water is not a good thing for our salmonid friends, so I used my thermometer often and would not fish if the water temp got too high into the 60s. I also kept to smaller streams that tended to be a LOT cooler and a lot less crowded as well. I did fish some bigger water as well, but kept an eye on the water temp and it all worked out okay in the end.
The star of the streams in Western Montana is the west slope cutthroat trout. Many were caught and here is a sampling of some of the specimens:
https://i.imgur.com/TsR0ZF8.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/HaQnPHl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/nAtrep6.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JB1NZhE.jpg
This is one of the many small streams that I fished. Very cold, tons of willing fish and I didn’t see anyone else the whole time I was fishing.
https://i.imgur.com/vvucaQO.jpg
Weekends can get crowded on many streams, so I made sure that I was way out in the sticks on the weekends, so I could avoid the masses. This river was at least 40 miles from the nearest town, the temp never got above 63 and the fishing was solid all weekend.
https://i.imgur.com/IPE9mxD.jpg
I also lucked into a nice bull trout when I was stripping a streamer in some deeper water.
https://i.imgur.com/y5bT5RS.jpg
I also saw plenty of wildlife. Most went unphotographed, but I did catch a few pictures of some of the more memorable ones.
https://i.imgur.com/rQ96jXJ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qXcJ8fb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/O3EtyZC.jpg
Yeah, the skies were kind of smoky times, but I avoided the fires and the larger streams and the hoot owl, and I did okay.
