Hello, I wanted to make a post and tell everyone who offered me advice that I had one of the best fishing trips I've ever experienced, in Rock Creek, and other rivers in Montana. The trip actually wasn't just for fishing, but I managed to squeeze some time in on the rivers somehow. Anyway, I just returned last night. I fished the Jocko River extensively, from the Jocko Primitive Area (up behind the Missions NE of Arlee) to various locations throughout the Arlee/Dixon area, and I never once got skunked. I never caught any of the browns, but the tribal bio tells me they are moving upstream from the confluence of the Jocko/Flathead right now. I had a ball catching 8"-13" cutts almost every time my stimulator hit the water. No rattlers, either. It was weird fishing with a bear bell hanging from my vest up in the Jocko Primitive Area, but when in Rome......Actually, I was told the grizzlies are still high up in the Missions right now, although I did see one scrawny black bear and heard of two other blackies in the area that scared some campers out of a spot. I spent two nights at a high drive-to lake up in the Missions and fished this lake (Twin Lakes) from my little inflatable raft. I caught only two tiny cutts off an olive willie trolled from my raft. That night I witnessed the most incredible thunder & lightning storm I've ever seen. It went on for hours and was a "dry" storm as it only rained a total of five minutes. I learned three days after the fact that this lightning storm caused a pretty good fire just SE of the little town of Perma, where I fished in the lower Jocko two mornings ago. The hotshots and volunteers were on it, and the USFS had two choppers with water buckets taking water out of the Flathead. I got a pretty good snapshot of it.
I fished Rock Creek on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, and it was fantastic, although the fish didn't come as readily as on the Jocko. I can't be positive of the exact location, but I think I was a little more than 3/4th the way into the Creek road, and if it's about 30 miles in length I must have been around the 18 mile mark. The road is full of potholes, by the way, and if you drive a pickup/camper rig like I do you'll be driving really slowly. All the action was on dries (caddis, but an occasional pmd) and I experienced the biggest caddis hatch I've ever seen, about 8:25pm on Tuesday night. The fish went nuts and I caught a 17" brown on a Stimulator after casting to him him for about 20 minutes. It was one of those classic long casts (for me) over fast moving water to a slow deeper pool on the far bank where the fish was feeding. You're lucky if you get 3-bobs before the fast water drags your line & fly away. It was a first, as I've never caught a brown on a dry fly before. My largest was a true 20" brown I took at dusk on a huge Kauffman's stonefly. The fish was buried in a huge logjam on the river and my fly was basically "dapped" into the water from above. It was a really nice fish, but I have to say it was more fun catching the smaller brown on a great cast (or superlucky cast) during the hatch earlier in the evening. To even things out I ended up crashing right through the logjam/beaver dam riprap down into the river as I was walking off the jam after catching that big brown. My knee is still hurting and I wrenched my back. Luckily, the water was only three feet deep and there were no sharp sticks pointing upwards as I fell in. The majority of the fish I took from Rock Creek were cutts in the 10"-14" range, but I also caught a rainbow of about 12" and several large whitefish in the deeper pools..It was so hot (95 on Monday driving into the canton) that fishing hours lasted from early morning until 11:00am or so, then you kind of had to beat the heat somehow for several hours and be back on the water around 6:00pm. I was able to catch a couple of small cutts during the heat of the day on bead head pheasant tails, but that was the only time I tied on a wet fly while in Montana. One more thing - the mosquitos were really bad. It was a great river and I'll be back. I also fished the West Fork Rock Creek after driving out via Philipsburg, and heading towards the Pintler Mountains. The Pintler Mountains, by the way, are one of the most striking mountain ranges I've ever seen. Anyway, I headed up Hwy 38 into the mountains and caught some more small cutts at various locations along the W. Fork Rock Creek, then headed up the pass on this one lane gravel road to Skalkaho Pass. It's a beautiful wild area with hardly any roads that I could see, nor many trailheads. I fished the tiny creek near the top of the pass (it was either still the W. Fork Rock Creek or Daly Creek at that point - I couldn't tell which) and I caught some beautiful little mountain cutts on tiny elk hair caddis flies. I also fished Daly Creek on the descent down the west side of the range and caught some similar cutts. I then drove on down to the Hamilton area and attempted to fish the Bitterroot in various locales up Hwy 93. I have to say I was not that impressed with the Bitterroot after having come from so many beautiful rivers and creeks. I haven't been down that way in thirty years or so, and the growth and "urban" setting kind of bothers me. I ended up fishing an area north of Stevensville/Bass Creek area and didn't do well at all. To be fair about it, it was in the middle of a very hot afternoon, and I was tired from my drive, so I didn't give the Bitterroot a fair crack. It's just so different from the more wild streams I was fishing from.... Lastly, after fishing the Jocko one more time near Arlee, I headed out and kept my gear handy as I've been wanting to fish the St. Regis river for many years, but just never seem to get around to it. I fished a few miles above the town of St. Regis. It had to happen - I finally got skunked in Montana. I fished about four areas along it's course and got saw a rise nor a fish through my polarized glasses. From my previous experiences I was so cocky with dry flies that all I took were the caddis fly I had tied on and a couple more stuck in hat band, and left my fly box in the pickup. Makes me wonder if I had tied on a nymph and drifted it down some slot if I would have come up with a strike. Anyway, I saw another guy fishing a ways and I ran into an old guy in a trailer who told me he'd seen guys "pulling fish out of the river". I guess they had better luck than I. Anyway, that's my report (and I'm sticking too all of the lies). Sorry for the length of this, but I'm still a little bit excited about it. If any of you have any specific questions please send me an email and I'd be happy to help. Thanks, Cliff
