Last Friday I returned from a week long trip to Western Montana near
Hamiliton and Missoula. Having just bought a new 3 wt, I intentionally
stayed away from some of the larger, more well known rivers to concentrate
on smaller creeks and streams with viable fish populations (which are not
hard to find in Montana). Upon arriving the first night, I had planned to
hike in the 6+ plus miles to fish the upper section of Rattlesnake Creek,
but poor weather caused a delay in my plans. There was a huge storm which
dumped a lot of rain on the area so I decided to stay close to Missoula and
fish Rock Creek (which was one of the few fishable places due to the
weather). I was with a couple other friends of mine and we fared alright in
spite of high water flows which forced us to fish the edges of the stream.
There were a few green drakes coming off along with what appeared to be some
pmd's, but the fish were not looking up. We encountered no risiing fish at
all during the 4-5 hrs we fished Rock Creek. All three of us nymphed
exclusively throughout the afternoon using a variety of mayfly and stonefly
imitations. We were told at the fly shop along the creek that a fly called
the "Catpuke" (salmon fly imitation) was the hottest fly as of late, but
between the three of us I was the only one to catch a fish on that pattern.
There really was no "hot pattern" as I must of caught fish on at least 6
different patterns. There was a brief period when a fair number of pmd's
began appearing on the water and fishing a small size 18 Mercer pmd nymph
took the largest number of fish and the two biggest fish of the day (both
rainbows 15-16 inches). Most of the fish caught were browns, along with a
few cutthroat and rainbows. It was not a great day numbers wise but I
hooked up 10-12 times and my buddies fared about the same. Considering the
weather conditions, we were happy to be fishing at all.
The following morning we woke up to sun and blue sky so we hiked in to
Rattlesnake Creek. The hike itself is fairly easy (mostly flat with only a
few uphill sections to walk) and took us a little over 2 hrs to hike the 6.5
miles. The most difficult aspect of the hike was carrying in our heavy
backpacks which contained all our camping and fishing gear. Once we reached
the point where we could legally fish, we had to seek out fishable water
which was not easy as the water was running pretty high and fast. Under
normal summer conditions, this creek would have lots of great water to fish,
but on this day that was not the case. We did manage to find a few spots to
fish and all of us caught some nice cutthroat trout, with the largest
running about 16 inches. Like on Rock Creek, all of us nymphed with the
exception of my friend who for all of about 20 minutes fished a stimulator
on top and took the largest fish of the day on that pattern. I would do
this trip again in a heartbeat, but I would go later in the summer when
flows are down and the creek is easier to fish. Nevertheless, it is quite
stunning country and well worth the hike in to experience such beauty.
The following morning (Sunday) we hiked out and my friends left to head back
to the Spokane area. I decided to head north of Missoula and fish out of
Ovando. Just in case that the small creek I fished there is one that should
not be mentioned in such a forum, I will keep the name of this creek to
myself (however, if anyone is interested to know I will be glad to tell you
if you email me at my personal address). The fishing on this little creek
was not fantastic in terms of numbers (at least not for me), but I (to my
surprise) caught some large fish that I was not expecting to catch. The
weather was warm both days I fished the creek, but water temps were still
pretty cold. I did notice some little yellow stoneflies coming off during
the afternoon hours, and even encounted a brief 15-20 minute period on one
stretch of the creek where a few fish began rising, but other than that,
there was no surface feeding that I noticed (I hooked a fish on a 14 yellow
sally dry fly but failed to land him). Consequently, I nymphed most of the
time using a two fly setup. I did not catch a lot of fish, and the fish I
landed were all 17 inches or better (which suprised me considering that this
section of the creek is supposedly loaded with fish in the 8-12 inch range).
The most productive fly was a size 12 or 14 bh hare and copper nymph.
This pattern took the largest fish of my entire a trip, a 21-22 inch rainbow
that I caught under a large log near the tail out of a deep pool. The other
fish landed (with the exception of some whitefish) were all cutthroats
between 17-20 inches (four to be exact). My guess is these fish were late
spawners that moved in from the main river or had spawned earlier and stayed
in the creek. I had a another very large fish break me off before I could
get a look at it.
On Tuesday morning I headed south towards Hamilton to fish some tributaries
of the Bitteroot. The most productive place I fished was the E. Fork of the
Bitteroot River. I was fortuntate to encounter a fairly large hatch of
golden stoneflies coming off along with some of the smaller yellow sally
stones (and even an ocassional salmon fly, but according to the guys working
in the shops there this hatch was about done). It was cool to see these
large bugs fall off branches and float along the bank for long distances or
see them clumsily hit the water and not be able to fly away. The only
problem was the fished were not keyed in to them. With a couple of
excpeptions, these bugs would float down the river untouched. I did take
one nice cutthroat on a large (size 6) salmonfly dry, but all other attempts
to catch a fish on dry went for naught (to be fair, I did not spend too much
time fishing dries as the fish were slamming golden stone nymphs all day
long). I should have experimented more, but I never needed to change flies
throughout the day as a size 10 or 12 golden stone nymph pattern (this
particular pattern you can pick up at Hill's discount flies, which I do not
intend as a plug mind you..) stayed hot all day long. In 6-7 hours of
fishing, I hooked over 30 fish with many more missed strikes. Most of the
fish were cutthroats between 10-14 inches, but the highlight of the day was
catching a legitimate 20 inch cutthroat and then two casts later catching
one that went about 18 inches. On the lower section of the river I did take
a brown trout that was about 13 inches along with a few smaller rainbows.
Again, the river was high and one needed to work to find good water, but
when you did, the fish were very responsive. Even better was I never
encountered another fisherman the entire day.
I did fish another small creek that offered some terrific fishing for me and
my dad, who met me for the final three days of my trip. Again, I will
refrain from mentioning it here but if anyone is interested in details, I
would be glad to share them with you offline. The cutts in this creek were
some of the most beautiful I have seen. Their colors were so exaggerated
and vibrant, much more so that those cutts I caught on the East Fork. These
fish were smaller, with most being in the 8-10 inch range. However, we had
some great dry fly action using golden stone imitations. My dad, who has
not been fly fishing long, must have hooked close to 20 fish in three hours
or so of fishing.
All in all, it was a great trip considering flows were up and less than
ideal. The weather cooperated and I never encountered a lot of other
people. Besides, anytime one gets to fish with his father is priceless, even
if no fish are caught that day.
