Bitterroot River, Fly Fishing with Terry Nobles and John Hickman

Bitterroot River, Fly Fishing with Terry Nobles and John Hickman

Terry Nobles - his trout from the Bitterroot River
John caught fish, but the photos are all about Terry and his fish. John is in love with our Chesapeake puppy, Freda, so Jack had to take her along. She is a bit of a handful and won’t be a fixture in the boat on guide days, only as a special request.

Terry insists on sitting in the rear seat, but with Jack rowing and Terry’s skills, he doesn’t get the short end of the rod, he catches trout, always.

Another Bitterroot River trout for Terry Nobles

It snowed today

It snowed today

Right click the photo and choose “view link in new window,” it is worth the view of the elk in the trees!Elk herd

Glacier Lily
We woke up to snow today. We were hoping for cooler weather to keep the snow in the mountains but this is a bit much. Like Jack said, “It isn’t going to flood in April this year.” The cool weather this spring will help the snow melt in an orderly fashion, if it warms up enough to actually melt!
Today we took a hike when it was the warmest, about 47 degrees. At the beginning of our hike, we saw a herd of elk. What a nice start. Then we hiked into a bit of a snow flurry. Our Chesapeake puppy, Freda
Billy Burk is coming to Montana in June

Billy Burk is coming to Montana in June

Billy Burks trout
Billy Burks elk

I am a bit behind on blogging some photos sent in by friends. Here are two photos from Billy Burk of Pueblo, CO. He is coming up to fish with his (and our) friend, Jeff in June. They are thinking they will fish on the Big Hole.

Billy’s message:
Attached are photos of a recent catch, close to home, on the Arkansas River, and Walter the Wapiti; finally mounted on the wall in our living room. He was harvested from Jeff’s Dad’s ranch in western Colorado last October. Take care and God Bless…………..Billy Burk

The Osprey that caught the fish

The Osprey that caught the fish


I am experimenting with a new photo site and wanted to embed a slideshow from SmugMug. I haven’t figured it out yet so I will post a photo of the Osprey that caught the fish (I am not sure if it was a trout or whitefish or what) and give you a link to the slideshows. I hope you like them!

Click here for 2 Osprey slideshows

One caught fish, the other did not even after a few tries.

The fish in my earlier blog DID NOT catch the fish. This photo is of a different Osprey we saw about 15 minutes later and down river. It was a really fun bird sighting day not to mention great fishing.

Bugs on the Bitterroot – Skwala and Mayfly photos

Bugs on the Bitterroot – Skwala and Mayfly photos

I forgot to mention in the earlier blog that we were Ameletus mayfly dun on the Bitterroot Riverfishing with Jack’s dry imitations of skwala and mayflies. These photos show why. We saw them on the water. The first is a photo of an Ameletus mayfly dun. It is beautiful in it’s grey color and upright profile.

The second photo is, of course, a female skwala on my wader pant leg. She stayed with us in the boat for most of the trip.

Below is a fish Jack caught while wade fishing during a mayfly hatch. I can’t tell you what fly he was using, it is too obvious.

When you fish the hatch, you will have to match the size.
female skwala on the Bitterroot River

Jack Mauer with a Bitterroot River Trout Jack also caught the brown trout in an earlier post during this hatch. AND with my camera around my neck, I caught one of the biggest fish, another brown trout, right at the end of the hatch. Now that I am learning to set my hook better, it is getting a lot more fun!

Fly Fishing on the Rise – of the Bitterroot River

Fly Fishing on the Rise – of the Bitterroot River

Merle with a big brown troutJack and I float fished the Bitterroot a few days ago. We caught fish, but it was a bit “off.” The water was slightly turbid and it seemed to be rising. Well, it was! It went up nearly 300 cubic feet per second (CFS) that day to become 2000 CFS in the middle-river. Today it looks like it will reach 4000 CFS. It is warm and they are expecting rain.
Jack Mauer caught this robust trout
We caught fish, mostly in the afternoon during a mayfly hatch and the birds were extremely active. I ended up taking about 500 photos of fish we caught, scenery of course, our puppy, flowers, Hooded Mergansers, Osprey, geese, mayfies and more. Consequently, I am really busy editing them and haven’t done a post recently. Today I will post a few teaser photos. I will do more and a slideshow as soon as I can.

Osprey dove for a fish and is coming back out of the river

Check back soon to see if this osprey comes up with a fish!

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