Fly Fishing the Big Hole River with Joe
Joe and Jack spent a few days on the Big Hole River. Jack loves guiding this river in August. It is a nice time to be in that high, lovely valley.
All the photos were from Joe’s camera.
Fly Fishing the Blackfoot River with Nick and Jack
Nick Stipech is a talented Missoula area guide and Jack loves working with him. We all had an open day so we fished the lower Blackfoot River on Friday. Fishing with guides is the best way to really know their strengths and match them up well with clients.
Our day started out nice, but we got a big rain and wind storm about noon and had some rain, wind and clouds through out the rest of the day. We caught fish on dry flies and streamers. Our faithful companions Freda and Flicka came along. We used Nick’s RO Drift boat, had plenty of room and skimmed over most of the rocks.
The slideshow below shows the trip and some of the features of the lower Blackfoot. It is beautiful!
Fly Fishing the lower Blackfoot River with John
Yesterday Jack fished the lower Blackfoot River with John. The fishing was very good and of course the BIG ONE got away. There are rocks to dodge so photo taking wasn’t Jack’s priority but here is one of John’s trout in a photo. I could adjust the color but I didn’t. The reflection from the sunny day on the water makes the fish glow.
John loves our Cheasapeake puppy, Freda. You can see her nose in the lower right of the photo.
It is raining again today, off and on, and probably will be raining tomorrow. The weather is beautiful for August. The rivers are recharging, the foliage is still green, and if you know where to go, the fishing is great.
Jack is fishing the Bitterroot today. Even though it isn’t the best fishing because of the recent surge and some turbidity, the clients chose to do a stretch on the middle Bitterroot. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some photos and a report on the fishing there.
Big Montana Rain Storm in August
This summer has been busy and the fishing has been great. One nice thing is that we haven’t had many wildfires so the air quality is very clear. I am enjoying that! Our rivers levels have been ample though in late July, the water temperatures were creeping up. But now, we have had cooling rain, a little too much rain as the river has been running a bit muddy from run-off sediment.
This last week we had a pacific and a canadian weather system collide over our big sky and it dumped record breaking rain amounts. The Bitterroot and Big Hole doubled their water levels. The fishing hasn’t been very good except on the Blackfoot River. It fished well yesterday.
I am posting a few photos taken at Victor Crossing on the Bitterroot a few days ago to give you an idea of what our river looks like right now. As the storm passes and the sun comes out, the river should clear and the trout will be hungry.
To see graphs and other information from the USGS site click Wapiti Waters Stream Flow Links.
Fly Fishing the Blackfoot River with Alan and Carol
Carol from Milwaukee and Alan from Big Fork and CA fished the Blackfoot River with Jack on Wednesday. They started early so they could beat the heat and I think it paid off. Looks like the catching was good. I know the scenery was.
Fly Fishing the Big Hole River with Doug and Jack
Doug Nation and Jack Saunders fished the Big Hole River with Jack on Monday. They didn’t get photos of the biggest fish Doug caught or of Jack Saunders’ fish, darn it. But they all had a great day of fishing and catching.
All three, Doug Nation, Jack Saunders and Jack Mauer are past-Presidents and active members of the Bitterroot Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Doug is currently Chairman of Montana Council of Trout Unlimited.
Click this Montana Trout Unlimited Newsletter link for the newest newsletter online.
To read about Montana Trout Unlimited see the website http://www.montanatu.org./
To read more about Bitterroot Trout Unlimited see the website http://www.brtu.org/
