Fly fishing the upper Bitterroot River in early June
Another gorgeous day on the Bitterroot River with John. Nice trout!
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| John Hickman fishing with Jack and Freda. |
Fishing the Bitterroot – awesome day
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| One of the cutthroat I caught, yea! |
The temperature was warmer as promised by the weather man. It got to 66 degrees, lovely afternoon with some wind sometimes, no wind sometimes..just enough to keep you tuned in to your casting skills. Bugs, yes. That is all I will say. The fish were rising, we had so much fun. John Hickman, Jack, me and our Chesapeake Bay Retriever Freda. Happy day!
Here are some photos – see the slideshow below.
Fly Fishing the Bitterroot River with John Hickman in early June
John fishes with Jack pretty regularly. John is a retired (more than once) Marine, neighbor and good friend. He is also “godfather” to our Chesapeake puppy, Freda. Yesterday we fished a stretch of the Bitterroot mainstem Jack hadn’t been down since high(est)-water. The water level was at about 3000 CFS – fairly big, but clear. John wanted Freda to come, too. In order to be safe and keep Freda in tow (or more accurately, in the boat), I got to come along as dog-sitter. I did get to catch some fish, too!
We saw a LOT of wood – new wood, the big kind with green leaves – in the river. In the slideshow you will see John play a fish and I will include some photos of Freda and new “trees” in the river.
If you are floating the Bitterroot while the water is fast, be sure to do your homework and have safety flotation devices. The hydraulics are dangerous and often difficult to predict. I didn’t take photos of the biggest rocks and obstructions because Jack made me put my camera away. Wise choice.
Along the way, we saw herons, ducks, osprey, eagles, kingfishers, Lewis’s Woopeckers and many more small birds. Those photos are for another blog entry.
We surprised a whitetail deer on a gravel bar. I loved those photos. To see them click on Merle’s Whitetail Deer photo blog.
Click here to view all Bitterroot River and fishing photos in a new window
Bitterroot River, Fly Fishing with Terry Nobles and John Hickman
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.
Bitterroot River is fishing – warming up, coming up
Well, we are having spring weather!
Two days ago it was freezing, now our lows are 36 degrees and our high for today is forecasted at 68 degrees. Currently, in the late morning it is about 50 degrees.
Warm weather will bring the bugs but it will bring down the snowpack, too. The upper river has come up close to 200 cubic feet per second (CFS) in the last two days. If we can have cool nights as forecasted, we will have an orderly, slower rise in CFS and better chances of great fishing.
Nice photo of John. Yes, he is always this happy!
Click http://www.wapiti-waters.com/stream.htm to see links to weather in the Bitterroot, USGS water data sites, and snowpack information.
