An Angling Exposition: 3 Days of Laughs & Fish

Well it wasn't quite the hedonism of Woodstock but I had a great three days of guiding Alan Farris and Les Vance on the Bitterroot River. Alan had called me two weeks ago to inquire about fishing and the possibility of being guided for three days. He was quite concerned about weather conditions for the time period he would be here. At that time, the weathermen were calling for fairly nasty conditions. I told him that I don't believe what the weathermen call for in 24 hours, let alone a week out. How is it that we have some of the most sophisticated radar/weather models in the world but when you go on three different weather websites you get three different predictions for today's weather? I wish I had a job where I could be right 15% of the time. I have found that if I take all three predictions, put them in a hat and maybe the one I draw will be today's weather. I figure those are 33% odds, far better than 15%! Anyway, I told him that I am not God but I think the fishing should be good. So wouldn't you know it on Saturday morning I woke up to a half inch of snow on my boat and it had the look of not stopping. Fortunately, by the time Alan & Les arrived the snow stopped falling had melted off my boat. For the first day, I picked a stretch on the upper river that had been fishing really well. By the time we got to the boat ramp and geared up the sun was out and the air was warming. Alan gave a hopeful look as he viewed the early spring sun. I told him do not get fooled but hope for the best and be prepared for the worst. After all, it is spring time in Montana and we could see all four seasons of weather on days like these, which ended up being the case. The fishing started off pretty slow due to the fact that the cold overnights had dropped the water temps to 38 degrees. I kept a watchful eye on the thermometer and told the boys that as soon as the water temps creep up in the 40's we should start seeing some activity. When the water temp finally did creep up, as if on cue, the fish started looking up. Thank God I am not a weatherman! Alan started off the day hot and ended the day with the hot hand on the boat. Although the fishing wasn't truly on fire, due to the fact that we had to deal some nasty winds for most of the afternoon, we still had some good fishing.

The following day, Easter Sunday, we were greeted by some lingering cold overnight temperatures, it was 24 degrees when I started my truck at 7:30 a.m. Needless to say, the fishing was less than stellar in the morning hours, the fish would even eat a double nymph rig fished deep. I suggested we stop on a riffle, where four days prior I got into some REALLY good mayfly shooting, to eat an early lunch. My intent was two-fold; 1) I wanted to get lunch out of the way earlier than normal so we were not eating when it started to fish & 2) I didn't want to go by this particular riffle complex before the mayflies started to pop. Being that Alan is from Texas and he left 85 degree weather to fish in some beautiful Montana spring weather, I figured I would start a fire before I cooked lunch. As I was building my little tee pee of kindling I was informed that I was in the presence of not one but two Eagle Scouts. Holy crap! Not only was I expected to find fish for these boys, but I sure as hell better not screw up building a fire. Once again, thank God I am not a weatherman! I told them I had a old Indian trick to lighting fires on the river bank-Uncle Joe's Firestarter (this is flammable gel akin to napalm). Within minutes the boys were sitting around a nice campfire thawing with a warm cup off coffee in hand. Meanwhile, I fired up my bar-b-que and placed a large side of Steelhead on the grill. As we dined on probably one of the best Steelhead fillets I have ever eaten, we were joined by subtle noses poking up for mayfly emergers below the riffle. By the time we had all the lunch gear packed back in the boat, the fish below the riffle were feeding with reckless abandon on a variety of Ameletus, Baetis and Skwalas. We camped out on the riffle for over an hour a caught several trout on a variety of mayfly adult and cripple patterns as well as a few on Skwalas. As our short mayfly window (only about an hour) began to close, we shoved off and headed downstream. We had a very good afternoon and evening of fishing with the last couple of hours dominated by a local pattern called Freddy. John Foust is the inventor of Freddy and this fly ALWAYS produces in the fading evening light. Alan learned this when, about a 1/2 mile from the takeout, a large brown absolutely crushed Freddy. As the large brown jumped the second time, he winked his steely eye at Alan as he spat Freddy out of his mouth. I looked up at Alan laughed and said, "That brownie just kicked your ass!" (Sound familiar?) Alan laughing said, "I like that Freddy guy." Yep, Freddy is the man!

I pulled out of my driveway on day three with big expectations; simply because it was a Monday (no crowd issue although we hadn't seen much in the way of boat traffic all weekend), the overnight temps were warmer than they had been in weeks and the forecast called for clouds, light and variable winds and warm temps (but you know those weathermen!). I decided on the lower river thinking that if the weathermen we right for once, we would have some incredible mayfly activity. Also the fish on the lower river are a bit larger but only like to play when there is cloud cover. We drifted through the first few banks with no response. However, not much further down Alan was floating through the heart of darkness when all of a sudden the water erupted. After a valiant battle, an 18 inch absolutely beautiful, heavy spotted rainbow came to the net. We cycled through the bank a few more times and both Alan & Les missed a fish apiece. No worries, it was game on! As we came into the next bank both Alan & Les commented that it was probably the prettiest looking piece of water they had seen so far. Keep in mind, at this point we had covered approximately 23 miles of river in the last three days. This should give you an idea of just how sexy this bank looks. We must have recycled this bank six times with either one or both the boys getting eats. As we oared back up on the last time through, both Les & I saw a nice trout eat tight to the bank and under an overhanging dogwood. On or way back down Les put a shot perfectly just above where we saw the fish eat. As we both watched the bug slide past, I think we were both holding our breath in expectation of the take. But for some odd reason the fish didn't come out to play. I immediately told Les to reload a little higher and tighter to the bank. The fly hadn't made it five feet before disappearing in a vacuum swirl. A few minutes later and after a few hard runs a bright 17 inch brown trout was in the net. Sweet, the first brownie of the day! From there the day just got better and better. To top it off, the mayfly activity that I was hoping for materialized in a big way. We came into the first pod of fish that were absolutely chowing. At first glace, I thought they were dining exclusively on the hundreds of both Baetis and Ameletus floating down the river. So I immediately anchored and switched over to a mayfly imitation. After I had the boys re-rigged, I really started watching the bigger fish in the pod and couldn't help but notice that it would eat a small Baetis, then a bigger Ameletus and then follow it up with a Skwala eat. After exercising a few fish on mayflies we went back to the Skwala. Why fish a #18 when you can fish a #10 with the same results. I had Alan cast a Skwala to a very large mouth that was feeding with reckless abandon. This fish was a little tough to get to because it was on an inside bend of a recirculating current. However, Alan's first cast was money. I told him to give the Skwala a little twitch and instantly a mouth the size of Texas was open and before it could close, the fly came shooting back at us. Alan and Les had a big laugh as I pulled my hat over my eyes and shed a small tear. We gave the fish a few more tries but those big boys don't get big for a reason and almost never give you a second chance. Along the next bank I had the boys play a classic Bitterroot River cobble run. At the tail end, it was as if I had paid two large fish to simultaneously eat both Skwalas. In the end, Les played and landed yet another beautiful 18 inch brown trout. After stealing his soul we released him back to the river.

We recycled yet another bank for more than an hour, which had the most Skwalas I have ever seen on the water at one time in my 11 years of fishing this river. I asked the boys if they were ready for lunch. After all, it had to be at least 2:30 or 3:00. Alan informed me that it was 5:15. No freaking way! Both Alan and Les said, "The fishing is so good, we don't need a full lunch. Let's just have some crackers, cheese and bread and get back to fishing." I said, “Great because I have a real treat for you guys just a little down river.” If we were going to hit this sneaky little channel I had in mind, we were going to have to get going. Hell, we were only two-thirds of the way through the float. I parked the boat further down grabbed my camera, some flies and my net. We had to hike about 800 yards to get to this channel that you cannot get to by boat and usually is loaded with big fish. On the first run a football shaped 16 inch rainbow exploded on Les' fly. On the next run down Alan caught one about the same size. Don't get me wrong these are nice fish but not exactly what I was expecting. This channel is really small and about as technical as the Bitterroot gets. As we were walking around I told the boys to be very careful where they step because this place was loaded with redds. If you are walking side channels this time of the year please be mindful of these spawning beds. Those are our future trout and you cannot mistake the clean, circular gravel beds where a trout has spawned. Please give these redds a wide berth. As we were headed back up the channel, Les noticed a large swirl at the bottom end of some really still water. I said give it a shot. Les commented that the fish was probably cruising but what the hell. Les peeled off some line and his Skwala landed about ten feet from the bottom of the run. As he mended his line, the bug twitched. As soon as the bug moved, a wake formed and came charging toward his fly. It took nerves of steel not to pull the fly away as a VERY large mouth could be seen breaking the surface. As the fish turned down, Les pulled up and with that we both let out a war cry. The fish exploded as the fly sunk into its mouth. It did its damnedest to shake free but Les played him perfectly. As the fish came to the net we both saw that it was a very large male brown trout; the fish measured a good 21-21.5 inches and healthy. As we walked back to the boat full of adrenaline, Les said, "If I would have missed that fish, I would not have been able to sleep tonight." I told him, "Shit, if you would have missed that fish you would be sleeping here tonight!" After we left the channel we had probably 10 more ops (eats). The fishing had slowed a little and ended as the light faded from the sky. Unfortunately, I had to row out for the last half hour in almost complete darkness. This was probably the best day of fishing I have seen on the Bitterroot River so far during the Skwala hatch. There were more bugs on the water than I have EVER seen and there were lots of big noses coming up. I was glad I could spend it with two great guys. Thank you again Alan & Les I really enjoyed fishing with you and I look forward to our next adventure.