Heed the Warnings!

Fourth of July weekend is now upon us and the rivers continue to rage.  The Westfork and the main stem of the Bitterroot River are both flowing over 3 times higher than normal.  There have been 2 fatalities in as many weeks; one yesterday on the Locsha River (here is the newspaper article link) http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_1b2815da-a324-11e0-acd8-001cc4c002e0.html and one on the Big Hole.  They still haven't found the body of the guy on the Big Hole.  The forecast is for temps in the mid 80's to low 90's.  There will be a huge temptation to venture out on the river.  BE SMART AND NOT A STATISTIC!!!!!

Big Brown Trout in the Bright Sun

I got a call from a client a few weeks ago wanting to fish out of a hard boat.  That was not a problem since I do own a 16' ClackaCraft drift boat (by the way her name is The Minnow).  I was concerned however that I would be relegated to fishing on the lower portion of the Bitterroot River, in late July, with bright sunny conditions.  Now don't get me wrong, the lower river can fish great, but  usually you need some cloud cover for the nice fish to look up.  I have had my ass handed to me on the lower Bitterroot on bright, sunny days.  So, needless to say, I was not very optimistic about our chances on July 27th.

As we slid Minnow in the water at 8:00 a.m., the temperature of the air was already 70 degrees with nary a cloud in sight.  Uh oh!  Our only saving grace was a couple sneaky springs I knew of in this section that could possibly make our day.  As we drifted down the river we had a few little fish looking at our flies.  We did see one VERY large brown trout go completely airborne about 3 feet.  The only thing I could think of is he was ambushing a small fish from below; much like Air Jaws off Seal Island, South Africa.  My client Ray gave a few futile casts to this behemoth.  I figured the odds of that fish eating a dry fly were slim to none, and slim had just left town.  But you just never know.  Unfortunately, this fish didn't even bother looking at Ray's fly.  After floating a couple hours and only seeing some small fish, we pulled over to hunt one of the springs.  I told Ray that these fish are pretty wary and there was little to no current.  We would need to cast to a likely spot, wait for the fish to cruise by and hopefully Ray's fly would grab the fish's attention.  As we walked into the spring there were three VERY large fish cruising and sipping a variety of PMD's (emergers, spinners & duns).  We tried every PMD in my box, which is a lot, for about 45 minutes with no success.  Every time a fish would start cruising toward his fly, something would divert it off course.  In complete frustration, I decided to unmatch the hatch and tied on a size 12 hopper.  I told Ray to cast it in and after it landed, give it a twitch.  Ray made a great cast and as soon as he twitched the hopper, it was too much for a very large brown trout to resist.  The trout opened his mouth and the hopper disappeared in a large swirl.  I didn't see Ray react at all and I yelled, "There he is, there he is!"  Ray came up with his rod and buried the hook into the fish's mouth.  I will never forget what happened next.  Feeling the pressure Ray was putting him, the fish jumped at least two feet out of the water.  It was then that Ray said, "Holy shit!"  I started laughing and said, "Yep, that is the one were were looking for Ray.  Now remember we are on 5x, so take your time."  Ray battled the large trout like a pro and about five minutes later a beautiful 22 inch brown trout was in the net.  After stealing a bit of his sole, we released him back into the spring where he still resides (see the video below).

I would like to say that the day only got better from there, but it didn't.  We walked into another spring but with no success.  By the afternoon, it was really hot.  I happened to look to the east around 2:30 and it looked like someone had dropped a nuclear bomb in the Sapphire Mountains.  It was the start of the Dominic Point fire.  This fire looked like it was going to be with us until the snow flew.  However, we have been having some unseasonably cool and wet weather, which has aided in getting that fire 90% contained.  We spent most of the afternoon finding good swimming holes to cool off and catching a few more small trout. It really is amazing though how one fish can save and/or change the face of a bad day of fishing.  Actually, there are no bad days of fishing only bad days of catching.

The Signficance of the Western Tanager.

Well I can't stand it anymore and by this weekend word will be out. For those of you that think I have lost it and I am now a bird watcher, you are partly correct. Birds will tell you a lot about fishing both on rivers and the ocean. When certain birds arrive, you must ask yourself, "Self, why are they here now?" When the swallows are filling the air on a river, have you ever stopped to wonder why? I have always told my clients, "When the birds start eating, the fish will follow." However, the arrival of the Western Tanager to the East and Westfork of the Bitterroot River means only one thing; the emergence of the mighty Salmonfly. These beautiful songbirds are ONLY here during the Salmonfly hatch. Where they go the rest of the summer, I have no idea. They are native to the Rocky Mountain West and any bird book will tell you they are present all summer. But in the 10 years I have been guiding, I have NEVER seen them after the Salmonflies are gone. The Western Tanager is actually a subspecies of the Cardinal family. The red pigment in the face of the Western Tanager is rhodoxanthin, a pigment rare in birds. It is not manufactured by the bird, as are the pigments used by the other red tanagers. Instead, it must be acquired from the diet, presumably from insects (Salmonflies) that themselves acquire the pigment from plants. A truly amazing fact is that the incubation period for the Western Tanager is only 13 days. After both parents feed the hatchlings for 11 short days, they leave the nest. However, they will stay close to the parents for a few weeks. I think the fact that they are dining on Salmonflies allows the hatchlings to grow at such an incredible rate. In early fall, they migrate south for the winter as far as Panama. I want to be a Western Tanager chasing the Salmonfly hatch and winter in Panama. What a life!

So now that I have let the bird out of the bag, yes there are Salmonflies on both the East and Westfork of the Bitterroot River. The Eastfork is fishing a little more consistent on dry flies and there are Western Tanagers from top to bottom. The Westfork is a little different story right now. The flows are coming down and it is starting to come into shape. I floated the Westfork twice late this week from Painted Rocks dam down the entire length to High Bank with identical results. There are no Western Tanagers at the dam yet. We did have some good results fishing Salmonfly nymphs for the first two plus miles. However, once I saw the first Western Tanager we switched to a dry Salmonfly. About five minutes later we were landing our first fish on a dry! It is amazing what a bird will tell you without even knowing English! There were Western Tanagers everywhere until we hit Nez Perce Creek. Right now Nez Perce is easily doubling the size of the Westfork. Not only is it increasing the volume, it is also cooling down the water 3-4 degrees. Now that may seem insignificant, but Salmonflies need the water to be at least 50 degrees to emerge as adults. The water temps below Nez Perce were 47 and guess what, no bugs. We did not see any Western Tanagers the rest of the float and did not have another fish rise to a Salmonfly. We did find a few fish willing to eat a Salmonfly nymph. It was only in the 2 mile "micro-ecosystem" did we find the tanagers and fish willing to eat a dry Salmonfly.This is all about to change as the Westfork is dropping fast. The entire length should start fishing by early to mid next week. You now know the signs to look for. I start a long stretch of guiding on Sunday and will post photos and stories when I can. Now is the time to drop everything you are doing and chase the big bug like you were a Western Tanager.

The Western Tanager's are here!

The Western Tanager's are here! That is all I am gonna say. If you don't know the significance then either call me or stop by the shop.