Saturday, August 27:
Up at 7AM to the smell of more good coffee. Three deer walking thru the yard this morning.
Alien Deer Invade Libby!!
Morphing, Fuzzy Deer in Yard
TV reports Hurricane Katrina slams New Orleans. Bad, really Bad! Also Boeing IAM union looks like they’ll go on strike. Only of interest since AM & AB are Boeing employees, AB being retired. AM asked Tim about a good place for breakfast in Libby, he suggested the Libby Café. (Mineral Ave, Libby, MT 59923, (406) 293-3523)
We were up and out at 10:25 (we’re not exactly early birds, are we?) Breakfast at the Libby Café was great. Pancake Special included 4several types of pancakes & flapjacks (a crepe type pancake) all of which were huge; potato, wild huckleberry, & regular. JR and AM had Chicken Fired Steaks which were also humongous (and good!). AB had the steak with eggs over easy – he decided on a "sensible" breakfast – enough for family of three porbably according to USDA guidelines! All the servings were great! The Libby Café is also the home of Montana Muffins, great muffins & cinnamon rolls available on line at: http://www.montanamuffins.com/ Gas prices have risen so quickly that the Libby Café had added a 10% surcharge to all menu items to cover increased prices for the food products they use (fuel was up 19% and the goods they had buy was up an average of 27%). The price impact was so rapid that they hadn’t had time to reprint their menus with new prices.
One of the great opportunities on trips like these is to see the world from a slightly different lens than we might normally use. In this case, the menu had advertisements for local businesses – always a good place to see what is going on in a community. The one that has stuck with me is the advertisment for a local sole proprieter (I presume) gunsmithing company – RAH Gunsmithing whose business is called "The Troubled Shooter" – certainly not a business name that would endear you to our more urban citizens!! Of course, the advertisement did mention that he was Glock Trained – Wow. On the other hand, I believe the owner to be a vet (Marines) since he signs off on his web page with "Semper Fi". His website is http://rahgunsmithing.com/ .
As we wandered through the old town of Libby, we noticed a fair number of empty storefronts. The area is clean but it is obviously losing its vibrancy. This is in contrast to the strips of shops and neon signs back by the highway going through Libby which is where the new ventures and larger stores have chosen for their sites.
12:00, dropped GK at the library to use the computer (needed a fix of one of those "sites" on the web?) while the rest of the Gang went to Tom Blackburn’s Kootenai River Angler Fly Shop. More general information on the area and a few local flies were added to our fly boxes. A couple of fellows were signing up for a guided trip the next day when we there. Picked up a brochure on the nutrient restoration on the Kooetnai River. Sponsored by the Kootenai Indian Tribe, Idaho Fish & Game, and Bonneville Power Administration. Theory is that the Libby Dam is holding back nutirents from the river below so fish are less plentiful. Plan is introduce nutrients back into the river and see if the fish population rebounds. This operation is starting at the Idaho border as the Montana side is taking a "wait and see" approach. In our urban areas we have just the opposite problem where we put way too much nirogen containing materials into the streams and rivers. General references to the nutrient study are found at http://www.efw.bpa.gov/ENVIRONMENTAL_services/document_library/kootenai/ and at http://www.nws.usace.army.mil/publicmenu/DOCUMENTS/KootenaiRiverEcosystemProject.pdf .
We decided to head up to the Yaak River for the rest of the day, west on Hwy. 2 thru Troy where we stopped by the famous IGA for ice – someone found a product called "Bordreaux’s Butt Paste http://www.buttpaste.com/ – the use in jokes seemed to be infinite! The website slogan is "It’s not just for diaper rash anymore" – so what is it for?? After a short ice fight in the parking lot, we headed north on hwy 508 up the Yaak River. Across Seventeen Mile Creek, water looks pretty thin, past the Yaak River Falls (Photo Op!).
From there we proceeded to Hellroaring Creek mouth on the Yaak River. Good access to the Yaak, beautiful pools & riffles over slabs of stratified rock.
AM & GK went upstream, AB & JR went downstream with MS fishing the large pool at the end of the trail. MS was first to connect with a small fish, followed by JR. MS had the biggest fish caught – estimated generously at 4 inches. AB walked way down stream, through slippery, algae covered loose rocks to an island with a great looking chute down one side. Even though the water looked like it should hold lots of fish, AB wasn’t able to raise any of the finny beauties. A call went out to all on our Motorola Talk-About FRS radios (a MUST for these type trips) saying we were going to move on. The meat-eating black flies were out in force to attack us, the fishing was poor, it was the middle of a warm day, so it seemed like heading out might be a good use of our time. We ran into some prehistoric beatles crawling on the car when we got back – kind of weird but…
As AB walked back thru the slippery rocks above the island, he came across an unfortunate odoriferous beaver lying in the stream. He didn’t hang around to determine the cause of it’s demise. This section of river is pretty accessible (ie, you can drive to it!) so it looks like it probably gets pounded pretty hard and if there were any fish in there, they may have been cooked already by someone else.
At 2:45PM we drove thru the town of Yaak. A cool little Montana town consisting of the Yaak Mercantile, the Yaak Laundry & the Dirty Shame Tavern all built in classic outback Montana style. The tavern had a sign on the door saying; "Check your guns at the door with the bartender" Signs announce the "Crawfish Festival", inside is a pool table, slot machines & names carved in the log motif of the building. Pretty cool bar! Pretty cool town! 4 sets of choppers parked in front of the tavern when we rolled through. Down the street we came to the Yaak Schoolhouse, Scholl District #24, home of the Bobcats.
Passing thru Yaak we head up the Yaak River Road to the East Fork of the Yaak where Greg Thomas states in his 2005 "Tight Lines", "The Rocky Mountain Fly Fishing Forecast" magazine; "The East Fork of the Yaak is the stronghold of the native Red-side Rainbow". Yes, the Westslope Cutthroat is not the only native trout to the area, (Bull Trout are actually Char), but the Red-side is also a native. See: http://fwp.mt.gov/fieldguide/detail_AFCHA02092.aspx and http://www.fisheries.org/AFSmontana/SSCpages/redban%20status2.htm for additional information.
Click on Picture below for larger version of sign for reading purposes
"Tight Lines" is a great magazine & we use the information in it all the time. You can get your own copy of the magazine at; Tight Lines, Box 1498, Ennis, MT, 59729 or email: gwt@3rivers.net. We highly recommend you obtain a copy if you plan to fly fish the west.
As usual, Greg information was right, there were lots of beautiful little red-side rainbows eager to grab a size 18 Royal Coachman in the equally classic woodsy setting of the East Fork Yaak. We had fun catching them on AB’s 2wt Orvis superfine rod and couldn’t resist taking a few photos of these absolutely gorgeous native fish. Biggest fish caught (AB) was about 9 inches. Vibrant and pretty colors!!
Continuing up over the Sullivan Creek Road, a twisting mountain road we connected with FR228 (FR = Forest Road) that follows the west shore of Lake Koocanusa. (Koo for Kootenai; Can for Canada; & Usa for the United States) Lake Koocanusa is a huge lake created by the Libby dam on the Kootenai River that stretches north from Libby into British Columbia.
South on FR226 to Big Creek where Tim told us to fish high up in the creek. Passing by te Grizzly Bear warning sign, we found the creek in a rather low flow condition, but did find some nice pools to fish. All caught 8-10" Rainbows in this beautiful little stream, using Beatle, Ant, Stimulator, & Trude flies.
Paying respect to the Fishmeister!
Late in the evening we traveled south on FR228 where MS & GK saw a large Cougar along the road. Proceeding to the Libby Dam
then onto the Hwy 37 bridge and up the east side of Lake Koocanusa to a campground/river access just below the dam where AM & AB fished the Kootenai until dark scaring a few nice rainbows – and landing just one.
Dinner at Treasure Mountain Casino - Back to Riverhouse @ 10:30 PM. There was a concert going on at the Lee Gehrig Memorial Baseball Field – seems like all the local folks are there tonight.