2 September 2009 - Wednesday

Up at 0635 to get ready for heading over to the Rock Creek area. The drive over to Anaconda was through a heavy fog. As we head over the pass toward Anaconda, we watch for ice but don’t seem to have any this morning. The road is located for a great bicycle ride but the surface is full of ruts and potholes making it a lot less attractive up close than from a distance. The hillsides have large brown swatches of trees where we think the pine bark beetle has hit the trees.

Reaching Anaconda, we have a memorial breakfast at the Copper City Bowl – we recommend it highly for good down-home value meals!

Swinging by Rock Creek, we re-connect with some our of old friends and meet some new ones. Leaving the drainage we head over to the Flint Creek Lodge and arrive about 11:30. Nice place!!  As the pictures show, this is one great place to stay!

We pick up some snacks and drinks and then back to Rock Creek at about 2 pm.

Fishing started slow – the water was a little higher than last year and while some of the waters were about the same, some holding areas had changed a lot. JR and AM head upstream and start catching a few more fish while GK and AB stay in the "Ol’ Fishin’Hole" As the afternoon wears on, everyone is picking up more fish with hoppers (Chernobyl and Green), purple haze, bead head nymphs, and comparaduns.

As the afternoon becomes evening, the size of fly the fish will take starts to drop with patterns of comparaduns, Griffith gnats, tricos, and sailor ants.

Finally I am fishing a #22 Griffith Gnat and the fish are killing it! They can’t wait to pile onto it! Pretty cool fishing. This went on until very dark about 8:35 pm.

We pull out and head back toward the Lodge. On the way back, I suddenly see a big black object appear in the middle of the road – we are closing fast on it! I am braking – it looks like a big bear!! We finally come to a stop – it is two very large, and not too bright, all-black cows standing in the middle of an unlit highway! Shooing them off to the side, we complete our journey back to the Lodge for our dinner of sandwiches, pop, chips, and hootch (just a wee bit!).