5 September 2009

We grab breakfast at the Stray Bullet which is run by Peggie and her husband; great breakfast and killer sandwiches to go!

     

We chat with Nord at the hotel about the local fishing conditions and access points – he shares some of his recent observations to help guide our selections for the day.
       

AB tries to get the real story on where to fish from Junior, who seems engaged in the discussion but actually just wants to get more physical…..

Swinging by the Fly Shop, we chat this morning with Travis who recommends using small stuff in the surface film early in the mornings.

Heading out we elect to try a section of the Blackfoot first. Stopping just past a bridge on a Forest Service Road, we head out to fish all new water. AB and AM head downstream while JR and GK start to work the bridge area. Downstream the river braids at a huge woodpile which takes several minutes to figure out how to navigate. We fished the again gin clear water near some woodpiles. At the best one, we could watch the fish come from underneath the wood (6-8 feet of water depth?) and cruise up to check out the purple haze or adams or…. With a good drift, they would come up and slash at it for a hookup but with just a little drag, they would lazily turn and head back down to holding positions. Kind of fun to observe.

  

Continuing downstream, AM fishes around river corners, find recent bear tracks (and begins singing the bear song –"Here Bear! Here Bear!), and ends up back by the major highway but downstream quite a ways.

And, with no chance of crossing the river due to its size and depth. Heading back up stream, the stretch of river by the highway is structure free and offers little holding water in the sunlit part of the day. AM bushwhacks through the timber and finally made it back to the bridge and the rigs but without a box of stimulators which is still out there in the woods somewhere!!

Meanwhile, JR was catching big brown trout right under the bridge on Chernobyl hoppers!! GK was similarly hooking up with cutts and browns using a soft hackle trailer as the fly shop had recommended that morning! AB was successful catching cutts with stimulators and Jack Danner soft hackles. So everyone had a good catch record at this location. GK was the only one of us to actually see the bear this time however!!

We headed back to where we had fished the evening before but found two rigs already in "our" hole….explains why we had good fishing the night before – it is a good place to fish!! We then headed to Lincoln for lunch (Lambkins Restaurant and Bar – got to like a manly name like that!)

We headed over the North Fork of the Blackfoot after lunch. Everyone was somewhat tired, the thunderclouds were moving in……however, AM elected to go fish the flat water we could see from the road. Heading upstream with gin clear water, AM finds several nice runs and fishes a purple haze next to woody structure – fish will come out about 12-18 inches and hammer a small dry fly repeatedly! The fish were typically 12-14 inches, so not trophy size but nice for a stream like this. Heading back toward the rigs, AM stops and fishes another little run with some debris in it, and hooks 2 more. Kind of fun fishing with the dark, black thunder clouds rolling in, lightning and thunder in the distance getting closer, ….an Apocalypse Now kind of moment……when the rain starts (and it really rains Big Droplets!), AM heads quickly to the rigs – no raincoat!!

We drove up in the rain to the Upper Monture Creek campground – fished a little in that section but the water is very small up here and requires more scrambling than we wanted to take on.

We headed back to the hotel where JR settled up on the bill. We transferred the pix we could onto our laptop for the trip – a great slide show to run through real time!

Dinner for the last night at Trixie’s – less crowded tonight but still that good cholesterol laden menu!

Crashed at the hotel and plan to get home tomorrow so we will be up at 0535!

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6 September 2009

Left Ovando at 0548; stopped for a pit stop in St Regis; gassed up at Flying J in Post Falls and then headed to Cabela’s to meet MS who was unable to join us this year.

After sharing with MS our great adventures, we headed out and reached the homesteads about 1515. Gear transfers and congratulations all around. Another great 2200+ mile trip in the books!!

Where do we go in 2010?? We are planning on a re-do of the Wyoming Cuttslam trip as that is great country to fish and one of the YG, MS, wasn’t able to attend that year. Stay tuned for developments for 2010!