10 September
AM and AB are first ones up and head over to the Crossing for coffee.
Our new waitress today is the daughter of the new K-3 schoolteacher who we
discussed last night at Fetty’s. She and her dad were still living in a fifth
wheeler in the Park (thought we saw that rig when we fished there the night
before) but they had plans to move into a double wide mobile home on a lot in
town in about 5 weeks or so before the real winter settles in.
At breakfast, AM notes a group of women who came in for breakfast – what caught
the eye was that some were wearing what appeared to biking pants. As a cyclist,
I just had to find out what was up – biking shorts are usually only worn for
biking unless a new fashion movement started since this trip began!! After
breakfast, I found a reason to chat with one of the ladies – they have a steady
group of 8-12 women who do one major activity per year. Like our fishing group,
they target something together and then go do it together. However, while we go
different places to fly fish, we always do fish. They, on the other hand, do
something really different each year. In the past, they have hiked the Grand
Canyon, run a marathon, and so forth. This year they were bicycling from Salmon,
Idaho to Wise River, MT – a route that took them over Chief Joseph pass and
through Wisdom where we met them. They were self-supported in that 2 riders
would drive the SAG SUV vehicles and then rotate drivers/bicyclists during the
day so everyone got to ride. They have been doing this for about 15 years – I
suggested they might want to have a website like we do to capture the great
memories and events. We saw them later in the day riding in the cold and rain to
Wise River, MT although I suspect they were pretty jacked about their great
bicycle ride – I know I would have been! (For example you can check out how
another group I ride with captured our ride from Seattle, WA to Vancouver, BC
this year at http://barkfooey.blogspot.com/ )
Heading out we elect to try the Wise River which is a trib of the Big Hole
River. AB has heard rumors about good fishing on the Wise but we have no
experience. We head up a road running along the river until we reach the USFS
land where access is easier. While there is good water flow (almost too good?),
it is not a big river where we accessed it (Sheep Creek Trailhead).
We caught a couple of forgettable small fish in the rain and
cold of the day. Moving upriver we note the flow drops significantly above
Pattengail Creek.
Heading downriver, AM and JR see a huge new stone home close to the Big Hole –
it would seem that there might be good fishing since this is the Big Hole River
after all! Undeterred by the majesty of this place (it is pretty impressive), I
head up and ring the doorbell – Mozart music from the chimes – gotta love that!!
– I am thinking no one might be home when the door opens. We introduce ourselves
to the nice lady of the house and inquire about stream access. She would like to
give us access (good thing I trimmed my beard back in Ennis!) but they had
leased the access rights to a local flyshop – the lease was going to be up about
2 days after we had to move on so it just wasn’t going to work for us although
it sounds as though our intuition was right about the fishing. Bummer! They have
a really new and amazing home which was still having internal furnishings
finished. This was their retirement home to meet their requirements of a home in
Montana and on a river. Turns out that neither of the couple actually fishes! If
we swing by again, I will certainly offer our services for free if they would
like to try fly fishing – regardless of access issues, I think anyone living
there along the Big Hole River ought to have the opportunity to try fly
fishing!! I hope we can keep in touch.
After a short lunch break at Jerry Creek Bridge fishing access, we decide to try
the Big Hole in that area – it is still cold and overcast. A guide is putting in
with a client when we are getting ready – he has poles rigged up for dry flies
and for deep nymphing with girdle bugs. As the guide launches, another drift
boat slips by at mid-river. His client hooks a nice Rainbow on a nymph. The temp
is 46F and the wind is blowing….Brrrrr.
AM starts with a nymphing rig just above the boat launch by the bridge over the
river (as opposed to “troubled waters”) – wearing hip boots with felt soles was
no treat as the rocks were incredibly slippery. Fighting the rocks for balance
for a while was not much fun – well, AM thinks, “if I am not going to catch
fish, I might as well not catch fish on dry flies which I enjoy fishing more”.
Swapping over to a parachute adams, he heads downstream about 3/8 mile from the
boat launch and find some water structure to fish without having to wade through
the slippery rocks for access. The weather continued to deteriorate with
intermittent rain – then the sky darkened…it got kind of quiet for a moment…then
the hail started pelting me – I mean really pelting seriously – the water was of
course in a froth like someone throwing pea gravel in the water the fly was
trying to float through drag free ….BAM!!…a 12 inch rainbow hammers the dry fly!
Several thoughts come to mind for AM : “First, given the weather, the plague of
locusts must be just around the corner, so do I have any locust patterns with
me? (this whole scene looks like something from a Charlton Heston “10
Commandments” movie); Second, what’s with the mythology about being stealthy
when trout fishing? That trout took a dry fly while someone was throwing rocks
at it!!” He ends up catching 4 fish, all rainbows about the same size.
Meanwhile, AB is trying his best to catch a fish. Nymphing produces no interest
& a dry fly draws one strike & a miss. Moving downstream AB tries to find good
water without wading onto the extremely slippery rocks. Thinking to myself,
“When is some boot supplier going to produce a hip boot with felts and studs?”
Spotting a few dimples on the river AB tries to move to a position to make a
cast. As I carefully walked out toward the river on a few dry rocks a mink ran
across my feet! Whoa…damn near fell in the river! AM calls on the radio
reporting good fishing below…but the current hail storm convinces AB it’s time
to give it up. It’s cold, everyone else has pulled up gear, time to move on.
Time to head back to the rigs.
We stopped by the Troutfitters shop just upstream from Wise River – picked up
some purple parachute adams – “purple haze” – need to see if we can get them
with gold colored posts so we could have Husky Adams (Huskies are the mascot of
the University of Washington – my alma mater). In fact, the Adams pattern is so
flexible, you wonder if there isn’t a market in “school color” flies? Will have
to check that one out!!
We arrive at our next destination on the Big Hole at a local ranch; we head
through the access gate, close it, and park the rigs next to the fence section
we will cross to get to the river below. We slog through mud and brush for a
half-mile to access the river. Just the 4 of us from the YG and a few hundred
cows/steers. AB finds a nice run with several fish actively feeding. A few casts
with a parachute Adams are soundly ignored. AB strains to see what these fish
might be feeding on, whatever it is, it’s tiny and in the surface film. Going
through his fly boxes, he comes up with a size 18 BWO Compara-dun and ties it on
his Orvis 4lb. test IGFA Mirage Fluorocarbon tippet. The first cast looks good,
drifting right down the foam line. A nice fish sticks its head up out of the
water and inhales the fly! AB sets the hook and the fish immediately makes a
long, strong run downstream. Wow…this is a nice fish…wonder what it is? AB calls
JR & AM on the radio for an assist as the fish continues to make strong runs. AB
lays his fly line in the water to use the drag on the line to help tire the
fish. It works and the fish moves to the net…..wow!....it’s a great looking
Brook Trout! He lands it, we photo it, and AB realizes that he had probably just
set the State IGFA brookie record but not suspecting fish of this size, had left
his IGFA certified scale back in the truck…..curses!
AB releases the fish saying, “I’ll be back to set that record!”
Minutes later, JR is into another brookie about the same size! While AM keeps his whitefish streak alive, GK is also into a big brook trout! Wahoo! We get a great photo of GK’s Brookie, a nice fish and much bigger than his first brookie caught on the upper Ruby. I’m sure he’ll substitute this photo for the Ruby River brookie photo when he submits his IGFA Trout Slam application. These are nice fish, which are much larger than folks remember from our last trip here in 1998. Maybe it takes 10 years for these guys to grow up? :>)
We get out of the water by 8 PM so we aren’t stranded in
the dark with the cows/steers as the daylight wanes and the temperatures drop
(41F and falling rapidly).
We had notes on our rigs when we came back from one of the foreman saying we
needed permission to access the land. Hmmmm…..thought we had taken care of that
earlier…….I will call the next day from the hotel as there is NO cell service in
this area and I didn’t have a satellite phone! In any event, I am sure we’ll
straighten this out as it seems to be a no harm, no foul situation.
We head back for a later dinner at the Crossing. Our waitress, Emmy, allows AB
to talk himself into a plate of breaded/fried rocky mountain oysters.
GK orders a strawberry daiquiri (Bartle and James) – I think this takes a lot of self-confidence in Montana. I look around to be sure we are OK with the locals. Emmy, from Hamilton, MT, had married a cowboy who worked on a ranch near Wisdom. I think Emmy, Mellissa, Kim, and the other Montana women we met are best summarized as “capable” – my impression was of strong, self-reliant women – while fashion is always important, I don’t the chic Paris Hilton genre would play well out here.
Note: Emmy is the good looking one.
Crashed at the hotel reasonable early as tomorrow we head for Rock Creek.
