This Site Has Moved!

Unfortunately it is the end! Good bye to Fly Fishing Life. Check out my brand new site, Where the Water Leads. It is up and running! Fly Fishing Life will always remain up so that I (and hopefully some of my followers), can still go back to view old posts. It's been a fun ride but it's time to change things. Now go bookmark the new site, 

Where the Water Leads!

P.S. Thanks to all of you who supported this blog. ^^Please support this one now^^!

Big Changes Coming

Change is on the horizon as Fly Fishing Life will be changing it's web address. Along with that change will be another change....the end of Fly Fishing Life. But don't worry people, the blog will be continued! A new name and new website only means better things to come. Stay tuned for the launch of the new blog...

Time to nymph

It's a nymphing game now as those water temps continue to drop. Today I headed out to fish the Clark Fork with Riley. While we were putting on our waders, Chris showed up at the same access without even knowing that was where we were fishing. He joined us as we explored some new water.

Fishing was alright as I landed a couple decent cuttbows, a rainbow, and a small brown trout. Most fish actually took a tan rubber-legs stone rather than the always productive San Juan worm. Either way it was a nymphing game which is how it will remain until winter is over.

Winter also has some beautiful colors

Hopefully will be headed to the Mo after Thanksgiving break for some awesome streamer fishing. Have a great week.

In the mean time...

One might wonder what I do in my "other" free time when I am not on the river. The answer is playing guitar. Recently my good friend Tyler Adair has been getting into the music scene, one step at a time. She is an amazingly talented singer/songwriter and for her second song ever, she decided we would record it live as an acoustic cover. So check out Ty's brand new song "Secret" on YouTube! You wont be disappointed.

FWP

Some more work today with Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks region 2 biologists as we re-set some gill nets on a popular fishing lake. We had a small amount of ice to break through before we could successfully set several nets. The fish samples taken will contribute to valuable fish length data for the lake.

Gill net set 

Rob and Will entering data

Winter

Today was the first day since March where I couldn't feel my toes, my guides iced up, and my fingers became partially paralyzed from the cold. Even though it isn't officially winter, it sure felt like it today as I fished for a couple hours. Fishing turned out to be pretty good, despite the cold. Fish are already stacking up in that slower water.

Didn't miss this at all

A tough election day

Happy Election Day! With my ballot already mailed in, Chris and I took off in search of feisty brown trout. We were hoping the really warm weather would kick things up a notch in the streamer department. Unfortunately fishing was kind of slow. I definitely got my ass kicked today, losing four fish including one break off. Chris landed a nice brown and bull trout. That was all the action that we saw!

Tying one on

Chris with a fine brown

It wasn't long until we were reminded that we live in Griz country....

Despite a tough day, it was very enjoyable due to the warm temperature (65 degrees!). Definitely does not feel like November in Montana. However, the weather this weekend is supposed to be FREEZING. Too cold to fish? No such thing.

Montana at it's finest

Among the Mountains

Cam, Riley and I set out to summit the highest mountain  in the Bitterroot range on early Saturday morning.

We chose a class 3 climb, one that we were comfortable with but wasn't entirely easy. We hiked in to Baker Lake and set up base camp, surrounded by what seemed like an amphitheater of mountains.

Not a terrible camping spot

The summit of the towering mountain overlooking the lake (what we thought was the summit of Trapper) seemed somewhat intimidating. After setting up camp and losing a bunch of weight, we began out approach to the gully where we would make our ascent. 

The first section of the climb was the toughest... Rock and ice covered with a thin layer of snow. The going was slow and the crampons and ice axe came in handy.

The rest of our route was very nice with a solid base layer of snow. 

The ascent

Cam and Riley working up the snowfield

Once we reached the ridge, it was a strait shot to the summit. However, the peak that we had been aiming for the entire time, turned out to be south trapper peak instead. Once we summited, it was obvious to us that we were not on the highest point in the Bitterroots. 

The real summit of Trapper

With the late start that we had already gotten on the day and the small detour we had taken to the south ridge summit, we didn't have enough daylight to summit the main Trapper peak. We didn't want to risk descending in the dark, so we headed for base camp. The descent went fine and we were back at camp before dark. 

Turns out the decision not to go for the summit was a good one because the winds picked up and a lot of snow was being blown off the top of the mountain. 

In the morning we decided against trying for a second time because of the new snow accumulations. We hiked out to the car to end the trip, our buisness being left unfinished with Trapper peak.

It was still a great trip with great friends as we learned more about our limits in mountaineering and trusting each other on the mountain. We will definitely be back someday to finally summit the real Trapper peak. 

A mountain adventure weekend

As much as I love the Missoula area rivers, the mountains are calling! This weekend, Cameron, Riley and I will attempt to summit Trapper Peak, the tallest peak in the Selway-Bitterroot Mountain Range at 10,157 feet. The weather forecast is perfect, snow conditions are okay and the avalanche danger not high. Tomorrow will be our summit day followed by a day of relaxing in a setting that can't be beat. An adventure awaits. Wish us luck!