Bitterroot Afternoon

This afternoon Chris and I headed to the same stretch of the Bitterroot that I fished yesterday. Chris fished the same run where I caught the nice brown and he hooked up in the first 5 minutes. It was a nice brown also but as he brought the fish towards the shallows the hook just pulled right out. I was surprised because I though he had the fish hooked well. Chris was pretty disappointed but I told him that.....shit happens. Which is how fly fishing is. While he continued to work that run I headed up to the bridge and worked the water downstream of a big pillar. I few casts in I could see my fly coming back upstream and I saw a huge brown trailing. The fish didn't take and it disappeared into the pool. It was a nice looking Brown and I spent a few more minutes trying to entice the fish to strike. No luck. I headed upstream with Chris. We made it to the still water braid and of course, fish were rising. I crossed to the gravel bar and started casting with dries. After a yellow sally imitation didn't produce any fish I switched to a size 22 baetis nymph. I saw one fish come up and miss the fly and I landed 1 small white fish. The fish were picky today. I decided to head upstream where Chris was working a nice run. I went up further and found an awesome looking pool. I worked it for a long time with no strikes. I met up with Chris who told me he had snapped off a fish on the hook set. It must have been a pretty big fish to snap 3x tippet. The sun was setting and the river looked awesome. It gave me a feeling of why I love it out west. There's no place like it.

I headed back down to the bridge to give that fish one more shot. It didn't happen but while I was waiting for Chris I managed to pick up a small brown in a shallow run on the baetis nymph. I also caught the biggest rainbow of my life....................

It was an alright evening of fishing. I will either be back on the Bitterroot tomorrow or its back to my favorite river, the Blackfoot. Either way its going to be a good day.