Warm weather bring the Fish

Chris and I headed over to an access that we really like fishing and have done well at in the past. It was warm today (around 40 degrees), and there was little to no ice flowing on the Clark Fork. We split up and I headed downstream to a run that I knew held fish. It was tough to get there with more than a foot of snow on the ground. When I finally did get there, I was sweating just from trouncing through the heavy snow.

I had two rods with me today, my Helios and my brand new Hydros from Orvis. Yes, just in case you haven't noticed, I rep the east coast company well and the majority of my rods are Orvis rods. I brought the new Hydros to (1) fish with it for the first time and (2) see how well it would cast my 5wt full sinking line. Cody and I will be heading over to the Missouri this weekend so I needed to figure out if I would have to buy a new 6wt sinking line.

I started nymphing the run and I immediately spooked a big whitefish that was laying in the shallows. So much for being stealth. About halfway down the run, on the edge of the drop off, I went to pick up for my next cast and I felt some weight. I set the hook and a small rainbow started to go nuts. The fish was a pretty feisty, even though it was only about 13 inches.

The release video didn't come out as well as I had hoped....again. This time I'm thinking that it was just the silty colored water of the Clark Fork. Still I was happy to finally get a fish. I went back up to the head of the run and grabbed the Hydros. I was very impressed with the rod and it easily casted the 5 weight line. It was a little light, but I was very happy with the way it casted. I twitched an olive colored streamer through the run and on about the 5th cast it was nailed by a nice fish. I fought the fish for a while and I could see that it was a nice cuttbow. However, the hook pulled out before I could get the fish in the shallows. I wasn't too angry, but it was a decent fish lost.

After fishing the run again with a san juan worm, I headed back up to the car to meet Chris. He had landed a bow himself, of about 14 inches. Cody had fished a little bit in town today and I called him on the way home to see how he did. He had landed about a 16 inch bow. Looks like it was one fish for each of us today.

I'm very excited for this weekend. The weather is looking nice and warm and I'm ready to get back to the Missouri! I've missed it a bunch and I'd like to try and land a big fish. We'll see if it happens.