A Miserable day on the Clark Fork

Cody, Garret and I met in the parking lot of the dorms this morning at 8:30. We began to discuss where we wanted to fish as we loaded our boats into the trucks, wondering if crawling out of bed this morning was actually worth it. It was actually quite warm and the snow dustings on Mount Sentinel had almost disappeared.

It wasn't until we stopped at a gas station that we actually decided on what section of the Clark Fork we were going to float; the exact same section as yesterday. It was a risky section. We had only landed a couple fish and overall there wasn't too much action. It was mostly sunny yesterday but today the weather was a lot different. As we headed west on I-90 we could see snow clouds developing above the hills. It was still above freezing and a very cloudy overcast day. Baetis is what drove us to do the same section and we were positive we would see more fish rising than yesterday. We arrived at the access and began putting our pontoon boats together.

The ice on the slough that we got stuck on yesterday had completely melted which saved us the extra walk transporting the boats to the main channel.

When we hit the main channel I fished the same riffle/run where I caught my cuttbow yesterday with no results. I stuck with the same colored streamer and I was very surprised that I had no takes. The water looked perfect. After fishing the run I played catch up and finally reached Cody and Garret who had not had any strikes either. About 45 minutes into fishing the snow began to fall and the cold began to come. It wasn't bad at first and we continued working the water hard with our streamers. There were still no signs of rising fish.

Cody working a nice riffle

                                                             Garret working below

We continued down the river for about another mile. Still no strikes. These fish were not being aggressive and the cold was getting progressively worse as to say, "you should of stayed home." We stopped for a short shore lunch and discussed how much the fishing sucked so far. Our negative attitudes and dampened spirits probably didn't help anything but I guess you've got to have a negative attitude sometimes or else fly fishing wouldn't be like life.

After lunch I decided that due to the fact that I couldn't feel my fingers (even with my warmest gloves on), I would probably not fish unless I saw some very good looking water. For now I would just sit back, relax and enjoy the float. After another couple of minutes I came to the realization that I just wanted to get the hell off the river. I was starting to lose feeling in my toes also. However a set of small rapids took my mind off the pain for a while. It was definitely my favorite part of the day!

The rest of the float was speedy quick and we basically rowed the whole time. I did fish a small riffle run for about 5 minutes. Garret and Cody spotted a small pod of rising fish but couldn't entice them to take a BWO pattern. When we reached our takeout at an incoming creek we spotted a few fish from the bridge and casted to them. I had a decent sized brown chase my streamer and then turn away. We also saw 2 small pike, the first ones I've seen in Montana.

Overall it was a pretty Miserable day. None of us even had a take and we easily spent more time rowing to get off the river than actually fishing. Even though the fishing sucked, something about freezing your ass off for a few hours without even a hit makes you realize that even the worst days, are good days.

Clark Fork Float

Cody, Garret and I headed to the Clark Fork today to do a float. We stopped in at the Kingfisher to ask advice on a good float. We decided to head to Frenchtown(below Missoula) and do a 9 mile float. We got in the water by noon. After rowing down a slough only to find it was jammed with ice we found another slough that led right to the river. We finally hit the main river and I immediately started working some nice looking water below a riffle. I started with a white and tan streamer and stuck to it. I had fished most of the riffle/run when I saw a fish trailing my fly pretty quickly. The fish turned away from the fly right in front of me so I let my fly drop. My line tightened up immediately and I set the hook. It was a nice chunky cuttbow of about 13 inches.

Not a bad way to start the day. By this time Cody and Garret were way downstream so I rowed hard to catch up. Cody had lost a very big fish that had made a big run. Garret had also missed a fish. The rest of the day was alright. Cody landed 2 fish, one of them being a bow of about 16 inches. It was a nice day on the river and I liked this section of the Clark Fork because there weren't many houses and we had all the water to ourselves.  We saw a few deer, and eagle and beaver along the way also. Some of the water was very nice with lots of deep runs and riffles, and some was frog water. The river here is much bigger than above Missoula so it is a little harder to hit all of the hot spots.. We didn't see too many more fish for the duration of the float.

Tomorrow we'll probably be floating the Clark Fork again and possibly even the same section. Stay tuned for the report.

Learning to Spey Cast

Yesterday afternoon I asked Cody to show me a little about spey casting. Spey casting is a technique used for casting flies long distances with a long, 2 handed rod. Steelhead season is prime right now and I'll probably be heading to the Salmon River, ID pretty soon to fish with my sister and Tom. Cody has some good experience with steelhead fishing and knows what hes doing when it comes to spey casting. Garret and Cody met me on the Clark fork behind campus to practice. What both Garret and I learned was that spey casting is not difficult whatsoever.

Cody showed us how to do the most simple spey cast, the Snap T. When your line is directly downstream you begin the cast by whipping your fly rod in a C formation upstream and then returning your rod to the same position. This causes the line to loop and fall parallel to the current. Then you swing your rod from a downstream point to an upwards position, basically ripping that line that is in front of you off the water. Your rod is then pointed upwards behind you and then you basically fire the rod forward while using your bottom hand to pull the butt end of the rod towards your body creating a sling shot of line that literally "goes the distance", that you want it to.The most valuable thing I learned was that its not the power that shoots the line so far. Its the loading of the loop of line and releasing it at the right moment. Sounds complicated but it is quite simple once you actually learn it. Garret and I picked up the technique pretty quickly and went from having very sloppy casts to being able to make a smooth cast almost every time. It felt great to learn a new technique. Thanks Cody.

As we were getting ready to leave an excited dog ran over to us and started jumping around playfully. I had put my rod down on the rocks to help Cody switch a line on his rod......and of course the worst happened. The dog jumped right on my rod and the tip snapped. I found the kid who was walking the dog and got his dads phone number. Hopefully the owner of the dog will compensate a little for the loss so that I can get the rod replaced and hopefully soon before I head to Idaho. Cody and I were planning on going to the Clearwater River this weekend but last night I got the stomach flu. Just my luck right?

I'm feeling pretty good now and will fish around here if I feel good this weekend. Next weekend there's a good chance I'll be putting my new spey casting technique to the test for some Salmon River Steel.

What can go wrong, will go wrong.

Chris and I were stoked to do a float on the Bitterroot this weekend. Everything was set up perfect. The weather was looking perfect, the fish (last time we fished) were very active and we even set up our dry fly rods in hopes of finding some rising fish. But even when everything is set up perfectly and you're expecting to have a great day on the water, the complete opposite can happen. As much as I'd love to give a full report of todays trip, I'm going to do mostly a summary of today, due to the fact that today just plain sucked.

We launched around 11:45 am, only a little off schedule. Our float would be about 6 miles and I expected we'd be done around 4 pm. We began fishing the first couple runs with no fish. I broke off one of my best streamers a few minutes later and had a tangled mess of sinking line. Chris had also lost a streamer. The only downside of streamer fishing the Bitterroot is that you'll probably lose a few flies. A while later Chris came downstream to where I was fishing a bend and told me that he had snapped his TFO 6wt. Long story. We moved on to fish the next run......

I had 2 fish in the run trail my fly, only to turn back into the current only feet away from me. It was a tease and I was really getting frustrated. While rowing in the next run my seat back for my pontoon boat that Chris had recently repaired for me, snapped. Its now officially/forever broken. In the next run I heard Chris yell something and I looked downstream to see what was up. All I could see was Chris frantically rowing to shore, against the current. He was going nuts for some reason and I just couldn't understand what the problem was. "What the hell is the problem!?" I yelled to him. The words "your fly rod!" came out of his mouth as he continued to row like a mad man. He had gotten snagged on a log and the rod was ripped right out of his hands. I thought for sure the rod was a goner because we were on a deep fast flowing bend. After looking for a while Chris found the rod still snagged on the log. I guess things didn't go completely wrong. A lost rod and broken rod would be the worst day ever. After breaking another fly off and getting another birds nest in my sinking line, I called it quits. I devoted the rest of the float to watching Chris fish and enjoying the views of the Selway-Bitterroot Mountains.

Now that I think about it, it wasn't a terrible day on the water, even though almost everything went wrong. However, that marks the last float trip I'll do this year. Floating is a great way to cover lots of water but at this time of year I think it'll be much more effective to work the water thoroughly rather than skip over good looking water.

Bitterroot 11/3

Had a pretty good afternoon today on the Bitterroot with Chris. We fished an access that we had never been to before. We found a nice run as soon as we reached the river and began swinging our streamers. I began to walk downstream to find new water when Chris yelled something. He was hooked up. I waded out to him. It was a small sized brown of about 11 inches. Nevertheless it was a fish, and a fish is a fish.

I headed downstream while Chris fished the rest of the run. I was walking on a high bank right on the edge of the river. I ducked under a pine branch and almost walked right up on a huge brown. It was sitting in the shallows near the bank. The fish hadn't seen me. I was about 10 feet away so I stepped back a few feet and made a cast upstream and across from the fish. I let my fly swing right to the fish. Not deep enough. The fish saw the fly but wouldn't take. I made another cast and put the fly right in the fishes face, twitching it rapidly. The fish slowly trailed and I watched as my fly was sucked in like a vacuum cleaner. I set the hook and just as if the fish hadn't taken the fly at all, the fly came right out of the fishes mouth. The fish spooked and I was about to snap my fly rod in half. It was a big fish lost.

I moved on downstream. I fished for another half hour before I met up with Chris again. We found a really nice deep run where I had one fish chase my fly. About half way down the run I decided to put a split shot on and change my fly color from tan/gold to an olive streamer, my own invention. I let my fly sink deep in the narrow slot and then twitched it up through the water column. On the second cast I had a fish hit deep. I connected well and the fight was on. It was a chunky brown of about 13 inches.

The split shot had turned out to be a good idea. I stuck with it and fished the next pool. Chris moved up a braid while I went down the main river. I was walking downstream and I saw a huge grey bird fly from its perch. It was a great horned owl and I was amazed at how large the bird was. I tried to get the camera but it had flown out of site by the time I turned it on. It was a pretty cool thing to see.

After fishing a while in the same stretch I spotted a big bend in the river downstream. The sun was setting but I yelled to Chris telling him I was going to fish the bend real quick. I walked around a side braid that was slack water and spotted some huge browns swimming around. I eventually ended up spooking them and spotted one fish that was well over 23 inches.

I got to the bend and began fishing. I waded out up to my waist and then started working far bank. I casted and stepped down until the water started to get deeper. I made a cast and then walked back toward the shallow side of the river while stripping at the same time. I wasn't looking where my fly was and I was stunned as the rod was almost ripped out of my hands. I wasn't very prepared but I set the hook well. Immediately a big fish shot out of the water making a huge leap. A rainbow I thought. The fish jumped again and I could see it was a brown. Now I don't know what it is about Bitterroot River browns but, they like to jump. Usually browns don't jump and I've never fought a brown that has jumped more than 2 times. This brown.......jumped 6 times. I was really amazed by it. And these weren't partial jumps. That's 6 times COMPLETELY out of the water. It was an awesome fight and a nice looking fish of about 17 inches.

At that point I was done and more than satisfied. It was a long walk back to the car jumping over many logs recently cut by beavers. I learned a lot on the stream today including that brown trout can jump just as well as bows. What I really learned though, was that at this time of year it is very important that you get your fly down to the fishes level especially since they aren't as active compared to a few weeks ago. Even a couple feet can make the difference. Hopefully this weekend will bring some big Bitterroot browns.