Not always easy

A flip of the coin decided the river today. I was excited to fish in the September-like weather that we have right now (almost 60 degrees today), but it didn't turn out as good as I had hoped. I couldn't seem to land a decent fish today. In fact, I'm pretty sure I didn't land a fish over 10 inches. Still, it makes me appreciate all the small fish that will be big someday. 

Gotta love Rock

Sandy

Last fall, the northeast got hit pretty bad by Hurricane Irene. This season, Hurricane Sandy has been called everything from "the perfect storm" to "Frankenstorm" as it has made its way to the Northeast. But how bad will the storm be compared to Irene? It has already claimed several lives in the Caribbean. Hopefully the storm won't cause as much inland destruction from flooding as Irene did.

Hurricane Sandy headed up the U.S. coastline (image from Yahoo images)

Slowing Down

On Saturday I joined Bob once again for some more streamer fishing. We were hoping for another awesome day like last weekend, but it just didn't happen. In the past week, the Bitterroot valley has seen some pretty cold temps and some snow too. This change in weather definitely slowed things down. I struggled to even land a fish on Saturday as Bob stuck one awesome bow with a kype. I was saved by a small brown in one of the last runs that we fished. It looks like nymphing will be starting sooner than I had hoped.

Today, Riley and I hiked mount Jumbo and it's ridge towards the lower Rattlesnake Wilderness. It was nice to take a break from fishing for once.

The zoo

Snow

It seemed like just last week was the beginning of fall. Today snow covers the ground as Missoula was hit last night with a small storm. I did miss the snow, but it also indicates what is coming; WINTER.

Winter fishing in MT is a somewhat boring game that most of us hate...nymphing. However, we all have to admit, it is an easy game and by far the most effective technique as trout begin to stack up in that slow, deep water. I am not looking forward to nymphing, but eventually I know I'll have to loop on that thingamabobber and tie on those san juan worms. For now I'll be sticking with streamer fishing for as long as I can. 

Some recent photos: 

A beautiful, colored up rainbow

A snowy day on the water

The first covering of snow in Missoula

Jon Swartwout

Here is an article that was recently published about my good friend Jon Swartwout. As I've posted before about Jon, he is an amazingly talented artist and creates pieces that are of a very unique rustic Adirondack style....

http://www.leaderherald.com/page/content.detail/id/551075/Carving-out-a-Niche.html?nav=5009

Check out Jon's website for his studio, at http://fisheroftheberrystudio.squarespace.com/.

One of Jon's more recent paintings.