The Insurance Fly: The Rest of the Week on the Bitterroot and Rock Creek

The second and third days we followed the same routine.  Those days were quite a bit warmer which was appreciated.  However, we didn’t have the cloud cover so that didn't help. 

We drifted a different stretch each day.  Wednesday was from Blodgett Park to Tucker West and Thursday Wally Clawson to Traveler’s Roost.

Notes for Wednesday

Ron caught a 14 inch cut-bow hybrid. It took the dry (Skwala Imitation) but rolled and threw the fly.  The fish however, got hooked by the dropper and Ron ended up landing it afterall.  More fish were caught from top water than the day before.  We still caught most on nymphs but did catch a few on dries.  

The river wasn’t crowed again.  There was a march Brown hatch. The guide cooked Pork Chops and zucchini-quinoa rice for lunch. The action started slow.  It was exciting seeing the rises whether the fish would actually take the dry fly or not, or just miss it altogether.  It was gorgeous weather but we could have used more clouds.  We saw lots of birds. Ron’s favorite was the hooded merganser and mine were the eagles. 

The guide kept telling us to fish the foam line, to mend right as soon as we cast and to fish the soft water. Hannon was the town where we put in and Wally Clawson was the take-out, totaling 11 miles.  The first of the day the fish were not biting as much and the same for the end of the day.  We ate at Rowdy’s cabin for dinner where I had a Chile Verde Chimichanga.

Notes for Thursday

This day Ron’s favorite fish was a 16 inch cutthroat.  He was somewhat frustrated because of the wind but he was impressed by how hard the fish fought.  We floated 11 miles again, from Wally Clawson to Traveler’s Roost.  It was sunny all day and we could have used more clouds.  This day we had the most dry fly action.  

On several occasions the fish got off the dry but got hooked by the dropper for each of us.  We called this the insurance fly.  At put-in there were six cars in the parking lot but on the river, there was no problem with crowding.  

There was a big diversion dam that was a big drop where the guide had to float to shore and drop us off to take pictures. 

It was because of this white-water that the float was with a rubber raft rather than a drift boat.  

We had hamburgers for lunch and ate at Famous Dave’s for dinner for all you can eat ribs.

Rock Creek

Friday we were on our own and drove to Rock Creek.  

This is a beautiful smaller river where we saw elk, moose, white tail deer, mule deer, bald eagles and wood duck.  

It was the perfect size for wading and was uncrowded.  

There were pretty mountains and it was near the historic old mining town of Philipsburg.  

We each caught 9 or 10 medium size browns and cuttthroats on nymphs. 

This is one river I would love to spend a few more days fishing.  

  

Before heading back, we stopped in Philipsburg for some BBQ for dinner.

One thing astonishing is that neither of us was sunburned after fishing an entire week.  

We got plenty of advice from fly shops and our favorite fly for the week ended up being the red bead-head San Juan worms.

Three Days on the Bitterroot

When The Blackfoot River Outfitters sent me an e-mail in December about a spring fly fishing trip called the Skwalapalooza I forwarded it to Ron and recommended we go.  He was as excited as I was.

This was a chance to be guided on the rivers around Missoula like the Bitterroot, the Clark’s Fork, the Blackfoot and Rock Creek.  

Hotel accommodations with in-door swimming pool were included.

We booked the trip for April 17th through the 20^th.  Four months ahead of time it’s hard to predict the weather.  

January and February were mild but when March rolled around it started storming.  When I was in Cincinnati for a week with my daughter’s family it rained every day.  April seemed the same…clear up to the day we planned to drive.  Then dry the rest of the week.  

Timing was perfect.  Any earlier and it would have been raining.  Any later and we would have hit run-off.  But, because it had rained a lot up until then, the Clark Fork and Blackfoot were off color.  The Bitterroot was in good shape and it was the main river we wanted to fish anyway.  I arranged with Terri at Blackfoot River Outfitters for the guide, Ryan Steen, to pick us up Tuesday morning at 9:00.  

Perfect time to fit in a wonderful waffle, bacon and fresh fruit breakfast.

While Ryan filled out the paperwork, Ron and I loaded up the back of the truck.  The drive to the put-in on the Bitterroot was about 40 minutes south, just past the town of Hamilton.  Ryan had a Clacka Craft low side drift boat.  We put in at Blodgett Park and took out at Tucker West for about an 11 mile float.  It was still a little cold but dry and not too windy.  The morning was slow so we had an early lunch, hoping some dry fly action would start up in the afternoon after things had warmed up a bit. 

Ryan cooked us up grilled seasoned chicken and prepared a nice salad.  Things did pick up in the afternoon.  A few fish were rising so we took off our nymph rigs (Thingamabobbers with rubber leg stones and hot bead San Juan worm) and switched to Skwala Stone Fly dries with one of the nymphs as a dropper. We took a couple on the skwala dry but for the most part had most success with the worm.  We each caught a half dozen mid-size cutthroats and rainbows and one or two browns and of course some white fish. 

My notes at the end of the day were:

The largest fish I caught were an 18 inch brown and an 18” jumping rainbow.  The most memorable fish was catching a fat rainbow and successfully man handling it out of pile of sticks. When I told the guide about needing a gas station between Butte and Missoula he agreed and said that in Montana you should never get below ¼ tank of gas.  In Wyoming make that ½ tank. 

I wore my rubber soled cloudveil wading boots on the float each day so I wouldn’t scratch the guide’s boat with my cleats.  The river was way too slippery for this.  When I got home I quickly ordered a pair of Simm’s guide boots with felt.

When I asked Ron what his favorite part of the day was he said: Mostly catching fish and having the experience of fishing with a guide. He enjoyed being able to pick a guide’s brains and having him give us tips. He also enjoyed not having to tie on flies or remove fish from hooks. The guide helped him with mending and seeing strikes better.  He liked the fact that he caught the first 2 trout of the day. His best fish was a 16 inch rainbow caught on a red glow bead San Juan worm. 

The Million Dollar Highway, Anizasi Cliff Dwellings and the Animas River

Ok, time to head south to more sights.  Since we wanted to see Mesa Verde we booked a hotel in Durango for the last two nights of the trip. The road between Montrose and Durango is beautiful.  It meanders through the town of Ouray on the million dollar highway. 

Ouray is called the Switzerland of the US.  Every house is an A-frame.  

 There is even a mountain seen from the highway that looks like the Matterhorn. 

The highway runs through the San Juan National Forest, goes through the town of Silverton and past the Telluride Ski Resort.  

The highway has a lot of pull-outs to take pictures at all the sights – mountains, valleys, waterfalls and old mining remains.

We spent Thursday seeing the amazing sights of Mesa Verde. 

 This is a national park built around the remains of the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi Indians. 

Similar to Black Canyon, we would drive from vista to vista to see the cliffs in this area as well as the dwellings built among the cliffs.  

We were actually able to take a tour into one of the more elaborate dwellings. 

Going out to dinner in Durango reminded me of being in a rough old western town from the movies. We stopped by the fly shop Duranglers and asked about the fishing.  They said they recommended dries, streamers or even nymphs on the Animas River.  The trout aren’t too selective they said.  After dinner we scouted out places to fish the next morning.  The Animas River is strewn full of large boulders with few real runs. There was an access point just south of town that seemed to have the best looking water. Even though the weather was nice, in the mornings it was freezing.  Nevertheless we headed out early and gave the river a shot.  We fished upstream and downstream, switching from dries to streamers and then nymphs-not even a strike. We did however, get painted by a ladies club of artists that also thought that spot of the river looked picture perfect.

On our drive back to the hotel we noticed a guide with a couple of clients.  They were fishing what looked like the only deep run in that stretch of water.  I pulled over to watch.  They were using nymphs under split shot and a strike indicator.  You can imagine my surprise when one of the clients hooked one and the guide netted the 15 inch rainbow. Even more surprising was in the few minutes I was pulled over to watch, he caught a second trout in the exact same spot.  The other client hadn’t caught one.  This seemed to be the one spot with actively feeding fish.  That’s the advantage of hiring a guide; they know exactly where in a long stretch of water the fish will be feeding.  I wish we had a couple more hours but it was getting late and we both had long drives ahead of us.  Especially Nick - all the way back to Cincinnati in time to take his son to six peaks for Halloween.

The Black Canyon Tour and Fishing

The next morning we headed toward the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  Although I knew it was a deep gorge that the river flowed through and would look spectacular, I had no idea of the immensity and number of evermore spectacular views there would be.  

At the park entrance you are given a map of the park and instructed that if you want to drive down to the river you take the super steep road to the right.  

To go to the visitor’s center and to tour the park, you go straight.  

We thought we would quickly check out the visitors center and a view or two and quickly be headed down to fish the river. 

Wow, was I in for a big surprise. This turned out to be the highlight of the whole trip.  

After seeing the first couple of awe inspiring views, we knew we needed to take the whole tour, especially the sights recommended by the Park Rangers, like Painted Wall.  

It seemed each new vista was impossibly more breath taking than the last. The rugged sheer cliffs of black granite with spires even steeper and more crazy than the previous were truly astounding.

Finally after being satisfied we’d seen all the sights of the park, we put the SUV into low gear and headed down the steep road to the river.  We started out going upstream and found a good access spot where we could follow a trail down to the river were there was widening bank.  

Would you believe the first cast produced a nice rainbow? We continued fishing upstream a bit into the fast riffles and then downstream into the deeper quiet pools.  

Then we headed downstream as far as the trail would take us and we were blocked by a vertical cliff in deep water.  This was fun fishing, Nick caught a big rainbow, but all in all, the fishing was slow. 

But, just being inside the canyon itself was spectacular, this time looking upwards at the jagged cliffs on each side of the river.