Montana Part 3
We got to our next destination which was another tailwater in a completely different part of the state. Unlike the first river, this one is not known for a lot of fish, but it does carry the occasional big one. I fished with Ryan the first day and he started out in the front of the boat. We agreed to switch spots when the guy in front landed a nice fish. We started the day blind casting hoppers and pmd dries near the banks until we spotted heads to target. As we floated down the river, we had a few takes, but didn’t connect. In one section, there was a really nice trout coming up and sipping dries, Ryan moved into position and had a take, but didn’t connect. We worked that run a bit longer and got back into the boat. As we came into a really fast run, a nice rainbow came up and sipped Ryan’s hopper, he set the hook and landed a good fighting fish.
I took over up front and as we came around the bend, we spotted a fish sipping right off the bank in some frog water. The guide tied on a size 18 pmd dry and we got into position. The water was low and clear so we had to do some casting with some pretty long leaders to avoid spooking fish. There was a small seam coming off the bank that I was trying to target. I used a reach cast and hit my target without needing to mend. As I let the cast go, I heard a cracking again, but this time on my Scott Centric. I didn’t want to take my eyes off the fly, so I grabbed the rod and pushed the sections together while staying focused on the fly. I let it drift about 5’ past the last spot the fish rose and then I moved my focus to the rod. Again, the middle section was slipping out and as I pushed it in, I heard Ryan and Ben scream SET! Of course, that’s how it always seems to happen. I stripped my line and ripped up a hookset as fast as I could hoping I wasn’t too late. As I stripped the line in I felt tension and put a good bend in the rod. Although I didn’t deserve it, thanks to some good anglers in the boat, I was able to connect and was in for a battle with an angry brown. Hoping my rod wasn’t going to snap mid battle, I took my time and jumped out of the driftboat so that I could keep the fish above me and use the rod angle to keep steady pressure on the fish. After about 2 minutes, we had a 23” brown in the boat. As we took the fly out of it’s mouth, we noticed the hook was bent, glad that battle ended just in time!
Ryan was back in the front of the boat and hooked into a giant rainbow, I still think it was the biggest rainbow I’ve ever seen. He had a great hookset and was in for one hell of a battle. After the fish took off a ways, he was able to battle it all the way back to the boat, but the fish was not ready and made another break for it upstream. As it turn up, the fly popped and I think we were all heart broken, we just sat there for a minute trying to figure out what happened and why it went wrong. Not long after I casted my hopper into a shallow side channel. I was staring at it intently and watched it disappear, but never saw a fish come up to eat. I gave it a solid hookset and couldn’t budge the fish an inch, I just felt the headshakes and then the fly popped. I wish I gave it another hookset to really drive the fly in when there was still tension, but it never crossed my mind in the moment. As we approached the boat ramp, I let my fly float out in some frog water but wasn’t expecting much. Right before we pulled out, I watched a brown trout rise up from the bottom and take my hopper, I gave it a solid hookset but never felt tension.
Bob and Jim were fishing a different section and they had quite a few takes and were able to get some fish in the boat as well. Solid ending to the first day.
Ryan and I fished together again the second day and continued with the same tactics. I stuck with my Scott centric 6 weight, since it lasted the entire day before, I assumed it was totally fine to fish with. We tried keeping a good distance away from the boat with our casts given the water conditions. I was just talking about how tricky it gets for me to get a good hookset and maintain tension when I’m making long casts. Just as I said that, I noticed a fish swallow the hopper. I set the hook and felt the fish but then it came running right at the boat. I kept stripping line in as fast as I could but pretty much got to the last 10 feet and still didn’t have any tension. Not completely giving up hope I gave one more pull and caught up to the fish, it was still on! It swam about 8 feet away from the boat and then decided to take off again. I nice fiery rainbow to start the day!
Unfortunately that was also the last decent fish we landed that day. Ryan got into a few nice ones before the take out but wasn’t able to land them. Jim and Bob also got into some nice fish that day with a few really big ones getting the better of them as well.
On the last day, I fished with my father in law and Ryan went with Jim. They left early in the morning and Bob and I followed a few hours behind. I decided to sit back, have a few beers and not really fish much that day. I was really hoping my father in law would get into a nice fish on this river before the end of the trip. He hooked a few but wasn’t able to land them up to the point. I brought Jim’s nymphing rod, I thought if we hit some fast water, I might try to nymph a few trout in the sea of whitefish! Between the kayakers, other boats, and people floating in tubes, it wasn’t starting to look like a great day for fishing. Bob was able to get a few takes early on, but nothing of size. He fished through a fast water section and I decided to go behind him with a nymph after he fished through it. On my first cast, I saw the sighter stop and set the hook, I felt some fast headshakes at first and thought whitefish for sure, but then it made a run that was a lot more like a brown trout. I was able to steer it back toward me and confirmed it was a brown trout.
I felt a tiny bit sad for catching that fish when my father in law was still searching for a good one, but he did fish through that section already and I did offer him my nymph set up which he declined…Overall it was a slow day for us, nothing else in the boat other than whitefish, but Jim and Ryan had a very different experience. Ryan was able to land a giant rainbow and brown trout, Jim was also able to bring in a pretty good brown!
What a great week spent in Montana, it was the first time I was actually tired of fishing and ready to go home. Having two young boys at home that love the outdoors make me feel guilty on these trips and want to leave early, but at the same time, I can’t wait to do these trips with them in the future (hopefully they still like fishing)!