The Ladders

I guess I was due.  Yesterday I fished a brief window in the morning and caught a couple, then it blew unfishable just as the hatch was starting.  There were bugs, but the fish weren't on 'em.  They were eating a caddis when one floated over, but not baetis.

This morning I hooked up the trailer and left the campsite so that I could head south after fishing the ladders.  Figured I'd stick it out as long as I could and get out before the gales of October return tomorrow.  I'm not exactly excited to do any weekend fishing in the snow and cold either, given the way fishing's been.  Gunner never made it, so I had to be sure this was still the best fall run on the river.  Oh, it is alright.

The wind was down, the skies had some clouds, and I was the only one there for a long time.  Arrived to bugless water, but I knew just what part of Gunner Flat held the fish.  Each little cranny.  The water was low enough that any moving fish made a wake or disturbed water.  Current was slow.  Just right for the leech. 

It reminded me a lot of baby tarpon fishing. I fished a long leader, and made light presentations trying not to spook the fish with the cast.  Sometimes I did anyway.  The casts were leading, the strips short and slow, and then there was the wake and the take. Every fish jumped 4, 5, 6 times because I could put the wood to them with the 3X.  Trout here just do that anyway.   This wasn't "chuck and duck" fishing.  More spot and stalk, only with the little wet fly.  I wonder if they would have eaten a micro Gurgler with a little green squirrel tail?  Hmmm. (on the list to tie)

The rest is history.  Real nice fish.  Damn near "dime a dozen." More than a dozen easily, just on the leech alone.  They were coming after it. Around MO-thirty (12:45), some olives started floating down.  They sputtered through the afternoon, but the fish still weren't all over 'em.  The wind became more gusty, which didn't help, but the fish still haven't become dialed in to the little mayflies.  I did cast to some rising fish mid-afternoon and took some on the only fly I fished.  My back gave out by the time the wind became sustained late afternoon.  

I considered just heading back to the bridge and staying another day or three, but it seems like the right time to say goodbye for now, probably until June.  It wasn't a good feeling winding though the canyon back towards Helena, but its usually best to quit on a high note, and today was as good of day as I've had in a month.  It will be a good one to remember until the PMD's and Caddis welcome me back next summer.  Well, unless . . . 

Hoped for one of these

The approach filled with hope

One of the magical runs

Flat shallow water.  

I can't begin to get a hand around these things

"Emerger" leech for the slowest, shallowest flats.  

Steelhead-like

I could see 'em all over here

I wondered why I missed my next few eats!  

No since beating around the bush.  Went right to 'ole Sri Lanka this afternoon.

Just had to lay their bellies down and prop 'em up.

Last look back on the way out

Just what I hoped for