So underrated this time of year. The fish rise at dawn's early light. Nobody's on the water. Calm, cool, and careful. Not enough bugs for selectivity. And this morning, tanks were out. Pictures don't do 'em justice. Worthy opponents that barely fit in the net. Upstream stalks, ankle-deep. Careful!
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| Solitude where 8 carloads ended up mid-morning at the Tree |
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| Way longer than my arm. |
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| Couldn't even get this one's head up. |
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| They took it for a caddis or PMD. |
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| Aftermath of a few days |
The river is boiling the evening, and for some of the past few days, the air temperature too. Mornings OK. Would be better if I could get around. Caddis and PMD's. Crowded on the weekend, but I've seen it worse than it has been on the weekdays. Still can only fish a few hours at a time. I should have come to the MO as soon as they lowered the water. That day, immediately. Learn from this too, if there's another year I can do it, and the water is this low at this time. Might be next year, another decade, or never. Blown opportunity. It's a year of blown and missed opportunities, so why should I be surprised? This one was all my fault though. That damn Henry's Fork anyway.
Arriving on the weekend, campsites and pullouts were all filled. I had driven to Pelican years ago, and I remembered seeing two or three shady campsites there. I knew how to get there, and one just happened to be open. I've fished this river seasonally since the early 80's, yet had never wet a line below Prewett creek, where the river leaves the Big Belts. Now I have. I only saw 3 or 4 anglers other than the occasional boat floating by. More floaters than I expected, but not even close to the circus up top. Its big down here, with plenty of room. The road on the other side gives access to a couple miles of lightly fished water.
Got to love Cascade too. A well-stocked fly shop, grocery store, gas station, and laundromat all in the same block, on the same side of the street! Just minutes from the campsite. And its sure nice this year, at the end of June, to see across the big sky to the distant mountain ranges instead of struggling to breathe through the smoke.
I spent some evenings up top at a couple of my usual haunts. Couldn't pass up the no-brainer of boiling fish until dark on both sides of Craig. One more morning, then off to the Creeks for 9 days. Armstrong's, Depuy's, and Nelson's, oh my!
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| OH HELL YA |
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| Right at Camp |
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| Shadiest Campsite on the MO |
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| Evening Caddis Blizzards |
When the wind is blowing 25-40 on the MO, I take an afternoon drive. I hadn't been back to this one in ages. Its on the way to a big spring creek, and on the back way to several spring creeks. It was blowin' here too, but Norman liked it. I need to fish it again, and go higher up.
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| Montana Retirement Cabin. Near good fly-fishing creek. Needs work. |
Sometimes getting into a routine backfires. I get into routines. Fishing familiar runs that have brought recent success, despite those runs not currently producing. Such as it was for Millionaires and the Ranch View runs lately. I wanted the fish there to rise. "Those" fish. The ones I got into at the opener. They wouldn't. There were PMD's, at times lots, both hatching and spinners. After a few piss-poor mornings and evenings, I moved to the upper ranch, and the fish were rising despite the crowds. They weren't those 20"+ Millionaires fish, but they were nice enough, and damn sure welcome after pissing away three days down lower. Lesson learned? Maybe, maybe not. But it'll be tucked into the memory bank for a while. I was ready to move on, somewhere, anywhere, if things didn't brighten up. The MO is rumored to be insanely crowded. I'll probably still have to see for myself before hitting the creeks starting July 1. Until then, Log Jam to 3rd Fence will work. Ants and Moles did the catching. I awoke the next morning to the wind. Again. Enough is enough. Outta here.
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| Familiar Waters |
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| A Harrop winged beetle creation from last year |
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Here we go sports fans. She dropped some more and cleared some more. The cooler, cloudy weather brought out a sparse, yet effective pmd hatch from 10:00-1:00. (No spinner fall before that though) The fish were chompin.' Upstream, downstream, across stream, it didn't matter. They were eating the Mole, coming after it, eating it again right after a miss, turning to get it. I couldn't take it off. I don't know what happened to my Henry's Fork. I mean, its tough, right? Dead Drift U. Its fish are selective, especially on the slowest, flattest stretches where I fished in front of the ranch houses. Right? Well, that's why "the opener" is special. Except for the brief window yesterday, today was the real opening day of favorable flows and weather. It showed. One to remember. And a big fish.
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| NOW WE'RE TALKIN' |
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| Just your garden-variety Millionaires 18-incher |
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| They could not, and would not, leave it alone. It never got refused. So simple, so effective. |
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| OUCH! Mother . . . They're tougher than we think. In good shape otherwise, feeding away. |
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| This could be the fish of the month, or trip. A two-foot-long Millionaires signature fish. Hooked right here, on the bank. It's the reason why. |
He's making the trip and keeping me going so far. Not much to say except it would be pretty empty without him, and we're only into this for less than a week so far. The training from 8 weeks to now is showing its progress beyond my expectations. I have to remember he's just a puppy, but man, what a perfect traveler. Bed hog too. I love it.
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| Same spot I first waded into the Henry's Fork exactly 40 years ago |
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| He's been on the platform now. |
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| Sat to see a fly cast |
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| Stayed while I cast and cast |
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| Our new Island Park digs |
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| He sat there while I fished for a good 20 minutes |
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| Puppy has to see why I'm in the water, and he's not. |
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| Hope I can selectively take him along as things progress |
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| Bed hog. Sleeps all night perfectly. |
