Monsters

Up before dawn to feed the boy, and still didn't have a plan.  I could have got on Depuy's again.  But, I followed my senses.  On to I-90 out of Livingston just after sunrise, still not certain of the destination, but an idea.  Passing a possible exit here and another one there, I finally take one.  I roll into monster land at 9am sharp.  Out of the truck and a stroll over to the river, I'm surprised to see the monsters sipping bugs in remarkably clear water.  PMD's in the air, and spent ones all over the water.  Oh shit, better hurry. The trout are as long as my arm.

They chomped clear into afternoon.  Some too big to hold.  And I was coming here to swing the still-rigged 3 weight that had such a pleasant feel on the Livingston creeks, on a little creek here.  Ha!  Some of these browns could eat those Livingston spring creek trout for breakfast.  Water is a little higher now, yet much clearer than before.  Fish rising on the banks, in the pools, and in the riffles.  This is about as good as it gets here.

The plan a few days back was to go to Glacier today.  Fish the Swan, upper Flathead, maybe the Thompson again.  Right.  I couldn't do it because I remember things.  Maybe next week I'll go exploring, Idaho or something.  Once in a while days like this are a reminder that sometimes it can be too good, too easy.  It's a fun reminder for sure, but I stopped when there were still fish to be caught pretty easily.  Know when to say when.  I was too worn out to even attempt the evening, and it rained starting about an hour before sunset anyway. I'm not going back to the Fork or to Silver just for the challenge though.  There'll be plenty of challenging days ahead, and I'll be remembering this one.  Big fish, big flies I can see, and big tippets so I can land 'em right. The morning I drove a couple hours right into perfection, and it seemed like I knew exactly what I was doing.

I'm gonna start and put this one right here.  Biggest fish of the trip.  First one I threw at.  Two-footer.

PMD spinners and brown trout.  Perfect RX.

Started with this one.

Second fish I threw at 40 feet below the first one.

They liked a "Jacked Up Cahill"  Just pinch it, clip it, and powder it.

Front view of the Jacked Up Cahill

Right up Main Street.  Upstream game from here.

Grand Central Rising Station. Podded up.

The fly of the day, a gray-hackle peacock.  Powdered.  Partridge.  It moves.  It's alive and tasty.

Even after the secured peacock is all chewed up, it keeps on ticking.

Rusty Spinner Lip

The fly formerly tied as a Swisher/Richards No-Hackle.  Starting to get tattered.

Damn, a tattered No Hackle makes a mighty fine looking soft hackle.  Should I start tying some soft hackles with these duck feathers?  Mess 'em all up and tie 'em in?  The trout said yes.

Pig Pen

Last but not least, riverfront "affordable housing" in Dillon Montana. Well, without the land it might be.

One Epic Day

Last two days on the creek.  Yesterday was one of those.  Cloudy almost from the start, no wind, and good bugs.  A couple early afternoon passing lightning storms just wet enough to put on the rain gear.  Just enough close lightning to send me moving at a fast pace to the truck for an hour or so.  It was pretty good before the storm, and just silly easy to a heavy hatch afterward until the wind blew it all away around 4:30.  But the place was boiling for a few hours.  More heads than a guy could ever cast to.  Pick your fish.  Pick your lie.  Big fish in the slick below Betty's.  Eating anything and everything.  Not too crowded, me and three other guys in the whole run, and they were in and out.

Today, in contrast, was sunny from start to finish.  Calm until about Noon, then that north wind blowing upstream all afternoon.  Hatch was mediocre, and the fish were on midges early and throughout the day.  Once in a while I'd get an eat on a mole, spider, little cdc emerger, or something like that.  Small stuff.  Same run, same fish.  This afternoon about 6, I returned to the PHD pool and made up for the ones I missed there with the mole earlier in the afternoon.  This time with the spider.  

Livingston is one of the few places you can catch a fish in a spring creek, get a 90 minute massage, grab a DQ Blizzard, and get back on the creek with another fish on, all in three hours!  (In Campeche, its catch a tarpon at "crappie tree," get a one-hour massage, and be eating coconut shrimp at La Pigua in three hours!)  This week goes by so fast.  Seven days sounds like a lot, but it passes quickly.  

Ole Asshat showed up here this morning.  Walked down the bank right next to where I was casting, stepped right in behind a guide and his client properly below me, then started fishing in casting range closely below them.  Come to find out, he's a local politician, once kicked off of here, and this morning told to leave the best little fly shop in Montana.   

Yesterday's PMD's.  Big ones, 16's.  There were BWO's too.

This one has a Mole in his lip

And this one has a spider in his lip

In some light rain.  Big drops though.

The traditional spider, again.  Mowed down the last three fish on the PHD pool with it this afternoon.  Wind was up, blowing upstream from the North.  I was casting straight upstream, with a greased leader all the way to the powdered fly, right over 'em.  Slurp!

Bet this was quite a shitter with a view at one time.

A favorite red barn on the next ranch up.

Not a perfect camp spot, but better than most, close to town, close to the creeks, and private other than some horses, cowboys, and a few other local residents.

Duns?

The rain let up just in time for yesterday morning's fishing.  Back to the fly-shop run, as Eva's was a parking lot, literally.  But I was the only one in the upper part of the pool, with a couple below me where the current slowed. Hatch was so-so.  A little late getting started, short-lived, and not a lot of bugs.  Enough to keep some fish up for a few hours though.  One of the first fish I saw eat, took a dun.  OK, that's not the first time in the world that's happened.  But still.  I figured what the hell, and I tied one on.  

The grizzly hackle one.  The eats came, and so did the misses.  There's something about that bug.  They sure love it, and I sure seem to have those mornings sometimes where I get 20 percent of the takes if I'm lucky.  This was one of those, but I couldn't take it off!  I eventually touched a few, and then I decided to try a change of scenery at the end of my tippet.

I hadn't fished the original Swisher-Richards No Hackle in forever, so I tied one on.  Two hours later, and all chewed up, they just continued to eat it.  Here it is past noon, and all I've fished are the two duns.  This one shined, but I fished it during the peak of activity.  The hatch waned, but there were still some random rises further up in the riffle.  I needed something they hadn't seen, and a single-wing CDC dun seemed the right choice.  I tied one on.

They ate that one until I got out of the water around 2:00 as the wind increased.  They ate it later in the early evening down at the now-empty Eva's until I quit around 8.  I think this is the first time in my life I've ever fished a dun all day long anywhere, especially on the creeks.  I always fish an emerger, cripple, spinner, or some stage of a PMD this time of year.  In fact, most days I never tie on a Dun.

Fast forward to today.  Change of creek scenery again, as Eva's was empty except for Travis and his one client at the bend below the hut.  Nobody else between there and the outlet.  In July?  I'll take it.  But the hatch was weak, very weak.  There were some small fish taking something invisible for a while, and some PMD's finally popped up in the outlet riffle very late morning where I got some fish (On duns!!).  I saw as much activity early to mid-afternoon up toward Eva's walking back to the truck though.  Travis said the hatch up there was "pretty good, light to moderate."  I think I need to stay closer to hatch riffles/gravel.  All sunshine and no wind today.  I missed some doozies.

Five down, two to go.  Man time flies.  I wish winter would pass this quickly.  At least the damn fireworks are over, mostly.  What is it about Montanan's and their week-long firework shit every night?  Grow up.  

Not as many risers as you'd think until noon or so.

Some earlier small spooky ones on this bank.

Just a rock.  But the head on the fish that ate my PMD in front of it looked half the size of the rock.  The wake it made when I lifted and it bolted away went over the top of the rock.

Somebody got a clear water swim at the end of the evening.

Biot single-wing dun

A traditional English spider, "variant," with short biot abdomen and dubbed thorax.  They like it!

A sparse, thread tail single wing with dubbed body and tight thread ribbing.

Did I tie it?  Hell no.  It works new, and when its all apart.  They really ate it.

So, can you have a no-hackle tied with hackle?  Does that make it a yes hackle?  A hackle what?  A grizzly hackle yellow?  Its been working wonders for me for well over a decade

Single wing in the upper lip.