Return to the 'Fork...

Sums it up...

CoD just posted a tid bit about his overnight trip on the Bow River. They encountered lots of rising fish which normally is a good thing. Not this day my friends.

I think he summed up how we all feel about one of the last bugs we have to deal with as summer winds down...

"Trico spinner eaters are a bitch!"

Indeed sir, indeed.

A Change of Seasons...

After a long, hot, dry summer this year, we finally got some relief last week in the form of some rain. Along with the rain came a nice cold front that I am hoping is a sign for a season change to transition into fall.

Fall around here can offer someone up several options to be outside. Dove and teal season opened up, smallmouth make their final push to feed before winter, and the brown trout start their pre-spawn shenanigans on our tailwaters. It's a great time to be out and about...

My hunting buddies opening morning of teal...

 

The Professor w/ a nice smallie

 

JoeyC w/ a Norfork brown...

 

Some of us r gonna sneak out this weekend to do some fishing and we r ready to go! Where u ask? That's still up in the air and won't be decided till we r in the truck headed that way! I wouldn't have it any other way...

The Montana Project: Part 6

Day 8: The Mighty Mo' and then so long Big Sky...

Well our last day in Montana was upon us as we slowly crawled out of our sleeping bags on Friday morning. After a week of blowing and going, everyone was really slow to get fired off and it took us a little longer to get loaded up. I think expectations and motivation were pretty low for the day as the Missouri is known for being a super technical fishery and, on top of that, the fishing the past few weeks had really slowed down due to rising water temps.

Most boats were heading up to the dam to do the row-around hot laps as most of the fish were concentrated in those first few miles below the dam. We wanted to avoid the boat show as best we could so we decided to do Wolf Creek to Craig for our float. We were first to the parking lot and started rigging up in hopes of being the 1st ones on the water. That hope was dashed after 10 minutes as trucks w/ drift boats started to pour into the parking lot, it was a circus to say the least. Guys were drag racing down the boat ramp to get on the water first, cutting each other off, and it was just total chaos. We didnt get in any hurry, finished rigging up, launched boats, and started our last float trip for the journey...

 

 

Now this is where I would love to tell you how we found pods of big rainbows sipping bugs where we slayed them on dries or how we caught some nice browns against the banks with big bushy hoppers...but that would be lying and fisherman don't lie. (I mean, wait...what?) No, but seriously, we got our ass kicked on the Mo' that day. The river lived up to its reputation for us and didnt give it up to us. I caught 1 small rainbow on a bobber rig, we got a few half-hearted swipes on the foam, and Cole turned a nice fish on a streamer just before the take out. That was it. We did find 1 nice bank that had 3 small pods of rainbows looking up and sipping tricos off the surface. We setup on 2 of the pods and Chris did his best to get an eat but we didnt get any love. The Mo' reminded me a lot of the White River when its rolling 12,000cfs or higher....just 1 big, wide, flat seam lazily working its way downstream. There was only 1 riffle that we found and thats where I caught my fish, right off the ledge. It was a tough day for us which nobody really was surprised so we just pushed on down to the take out.

 

 

Now, I'm not gonna down the Mo' at all as we have all heard too many stories about how much of a freak show that place can be. We got a small taste of it with those small pods of fish we found, totally cool to see. We probably couldn't of picked a worst time to try our luck on a such a technical fishery. I think, if I ever return to the Mo', I will fish it with a guide to maximize my time on the river. Or come back in Sept or Oct to streamer fish the river when the browns start to move up.  I will return one day to the Mighty Mo'...

 

We got the boats loaded up and started up the process of stowing gear away for the road trip back home. What a depressing time. Usually after a few days of fishing hard, even I'm ready to go home but not on this trip. We got the trucks loaded up and headed out of Craig around Noon with our next destination being Helena where we would stop for lunch. After filling our bellies, we put the proverbial hammer down and headed for home. We stayed the night in Casper, Wyoming so everyone could get a hot shower and a good nights sleep before our final push for home. The drive home was pretty uneventful minus a stop in Cabelas in Sydney, Nebraska to check it out. Totally let down for my 1st Cabelas experience but I have heard the other stores are better. After that, we grabbed some lunch, and then pointed the trucks for home. After a long day, we made it to my house about 2:00 am. We were home...what a trip...

 

To sum up our journey, I have never been to a place so amazing as Montana. The fishing, the landscape, the wildlife, the people, the lifestyle up there...everything about it, I absolutely loved. It lived up to every expectation I had, even though we had some tough fishing a couple of days. I have been to some cool places in my life (Australia, New Mexico, Colorado, California, Tennessee, and even our Ozarks are nice) but none of them hold a candle to Montana. We only just scratched the surface of what the state has to offer too, I cant wait to go back. For 1 week, I can honestly say that we didnt just chase the dream, we lived the dream...

 

 





We will return...

Nice pike, eh?

Our southern CTD representative, Cody Young, took a trip to the North Country with some buddies this past week to chase smallmouth, pike, and walleye. He dropped this sweet dangler on us today via the Facebooks...

The Montana Project: Part 5

Day 7: Goodbye Missoula, River "X", and Craig...

Well, the day had come to say goodbye to the Missoula area, our cabin, and this part of our journey in Big Sky Country. I think everyone mighta been a little depressed when we packed up in the early morning hours to head to River "X" and then head onto Craig to fish the Mo'. The Missoula area had been an awesome experience for us all but it was time to roll...

We decided to head back to the back country to fish the same stream that CoreyD, Squatch, and I had fished on Monday so everyone got to experience it. We made the same trek to the east and arrived at the trailhead early to give everyone enough time to hike to different spots and fish till a set time. Everyone packed their gear up and we decided on letting DonnyB, Crik, and Cole to hike in the furthest while the rest of us just hiked in a mile or so to fish back to the parking lot....

 



I can't say anything about this place that hasnt already been said in a previous blog post. It is absolutely amazing up there. Am I over-exaggerating? Absolutely not. With the cooler weather we had that day, the dry fly bite wasnt as good as the previous trip but we were still able to pick a few fish up on dries. Some of us switched over, started chucking the bobber, and started picking up fish in all the likely holes. We saw a couple more nice bull trout as well, my god, those fish are awesome! One day I must fish a river where you can fish for them legally (cant fish for them legally in River "X"). Not much else I can say about this place...so I'm gonna let the pictures speak for themselves...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After fishing most of the morning and into the afternoon, we all happened to meet up on the main trail to make the trek back to the truck. After getting our gear stowed away, we loaded up to finish up our drive over to Craig, Montana to check out the Missouri. The first part of the drive over was pretty sweet as we made our way over the pass and into the foothills. Totally cool part of Montana...

 

We arrived in Craig around 4:00, just in time to see all the guides and clients arriving back from their trips for the day. For such a small town, this place was really busy as there were guide rigs buzzing around from the boat ramp to the fly shops to the bar. It was crazy to say the least. Craig is truly a "trout town", no denying it. There are 3 fly shops, a bar, a restraunt, a burrito stand, a mini storage, and a handful of houses....thats it! I have never seen so many drift boats in my life, it was absolutely nuts! We made a pitstop at the famous Headhunters to schedule a shuttle and pick up a few flies. Very cool shop for being so small. Several guides and fisherman out front on the porch enjoying some free beers out of the mondo huge Yeti cooler, BSin' about the days fishing. Lots of cool merchandise inside. Awesome fly selection, everything you would need for the Mo'. The crew at Headhunters were extremely helpful with picking out a float/shuttle for the next day, hooked us up with some flies, and gave us directions for our put-in. Awesome stuff...

 

 

We snagged up 1 of the last few camp spots at the famous Craig Trout Camp, pitched our tents, and then wandered over to Izaaks to grab some food. First impression of Izaaks when we walked in was "Wow, we are totally out-classed here!" as this was a high-end restraunt for such a small town. Wasn't sure if we would get kicked out as we were all in fishing clothes from the days hike and I cant even imagine how awesome we smelled. Thankfully, shortly after we turned in our order...guides and fisherman slowly started trickling in with the rest of the crowd. The place was packed before we knew it. The food was great. They had some really cool local brews from around Montana that the rest of the crew all tried out. Service was great. Minus the fact it was a little pricey, pretty awesome place to eat.

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we headed back to the campsite and pulled up chairs next to the Mo' to enjoy the rest of the evening. Kinda cool to be sitting next to a world class dry fly river with your buddies, watching fish rise randomly up and down the river, and seeing drift boats coming in from their late evening trips. As darkness set in, a few of the guys got a little restless and wandered over to Joe's Bar to check out the local watering hole. From what I understand, it was quite the experience. We all found our sleeping bags shortly afterwards and settled in for the night. Man what a freaking cool town...

 

The journey comes to an end with a float down the Mighty Mo'....hang with us!

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

The Montana Project: Part 4

Day 6: Adrift on the Clarks Fork...

After a long day of slow fishing on the Blackfoot, we regrouped the next morning and put on our happy faces as we headed for Missoula to go float the "town section" of the Clarks Fork. Things were looking up for us already that morning as we were met with overcast skies and cooler temps, which hopefully meant the trout would be looking up. We met up with Zach at the fly shop and then made our way to the boat ramp...

 

We got the boats launched and started our journey down the mighty Clarks Fork. The Clarks Fork is a big wide river, it reminded me a lot of our own White River in Arkansas. Although, I gotta say, the Clarks Fork is a lot easier on the eyes. We started the day throwing streamers at some nice banks, turning some fish but didnt put any fish in the boat. Things changed as we made a bend to find Zach and Squatch anchored up on a pod of risers in a nice slick. We dropped anchor next to them and watched as Squatch did his best to dissect the pod. He was able to get a couple of eats but couldnt hook up so we moved on downstream. Things were starting to look up for us as all 3 boats found a pod of risers to drop anchor and go to work on. It was totally cool to see each boat posted up on some fish and the guys trying to get a trout to rise to their bug. The fish showed us some love and each boat was able to stick some fish in the boat on the dry fly bug!

 

 

 

 

After picking apart some pods of risers in the 1st part of our float, our luck kinda went south for a while. The sun decided to poke out and the wind started to blow which, in turn, put all the fish down. We went back to chuckin' streamers for a while with no luck. The day was starting to turn south for us again. Luckily, we came up on a few sweet long run that allowed us to get out of the boats and do some wade fishing. We dug out the bobber rigs and went to work. We had to pluck out a few whitefish to get to the trout but it paid off as we were able to hook up with some rainbows.

 

 

 

Highlight of the day was during our lunch break stop. We were pulled up on a bank with a nice seam flowing through some big boulders right in front of us and on downstream of us. Squatch was posted up in the front of Zachs raft with a "Montana Streamer Rig" (big streamer under a big bobber). He was bouncing the big bug through the rocks in the current when the indicator dove. He set the hook to find he was hooked up with "something" good. The fish put up a nice fight especially in the current but Squatch finally got the fish turned to the boat. As it got closer, we realized we were looking at a HUGE pikeminnow also known as a squawfish or streamer fishermans whitefish. They are a minnow/creek chub on steroids. They are a trash fish in Montana but it was totally cool to catch such a big one! Sadly, before we could get a photo...the fish got away from Squatch's hand but we did get a quick clip of it on the GoPro!

 

We continued on down the river and picked up fish here and there to keep the day interesting. We chucked the bobber rig somemore along with throwing hoppers at the good banks to catch our fish. Again, the scenery made up for the fishing as it was starting to slow down as the day warmed up. The Clarks Fork just kinda lazily meanders its way through the valley and you have great views no matter which way you look. Mountains, foothills, and farm land...a very diverse landscape!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few other funny moments from the day was as the float dragged on, what I like to call silly time started up. It started off with a certain someone (me) grabbing a big rock and stashing it in the skiff. Then when the other guys werent looking, I chucked that sucker in the water next to them and soaked them all. They never saw it coming!

 

 Another funny moment was when Crik and I was fishing a nice looking bank with the foam bugs looking for a good brown that Zach said had been caught there a couple of times over the summer. I had just looked away from my bug for a second when I heard the swirl of water and looked back to see my bug gone. I set the hook on a decent fish and thought, bingo! Well....it turned out to be a dang pikeminnow! So I got a piece of one of the ignorant things too!

 



 

 

The next quality moment of the day was right at the end of the float where we came around a bend to find a MASSIVE rock on the opposite bank overlooking a deep hole. Somebody (Zach) turned to us to let us know that we dont have any guts at all if one of us didnt jump off the rock. Luckily, Chris was up to the challenge as was CoreyD so we pulled ashore to watch the shenanigans! We strapped both of them up with the GoPro for each jump and took some pics as well. Hopefully the video will come to light soon and everyone will get to see it all!

 

 

 



 

What a great day on the water! It was a long day for the crew and we were glad to see the boat ramp. The only bad thing was that meant that our last night in Missoula was upon us. Everyone was hesitant to leave the river it seemed as they knew that this part of our journey was coming to an end. We gave thanks to Zach for showing us around the area and loaded the boats up to head back to the cabin for our last night. We returned to the cabin and had our last dinner in the cabin which consisted of grilled ribeyes and fried potatoes, not a bad way to end the day. We spent the rest of the night packing gear and preparing for the day of travel and fishing tomorrow.

 

The plan had changed for us as we had a day to burn so we decided to hit up "River X" tomorrow on our way over to Craig to fish the Mighty Mo' on Friday. We spent the rest of the evening discussing the past weeks adventures in the Missoula area. What an awesome place...

 

 

 



The next day, we returned to the back country...stay tuned...