The Montana Project: Part 3

Day 5: Adrift on the Blackfoot...

After a full day of back country fishing and hiking, we were ready to get our lazy asses in the drifters and do some lazy man float fishing on a beautiful river. After our discussion with the guys at the Missoulian Angler, we found out that the area rivers were lower than normal so we restricted to just floating the lower Blackfoot River and the "town section" of the Clarks Fork. Our 1st river of the 2 to float for the trip was the Blackfoot River. Also, after an early morning wake up call, we were pleased to find out that Zach Scott of False Cast and Flat Tires would be joining us with his raft for the float trip. Sweet...

One cool thing about the drive to the put-in, Hwy 200 follows the Blackfoot River for quite a ways so you get an eyeful of the water you're about to float. We made our way to the put in and began the standard ritual of getting the boats ready and in the water. At this point, Zach still hadn't showed up. We got rods rigged up and the boats loaded with our gear. Still no Zach? We launch my boat. Still no Zach? We launch Corey's boat. Still no Zach. We pull the trucks over to the parking lot and I get out of the truck and then I hear someone coming down the gravel road....FAST! I look up to see a red Ford truck and trailer with a rubber raft barely strapped down coming toward the parking lot. Its Zach. He comes flying by us and yells "Just making sure you were still here, I'll be back! Gotta go pay for a shuttle!" Indeed...

 

 

 

 

After we finally got Zach on the water, we pointed the boats downstream and it didnt take long to realize that the Blackfoot is nothing short of stunning. Hell, just sitting at the put-in, we were in awe at our surroundings. We started the morning off chuckin' the bobber and throwing streamers to kill time till we could start throwing some foam nasty bugs at the banks. The bite was pretty slow minus a few fish coming off the bobber rigs which we were warned that water temps were starting to be an issue on the local rivers so the fishing could be a little slow. I must say, I was really worried when we launched my boat and I stepped off into the river...it wasn't cold at all. Felt like our smallie streams back home honestly, oh well. Onward we go!

 

As the morning progressed, we switched to hoppers and started pounding the good looking banks in hopes of a good foam bite. Sadly, the bite never really took off for us. We were able to put a few fish in the boats with the foam and even hooked up with a few BIG fish but couldnt make the hooks stick. As the day wore on and the sun got higher, the bite just turned off on us. The Blackfoot proceeded to kick our face in for the remainder of the float...

 



 

 

Now I must point out here that what the Blackfoot lacked in fishing, it more than made up for it in the float and the scenery. This is an absolute beautiful river to float. For most of the float, you can just start to look around and you really feel like you're in a wild place, miles from civilization. I stopped fishing or rowing numerous times and just stood up to look around to soak in the views. Amazing...

 

The other thing about the lower Blackfoot is the river itself is freaking awesome to row a drift boat on. Lots of technical areas where you really get to move the boat around and maneuver around big boulders, logs, etc. There was some light whitewater sections where we actually had water splashing into my boat numerous times on some decent drops. I'm not saying they were Class III rapids or anything but it was more technical than anything we have in the Ozarks. I had a blast and Squatch got some much needed experience on the sticks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last interesting thing about the Blackfoot River was the takeout at the end of the day. As we made the final bend in the float, we could see the "boat ramp" or lack thereof. It was sketchy to say the least. There was a ramp, but it came up about 6ft short of the waters edge and there was a 2ft drop where it looked like flooding had washed that part of the ramp away. We beached the boats and everyone looked to Zach for answers. Well, we didnt like his answer as he informed us that most people just hook onto their boat with the winch line on their trailer and drag their boat up the ramp. Not exactly what we were wanting to hear but we were game. Luckily, 3 guide boats showed up shortly after us and everyone pitched in to help hand load boats onto trailers. It was a cool experience to end the day as everyone pulled together to get the job done so nobody had to beat the shit out of their boats.

 

 

 

All in all, it was a good day even though the fishing was off. The scenery was amazing and the river was a blast to float. Afterwards, we all loaded up and hit up a local restaurant called Iron Horse for some local food and brews. Very cool place and delicious food! Reminded me a lot of Eskimo Joes in Stillwater, Oklahoma back in the ol' college days. After filling our bellies, we made our way back to the cabin to prep for the next days float and then called it a night early....

 

Coming up next...the mighty Clarks Fork...

 

 





The Montana Project: Part 2

Day 4: Back Country Adventures...

We had planned on spending a day to split up and do some back country fishing instead of spending the entire trip in the drifts boats. We figured it would be a great way to see some beautiful country, see some wildlife, and have a shot at some Westslope cutthroat or a Bull Trout. Also, Donny had an old high school buddy who lived in Deer Lodge, MT that he wanted to see and get to fish with. After some discussion, we figured out who was going where and we departed from our cabin early on monday morning with backpacks, food, and light fly rods. We were going in...

The plan for DonnyB, Crik, and Cole to head south to meet Donnys buddy, Chris, who was gonna take them up to an alpine lake and then over to the headwaters of Rock Creek to fish for some Westslope Cutthroat. After meeting up, they all piled into Chris' truck and started heading up in elevation. Now, I only got bits and pieces of the story but from what I gather, they had a nice mountain road to travel on for the majority of the trip and then the road just kinda...ended. Or so they thought. Chris just pointed his ol' Dodge dually up the mountain logging road/trail/path or whatever it was, then just kept on truckin' up the mountain. I guess it got pretty rough as they made their way up the road to the "trailhead".

After that, they loaded up their packs and started for the alpine lake. Now, from what I understand, the "trail" they had wasn't a walk in the park. Most of the hike was going off of Chris' memory and looking at his GPS I believe. They literally did some mountain climbing at certain points of the hike, working their way straight up the slope from what they tell me. Then at some point, they got turned around and kinda lost their way but thankfully, with the help of the GPS, they got back on track.

 

It was all worth it because they finally made it to their destination...

It was just your typical high mountain alpine lake. The water was very cold and crystal clear. The lake had a shallow flat all the way around it and then dropped off into an abyss in the middle. It didnt take the boys long to get rigged up and started combing the shallow flats around the lake's edge. They were rewarded all morning with pretty little cutthroat that were more than willing to eat just about any fly they wanted to toss out. Hoppers, streamers, nymphs...it didnt much matter from what I was told. The lake fished very well and the scenery wasnt too bad either...

 

 

After lunch sometime, the crew decided to hike back to the truck to load up and go hit the upper stretches of Rock Creek. I must say, I'm pretty jealous of the guys for this little part of their trip. They got to fish a section of Rock Creek that ran through one of Chris' friends property so basically they had the river all to themselves in that area. Again, they were met with some beautiful cutthroat that were eager to eat the bugs and some absolutely stunning scenery. No big cutties for the guys but plenty of spunky little guys to keep them entertained all evening. Also, as an added bonus, they spotted a cow moose and her youngster as they were coming to the creek to drink and snapped a few photos. Not a bad way to spend the day...



 

 

 

 

 

Now, for the story on our back country trip for the day. Squatch, The Professor, and I decided to head east from Missoula to check out a tributary of the Blackfoot River that was rumored to be full of eager Westslope Cutthroat. Now this place isn't a big secret in the Missoula area but otherwise its still somewhat of a hidden gem so it will be known as "River X". Hate me if you want, you would do the same thing if you had any respect for such an amazing place. Anyways, we headed east about an hour from the cabin and then turned off onto a dirt road that headed into the mountains. About 30 minutes later, we entered a massive gorge and started to meander our way towards the trailhead. We were met with views like this...

 

 

 

 

Soon after, we arrived at the trailhead parking lot and began to load up our packs for our hike in. Anxious and excited? You betcha! After a quick look at the trailmap, we picked a spot where we would put in on the river and started the 3 mile hike into the unknown. I will have to admitt, our hike was a cakewalk compared to what the other guys had. We only had 1 minor uphill climb, everything else was flat or downhill as we hiked into the valley. There had been a major fire here a little over a decade ago and you could still easily see all the damage to the mountain sides with all the burnt trees. It was awe inspiring to see how much had burned. According to the trailhead sign, it was the worst wildfire in Montana since the 1920s I believe, totally crazy. Even with all the wildfire damage, this place was still absolutely stunning. The hike in was beautiful to say the least. Places like this really show what they mean by "Big Sky Country" in Montana. I couldnt help but stop numerous times to just gawk. These pictures don't do this place justice at all...

 



 

 

 

Yes, its a bear track. A small one though...

 

After a little over an hour of hiking, we thought we were pretty close to the point where we had planned to start fishing so after a little quick bushwhack session we found ourselves streamside to the most beautiful stream I had ever seen. We all found a nice rock to take a seat on and took our time gearing up to rest from our hike and to take in the sights, smells, and sounds of such a beautiful piece of water. We had no more sat down and I spotted a pretty nice cutty laid up in a seam about 20 feet in front of us. Corey couldnt stand himself by that point and got his 4wt strung up, leaving his gear strung out across the stream bank. He stepped off into the stream, made 3-4 casts, and that same cutty we spotted made one of their signature lazy rises to Corey's stimulator...fish on! Not a bad way to start the day....

 

 

 

After that, we got our gear stowed back into our packs and proceeded to leap frog each other back downriver, hitting all the fishy runs along the way. This stream was absolutely packed full of Westslopes, all sizes too. They were all eager to eat the dry fly too. That slow cutthroat rise will absolutely drive you crazy as you wait for the eat. Needless to say, we missed a ton of fish just cuz we set too early. Also, the fish would just miss the fly cuz it would float by too fast for them to reach it. Not any particular pattern really worked over another. Size 12-14, bushy, and buggy....that got the job done. Purple hazes, parachute adams, stimulators, and foam ants did the trick for the most part. I will say this, the wading was pretty crazy. I was hardly ever actually "wading" in the stream, usually was perched up on a car sized boulder which was totally cool. You had to watch your step though cuz if you slipped, you were in for some pain. Boulder hopping was the name of the game. Needless to say, by the end of the day, my legs were wore smooth out.

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight of the day was right at lunchtime. Squatch and I had found a nice pool with an actual gravel bank to sit and eat lunch while we waited on Corey to catch up with us. After I had finished my granola and cracker lunch, I picked my stick back up and proceeded to fish out the pool. After a few casts, I had a nice fat 12-14" cutthroat oblige me with a rise to my stimulator and I was hooked up. As the fish was struggling in the current, out of the corner of my eye, I saw what I thought was a log coming unjammed from underneath a rock. This was no log as I began to watch it swim towards my fish. I soon realized what I was looking at was a 30+" Bull Trout stalking my fish at the end of the line. It was easily the biggest trout I had ever seen and I have seen some big browns on Taneycomo and on the White. This trout woulda made those fish its bitch, no doubt. It was huge. After several explicitives about the fish, Cody finally stood up to take a look but just as his shadow hit the water, the behemoth spooked out of the hole. It was stupid big. I will never forget that for as long as I live...

 

We fished our way downstream roughly 2 miles and came to a point where we thought we could hike out to the trail. Again, after a short bushwhack, we found ourselves on the main trail and began the short hike back to the truck. It was really hard leaving that place. I would of loved to been there in the late evening, I bet that place is a freak show with rising fish. We decided that if we ended up with an extra day, that whole group would return at the end of the week to fish it together. Nobody should be left out of fishing a place like this. Luckily, we did return, more on that later...

 

On a side note, when we got back to the truck after our hike, we found out that someone (me) had left the key on in the truck and ran the battery down!! Talk about a kick in the nuts after a long day of hiking and fishing. Luckily, another couple of hikers had hiked out just in front of us and they were able to give us a jump. Totally saved the day...

 

Stay with us...the story continues...





 

 

 

 

The Montana Project: Part 1

We are back! Well, we have been back for a few weeks now and I'm just now getting around to posting about our trip to Big Sky Country. Been busy with work, gathering up photos from the guys, and just getting back into the groove of day to day life. When you go off the grid for 10 days in Montana to live the dream, it can take some time to come back to reality. Plus, I took a trip with JoeyC and his Pops to check on our local waters to make sure we didn't miss anything while we were gone. More to come on that trip later...

Well, where do I begin? I shoulda taken some notes at the end of each day to document everything because there was so much to take in so in turn there is so much to tell now! To start with, I will explain what our general plan was for the trip. The plan was to travel to the Missoula area where we would stay at Rock Creek Cabins for our base camp. From there, we would fish Rock Creek, the Clarks Fork, the Bitterroot, and the Blackfoot along with doing a backcountry trip to mix it up. Then at the end of the week, we would pack up and head for Craig to fish the Missouri for a couple of days. That was the plan. This is the story...

Day 1 & 2: That lonesome ol' highway...

We left my house at 7:00 pm on Friday afternoon in my truck with my Clacka in tow and in DonnyB's truck with The Professors Hyde in tow. With 3 guys in each truck, we were gonna drive all night and try to make Missoula by Saturday evening. We did it, by god, but it wasn't pretty. Luckily, we made the crappy drive thru Kansas and most of Nebraska under the cover of darkness which really helped out. We had 1 small hitch in our travels when the local small town smokey decided to pull DonnyB over because the running lights on the trailer weren't working. Luckily, the cop was a cool dude and actually tried to help fix the problem but we had no such luck. Since we had brake lights and turn signals, he let us go without so much as a verbal warning.

We made it to the North Platte Valley of Nebraska around 7:00 am and then took the scenic route to cut the corner across Nebraska instead of going to Cheyenne via the interstate. I must say, that part of Nebraska isn't too bad at all. We hit the interstate just south of Casper and made our way through Wyoming without any issues. I'm not a fan of eastern Wyoming at all until you get to the Bighorn Mountains and then the scenery improves. Eastern Montana isn't much to look at either as we crossed into the Big Sky state in the early afternoon and made our way to Billings. The further we went west though, the more of the real Montana started to show its beautiful face. And how beautiful it is....

We made a pit stop in Helena to pay the guys at Adipose Boatworks a quick visit where I picked up a new set of Sawyer SquareTop sticks for the Clacka. Very cool place and cool dudes. We got the "grand tour" of the facility and got to check out a few boats in various stages of being built. After that, we hit up the local Wal-Mart for groceries and other supplies for the upcoming week. Then we decided to fill our bellies at an Applebees before making the the last leg of our journey and we FINALLY made it to Rock Creek Cabins at 11:30 pm where we checked in and CRASHED OUT...

We had arrived...



 

 

 

 

Day 3: Fishing "the creek", fly shop stop, and meeting FCFT...

 

We awoke on Sunday to a beautiful crisp, cool Montana morning which was a nice change to what we were used to back home. As everyone begin to stir and the coffee pot gurgled to life, it began to sink in that we had arrived in Big Sky Country. With cups of coffee in hand, we stepped outside to survey our surroundings and were pleased see that we were nestled in a nice little slice of heaven.

 

Our cabin was sitting in a pretty awesome valley in its own right. The cabin itself had its own charm as well. It was 1 of 4 cabins on the little mountain road that were originally built in the 40s by various owners. The current owner's father began buying them up 1 at a time in the 50s and made them into a fishing camp. According to the owner, the cabins haven't changed much over the years minus the addition of running water and electricity on the property as well as upgraded appliances through the years. Our cabin was actually the only cabin with running water and a shower/toilet. No cable TV or WiFi up here either and you had to drive 7 miles back down Rock Creek Road before you could get phone signal. This place was legit! On top of that, as we were drinking our morning coffee, we peaked around the backside of the cabin to see a whole group of bighorn sheep feeding in a small meadow. Very cool! We couldn't of asked for a better place to stay...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 After some hot coffee and hot showers since none of us had showered since Friday afternoon, we got a game plan together for the day and our Big Sky adventure began. With famous Rock Creek less than a 1/2 mile down the road, we couldn't of asked for a better place to wet a line first. Everyone went through the normal ritual of gearing up before we jumped in the truck and headed for the public access just down the road. As we pulled onto Rock Creek Road, we got our first eyeful of the valley that "the creek" sits and all I can tell you is...WOW! It is absolutely stunning up there in that valley. We had to stop on the road to the access and just take it all in for a minute while we took some pictures. The photos really don't do this place justice at all. We came to find out that this is a common theme in Montana...

 

 

 

Now if you're not familiar with Rock Creek, you musta been living under a rock the last 20 years! It is a wade fisherman's dream as far as trout streams go, hands down. Rock Creek Road follows the river which offers anglers LOADS of access points as well as just little pull off spots along the way. We could of spent all week just on the creek, just so much water! We just pulled into the closest fishing access to our cabin and each went our own separate ways. The late morning was spent throwing dries to rising fish till the sun got up and then we switched to hopper/dropper to prospect the remainder of the time. When we arrived, the hatch was already starting to peter out sadly so the dry fly bite didn't last long but we were put our dries into some trout faces before it ended. Rock Creek is an amazing place, we honestly didn't spend near enough time on the creek like I had hoped but it is definitely a special place.

 

 

 

 

 After a morning of fishing on Rock Creek, we decided to head into Missoula to head over to the Missoulian Angler to plan out our float trips for the week. The M'Angler, as its known locally, is a very cool shop. They have just about anything you would need to be successful in the surrounding area from local fly patterns to rods/reels to gear. . After some discussion with Taylor and Zach, we decided to float the Blackfoot and the Clarks Fork for our float trips while we were in the Missoula area and gave us directions and some tips for our back country trips the following day. They also hooked us up with some shuttle service phone numbers and then helped us pick out flies to use on our floats as well as for evening fishing on Rock Creek. Needless to say, the guys were freaking awesome and totally hooked us up! We didn't visit any of the other fly shops in Missoula but they would be hard pressed to beat the service we got at the M'Angler!   

After leaving the M'Angler, we headed back to the cabin to round up some grub for the night. After filling our bellies with grilled brats and pork n' beans, the adult beverages started to flow pretty freely amongst the fellas and the night was starting to turn interesting. The evening stepped it up a notch or two when we were joined by Zach, Stan, and Dan from False Casts and Flat Tires. These guys run a legit fishing blog about the life and times of a few fish bums, who moonlight as college students, that live in Big Sky Country. It was a great night filled with talks of fishing, hunting, and lots of crazy stories of our past adventures in life. It was epic...

 

 

Zach and Cole found amusement in the brown trout mount from our cabin...

 

Well, we had survived the ride and our 1st full day in Montana. We got a little fishing in and ironed the details for the rest of our trip. The best (and worst) was soon to come for us. Our adventure had just begun...

 

There is more to come so please stay tuned...

Dragging our feet...

I know that the CTD faithful followers have been waiting for posts, pics, and video from "The Montana Project". Well, I have been trying to gather up pictures and footage from all the guys so that we can start posting something. We haven't forgotten about you guys, it's coming as soon as we can get it thrown together.

There is so much to talk about and show our little corner of the fly fishing blog world, can't wait to get it up on the interwebs.

Until then, here are a few pictures from the trip if u haven't seen them on Facebook yet.

On a side note, I just got back from the White/Norfork tailwaters in Arkansas. That story soon to come as well...