The famous Welcome Creek Bridge on Rock Creek

We are in a vastly different year than last year on flows.  We have had a run of hot weather recently that although has moved our Missoula flows up it didn’t blow us off the Richter scale like last years floods.   We just barely arrived  at 2000 cfs on Rock Creek and with the cool weather forecasted later in the week we are most likely going to go to level or dropping by the weekend and that is probably is going to represent peak flows.  I don’t think this weekend is going to kick off the Salmonfly hatch, but by late May we could see the lower river kick of the montster hatch.  To get the bugs going it it has to be warm dry weather and level or falling water.  So to get an early jump, we are going to need some weather help.

Regardless of when the hatch on the Creek gets here, June is looking to be an exceptional month of fishing and Rock Creek will return to its much deserved glory.

Why is Rock Creek Special?

It is the most limited commercial access river in the West.  There are only three outfitters that have permits, which means most days there are only half a dozen guides on the 50 miles of floatable mainstem.  If this wasn’t the case there would be 60 guide boats a day taking advantage of a small river with 2000 fish per mile and the densest population of stoneflies in Montana.  If you haven’t seen a Rock Creek Stonefly Mating flight it is an onslaught of trout food. Like getting bit every fourth cast good!  These trout don’t get educated by a bunch of guides feeding hooked flies to fish . Mix in a long Salmonfly hatch that lasts for two weeks and then dovetails into Goldens and Green Drakes and you have an special dry fly fishery.

Last year we ran 6 of our 50 allocated launches due to the floods, and we consciously and painfully cancelled the rest .  This season we are planning to fill all 50 floats and see a river return to its stature as the defining freestone of the West.

It hasn’t happened yet, but the flows have me excited to get back on one of my favorite rides in the trout game.

I started fishing this river in 1979 and it has always held onto me with its intangibles.

Salmonflies can’t come to soon.  We have openings, call us if you want to share the magic.

www.classicjourneyoutfitters.com

The beauty of the West Fork and hooked up – May 2012

We caught the last days of the Bitterroot this week. A small bump came through on Wednesday with the heat we finally are enjoying. I decided to play it safe and slid up to the West Fork of the Bitterroot. It fished quite well, but dry fly fishing was not good. We had three fish eat the dry, 1 on a skwala, and two on the bright orange strike indicator we were throwing over two bead head stonefly nymphs. I don’t usually fishing the thingamabobber hatch on this particular river, but it was the preferred dry fly by the trout. I don’t know why fish do that sometimes but it would have been nice to have deploy-able hook that came out of the indicator when it felt pressure and we would have landed the giant brown that engulfed our bright pink strike indicator. It would function much like the expandable broad head systems they use in archery. It’s my idea, no body steal it until I get a patent. I am going to call it “Trout rage secret hook a ma bobber”. What I am saying???!!! the indicator fishing has been so good I am starting to drink the nymph Kool-Aid. Forget I said that.

The next two days we headed over to the Missouri in search of risers. We found a few set ups in the wind and sun on Thursday and quite a bit more lower on the river on Friday. It was refreshing to see long reach casts get slurped on 5x by multiple trout over twenty inches. Yes, the nymphing is still excellent over there, but you you will feel a little guilty with how easy it is. Well not really – You can’t taste the Kool Aid when your are bent over and over again.

It’s the Mo for at least a week…..then maybe early Salmonflies on Rock Creek. Maybe.

Brownie quickly on his way home on the Missouri – May 2012

Brown Trout Release in Black and White – Bitterroot May 2012

Its sneaky time in Missoula right now.

We had a massive flood come through about 10 days ago that has receded as quickly as it hit.  That has left us excellent water conditions.  My first day on the water since the flood was Friday and while most of the river is built the same as it always has been we have one major change.

There is a island in the mid river that I have spent most of my life either fishing the  side channels that slither through it or shooting birds that haunt it.  When I was 12 years old in the 1980′s it was one of the few pheasant hot spots for young kids to take advantage of.  In an always changing river this island has been the stalwart of cottonwoods that wouldn’t give up their knuckled root hold.  Whenever I floated by it I would remember all the high school shenanigans we pulled with shotguns and rods there.  That island finally fell with a ripped straight shot channel gouged through it by the last flood.  I was shocked to see the fresh cut muddy banks hanging there.  Water has it’s way and those new cuts cause life and strength.  The Bitterroot is a wanderer that flirts with stability and then winks and heads off anew.

The Browns have been out on the Bitterroot and no one is fishing. Does get any better?

We have some forecasted heat for the week, so we may head out to the full blown run-off by the weekend.

I guess we’ll have to see, but until the snow rages down I know where I will be.

Old Friends hookup on the Missouri – April 2012

We have 300 miles of trout water to choose from each morning on our guide trips. Missoula is a hub and central to the Bitterroot, Clark Fork, Rock Creek, Blackfoot and a medium drive to the Missouri. That diversity is great, but at times it presents complex decisions on where to fish that are far more important that what fly to fish. I am on the water tomorrow and we are on the edge of conditions today in Missoula.

So here’s the data -

Missouri – Pretty well Guaranteed good fishing here if you know how to rig it and what water they eat it in. If you put on an indicator with some small blue wing olive, scud, or czech nymphs in the right water you will be bit – alot, and them some bit some more. But, tomorrow is a single day trip so the long over and back isn’t the most fun.

Bitterroot – She has dropped like a stone to 2500 cfs at Darby and 800 on the West Fork. That is right on the edge for this time of year and we are in the Mother’s Day Caddis time. Caddis is the one hatch that they will eat on top best at the higher flows. Clarity looks good and it should nymph well. Its not a guaranteed gig though and Mother’s Day Caddis is notoriously spotty.

Rock Creek – It dropped to 1500 cfs at the mouth which is nice floating. I haven’t been up to the top but I would guess Mud creek is pushing some color right after Gilles Bridge, probably not a big deal, but a factor. Nymphing and streamers first and then look for a good Skwala bite in the afternoon.

Clark Fork – I don’t like the Lower River right now, but as these water temps climb and our water keeps falling the way up top play can be spectacular on streamers. If you saw one of my earlier posts you know that I love the upper Clark Fork and sometimes my affinity for fishing it overcomes my better angling judgement. Don’t trust any prognostication I have for this river, I am biased by my love of its intangibles.

Blackfoot – No thanks, still to muddy for me.

If you want the gimme play, then head to the Missouri, if you want to sneak around Missoula’s rivers in mid level water we have some cool little under the radar plays with no boats out at all.  Missoula right now is not straight forward fishing and the rowing is a little dicey, so be careful and fish outside of the box.

Brooks and Forrest fight a Big One on the Missouri.

Brooks and I were on the Missouri over the weekend with a great group of guys from North Carolina. Fishing was excellent and while our guys hadn’t spent a great deal of time on the end of the fly rod they had some things going for them added greatly to our success.

1. All were anglers that had caught fish on conventional gear.  The casting part of fly fishing is the really the easiest part.  The hookset, playing a fish, and landing a fish are only learned by doing.  That part of the game can be mastered with a snoopy pole, a worm, and bobber or a 9 foot Sage fly rod, it really doesn’t matter.  Learning how to keep life hooked up is about give, take, and feel.  If this experience is in the quiver the fly learning curve happens fast.

2. They took a casting class.  Before these guests showed up they enrolled in a school to teach them how to cast.  Were they perfect, no, but the basics were in place and Brooks and I just had to tweak a few things to get to the catching part of the trip.  You can learn to cast at home, but you can’t catch Montana trout there.  All our staff are excellent teachers but the more fundamentals that are in place before the boat hits the water the more focus can be spent on catching.

3. Listen and trust.  Classic Journey Guides are not masters of the the trout universe, but we do spend a great deal of time on our specific water and put trout in the boat.  If the fishing is halfway decent and the flies go where we like to see them ride the odds of success go up exponentially.  All three guests were charter boat captains so it would have been easy for them to have their own ideas about fishing and push our advice to the back of the boat.  They didn’t ignore us, they dialed in our instruction and whacked a bunch of fish.

Nice Missouri Rainbow – April 2012

The fishing right now is excellent on the Missouri. I mean fifty fish a day excellent and a good number over twenty to hand each day and its extremely beginner caster friendly.

May is a month when Missoula goes in and out of shape on runoff and we are currently out right now, but the Missouri is tailwater that stays clean and coincides with post spawn rainbows.  This is a MASSIVE deal.  These fish hit another gear when they pile back in the system from the all night parties on the redds in the tributaries.  They need those calories burned up procreating and they spree feed in the Mainstem – on our flies.  This motivated feed occurs on the Missouri at a time when there are no weeds, so these fish are uncovered and missing a major factor that keeps flies away from from July through September.

Just for laughs after our half day trip on Saturday I went 100 yards down from the Wolf Creekboat ramp myself and threw on a nymph rig for an hour. I landed a dozen big rainbows and one just over 21 inches.  The fishing was so good I had to get a trout fix in myself.

It’s good to get a trout smile.

Guide Friend Greg takes a stab at a nice Missouri Rainbow with canine help.

We are in a heat wave right now in Missoula that has broken long held April records.  That means three things – Missoula Blows out, Missouri turns on, and I get to wear shorts to work.

So, for at least the next week or so we will be moving our fishing trips out of Missoula and over to the Missouri river.  The Missouri has become a Disney Land fishery over the last five years due to the population explosion she has enjoyed.

The most effective method of fishing was the straight nymphing game Sunday and Monday.  Yes, there are some great dry fly days happening over there right now but it has been inconsistent.  Cloudy, Cool, and windless has brought up some nice fish in pods. But the indicator crew has really been putting up big numbers.

If you head over to the Mighty Missouri remember with nymphing if you only set the hook when it dunks you will catch 2 fish a day.  If you set on every twitch, skid, slide, quiver, lean, or even a psuedo huff you will catch big numbers.  Set while it is happening not after it did.  I had two guests over the weekend that we spent the better part of Saturday learning what the eat looks like.  It was lots of me chiding “Set, Set, Set, SETT!”, and them saying “Really, Are you sure that was a fish.” We missed alot and landed a some trout.  The second day my guys got it and put up a big trout number day.  By the end of the trip my guests were setting before I said a word. Extremely Cool!

With Nymphing there is no bottom…ever, assume it is always a trout, set on everything and you will be surprised how many times one of the Missouri’s 6000 fish per mile in will be attached.

Its a great drive over to the Missouri this time of year with lots of elk, the snow capped Rockies, and the bright green of Spring splashing forth.

Don’t forget beers at Isaac’s mixed with trout glory stories and guide lies.

Levon Helm died yesterday. He was the drummer and the lead singer for the Group “The Band”. This group was responsible for some of the coolest sounds and grooves in Rock and Roll history. If you want to really see what music and humans working together is truly about please watch the movie “The Last Waltz”.

The Band embodies exactly what a group of performers should be. They all pass the ball around letting each of their highly musical members play a role. Strong as individuals, stronger as a group. There is more to be learned here than just music.

So I am headed to the the Bitterroot for the last of this week’s fishing. It is looking to finally kick off the big push or run-off around Monday. We are going to get that great hatch explosion right in front of the warm weather and then back to timing up troughs in the bumps. We were on the West Fork two days ago and it looks exceptional. Should be a run of nice fishing in the next 72 hours, and then probably the Missouri and its 6000 fish per mile for a bit.

Thanks Levon Helm for your contribution to the Human Race.

Blake takes a long shot over the Bitterroot earlier this week

Here’s the Monday morning wish I was guiding report. We aren’t crazy busy over the next 4 weeks and the river traffic has peeled off so if you want some of our stellar veteran guides to show you some fishing with our rivers to yourself give us a call. Great moments are in the mix as we build to the summer.

Bitterroot – The top is at 1200 cfs and on the fall. It is looking to drop in all week. That means less soft water but we should get the big pushes of March Browns and some Mother’s Day Caddis. It also means we are out of the pocket on the perfect flow. You can still get them to eat it, but it is going to be a great deal more spot specific than last Mon – Wed. The top end of last week was the crazy good conditions when everybody was catching the dog out of them peak Skwala days. Lots of trout heroes, and the ramps were full of smiles. Now it is going to get a heck of a lot less busy and the game will get sneaky after last Friday’s Monster push of water. Cool stuff, I like it. Look for the clearing water on the fall and head to the Missouri on the upswings.

Clark Fork – Its out right now but on the drop. I don’t think we are going to see clean water again, but smoky olive water with a 2 foot edge over the next 3 weeks will throw some epic Hatches. The Lower Clark Fork has 10 times more skwalas than the Bitterroot but it happens later and happens in water most anglers will swear is too dirty. Everything has to come together to get it right, but its the absolute best of the year when it does. Don’t fear the dirt, but you have to time it right. A River to yourself and fish grenade blow up rising to Skwalas, now that is what I am talking about. Remember to consider we will soon be in a post spawn cycle in the system as our adult rainbows that are up the tributaries pile back in spree feeding to get back lost calories. When they get back it is trout carnage.

Blackfoot – I wouldn’t touch it right now at 4000 at the mouth. But when it goes dirty olive on the drop it will be worth a swing at giant brown trout. Your ability to gauge less than perfect clarity is the skill that will be king over the next month. If you choose correct it is magic, if you miss it it will be tough. Slop rigs with buggers and worms will see some epic trout get landed. Skwalas? Shhhh.

Rock Creek – Like the West Fork of the Bitterroot this one is late to the party but can puke insects. We don’t talk enough about Rock Creek until the June float season, but it is the the densest population of trout in our smallest water. It is also the highest population of hatches of any of our streams. Timing is everything.

Missouri – Under an indicator this is stupid land of catching. There are a bunch of fish right now at the dam banging their head against it trying to spawn. They turn around for a little bit and eat the dog out anything pink, rip line off, pose for a picture and then back to head banging. Lower in the river is better for the big browns, but a river with 6000 fish per mile insulates any trip booked in Missoula from washing out on water because we can bail to the Missouri at any time for high quality fishing. The kicker has been the great dry fly fishing right now to go with the stellar nymphing.

Fishing Factors create opportunity. The deeper the logbook you have of data will give the tools to take advantage as our water swings. Nice!

I was picking up clients earlier in the year in the parking lot and while I was getting lunches and gear loaded I noticed one of my guests was wandering around my trailer with pen and paper while his buddy was rifling through my boat.

I couldn’t catch all of their banter because I was hustling through my morning of phone calls, getting the guide crew with guests lined out for the days fishing,  and trying to make sure my boat was ready to fish.  I did discern a couple times I heard “Check! Thank God!”

These two guests have been with me since my first days guiding.  They fished with me in my twenties and I am almost 40 now, so we have been through more than our share of trout, weather, and water together.  We are all veterans to the game and this trip is always like fishing with friends.

I try to carry myself as a highly organized outfitter.  If I set the meet time for the guest at 8:30  I am there at 8:15 a.m. and I expect our guides to be there early ready to work – good lunch, clean boat, flies in order, gear ready to go, and sober.  That sounds basic, but in the guide business these are far from given if you let yourself slide.  I like the days when the machine runs well – guides are early ready to go, clients are on time with the right gear, fishing is good, and the boats make it home at a reasonable time.  We are so blessed with excellent veteran guide staff that this is the typical day.  Mother Nature is a wrench thrower so you learn to think on your feet, but I don’t like to make mistakes that you have some control over – good lunch, clean boat, flies in order, gear ready to go, and sober.  When guides miss on these basics start you in a hole that you didn’t have to dig.  Its a long season starting in March and running everyday into November so not everybody remembers everything every day, you adjust and don’t make a habit of it.

I finally get the crew  moving towards the Bitterroot for the Skwala Hatch and head back to my boat to get rolling and I keep hearing “Check, Thank GOD!”

Curious and knowing I am in for a laugh I peer over the shoulder of the pen toting guests and I hear another “Check. Thank God”  followed by a  ”Are you sure? Yes. Check! Thank God!”

I find Gary’s List of my gear-

Apparently I am not the perfect organized outfitter I thought I was and my misses in organization center wholly around these two angler’s trip.

So lets examine the list via our perspectives -

Boat: Joe 1 point.

I have never forgotten my boat, but I did show up a few years ago on a hustling trip without one.  Missoula was blown out and Gary and Laurie had to catch an flight out that evening so it nixed any chance of escaping to the Missouri for a day due to a flight timetable.  They thought I forgot it, but my plan was a wade fishing day on the mini-tailwater in the Upper Clark Fork. The day went great and  we pounded big fish when all the rivers were blown out.

Net:  Gary and Laurie 1 point

During the above mentioned day on the tailwater Laurie lands a 27 inch rainbow, and it turns out I left my net in the boat that I didn’t bring to wade fish with.  We end up beaching the beast and luckily I had some wool gloves to be able to tail it like a steelhead.  Laurie will say it was he who suggested I use the wool gloves when he saw them hanging out of my pack.  He claims I didn’t even know I had them and it was his clear thinking and innovation that got the monster landed.  My retort is that it was my innate trout instinct that subliminally told me to bring tailing gloves in anticipation of this big fish event.  Either way I forgot the net.

Grill:  Gary and Laurie 1.5 points

I have forgotten my grill twice in my career both with these two guests.  The first was a cold day on the Clearwater whose highlight was neither the fishing nor the hot teriyaki pork chops I had packed.  Rather it was Gary the comedian extolling the merits of potato chip sandwiches and asking for a pretend coke to go with the pretend hot lunch.  The second was nasty rain day on the upper clark fork whose highlight was the brownies spree feeding on streamers and the hot lunch without a traditional grill.  Rather, we started a fire and used the raft cooler brackets to grill the burgers on.  I thought it was an innovative way to save lunch if you didn’t mind a little aluminum shine to your elk burger.  Laurie would claim it was his idea, but again it was I who brought the raft frame brackets. I will split this episode.

Oars – Gary and Laurie .5  point

I have done this once and it again  happened to be with these guys.  I think they sabotage me. I was changing how the oars were being loaded in my new boat and just blanked them when I drove off .  We made it all the way down to St. Regis and while the boat launched. My clients were unwilling to paddle with their hands to steer the boat – these guys are soooo picky.  I ran down to my buddy’s fly shop about 6 miles away and corralled a set of oars to make it through the day.  What we lost in 20 minutes of fishing while I acquired oars Gary and Laurie more than recovered in comedic lines generously dolled out throughout the day.  As clever as you are Laurie you couldn’t solve this one with a stick and woven leaves McGiver style, now could you.

Lunch – Joe 1 point

I never have forgotten lunch, just the mechanism to serve it.  So on pure legal definition this one goes to me.

Gas For Truck: Joe 1 Point

I have never run out of gas.  Nervous rides in on fumes don’t count.

Anchor: Joe .5 Point, Gary and Laurie .5 Point

We had wrapped up our fishing day on the Bitterroot and were driving back to Missoula.  This big Ford F-350 races up next to us beeping his horn and yelling to pull over.  Not Knowing what trouble Gary and Laurie had brought with them from Seattle – Gary is a judge, and who knows who he has put behind bars over the years.  I kept driving.  Finally the Ford rolls down his window and yells – Your anchor is down! Dumbass! and speeds off.   Apparently I hadn’t thrown the anchor in the back of my truck when I loaded the boat and it was dragging behind the boat as we did 65 mph down highway 93.  By the time I got stopped the anchor was long gone and rope was left frayed and empty.  So yes, we lost an anchor, but it was after our fishing day.  Plus, anchors by design are intended to stop boats.  It hadn’t done its job very well on asphalt.  I bought a new and more effective anchor but I have not tested it out at highway speeds yet.

Boat Plugs – Joe 1 point

I have never forgot these, what do you think I am some scattered first year guide?

Overall – Joe Wins! In doing research into the quality controls in place at A Classic Journey Outfitters over the the thousands of well organized float trips we have done I find one consistent factor that produces the highest probability of disorganization – Laurie and Gary!  My findings are completely scientific and supported by my opinion.  Laurie and Gary refute these conclusions with mere facts, but who can trust anglers who keep booking into an arena of oarless boats, lost anchors, forgotten grills, imaginary Cokes, and potato chip sandwiches.

We do catch a bunch of big fish together and that seems to make it all run smoothly in the end.

Now could I get a copy of that list.  It’s not like a need it, I just think some of the other guys, yeah the other guys, might find it useful.

Cursed Doll Head in the Bitteroot – I will smile when the water takes this one away. But don’t touch it, bad Mojo.  I know Snangler the voodoo outfitter put it here to curse boats that follow him down the river.

We have had a run of pretty darn good fishing and some epic fishing.  Sadly again my boat was not always in the right place at the right time.  Ever since this evil doll peered into my boat I have been a little snake bit while  our staff has been dialed in.

The Classic Journey guides are a competitive bunch.  I like to work with guides that detest being low boat and actively create to solve the daily fishing equation.  I am not talking about pushy, yeller type, guides.  We have all seen them and their tantrums that dig into their clients, to pull the blame from their poor guiding and place it on their anglers.  I roll my eyes at that B.S. and they aren’t welcome on our guide crew.  I mean real pros that that find fish for all levels of anglers in a pleasant effortless manner.  Better flies, in better water, with well coached guests catch VASTLY more trout.  Just because your Montana license says “Guide” on it doesn’t mean you can get the job done.  We don’t have a corner on the market, but we do have some killers.  Any veteran guide in town knows who the top sticks are and while they may not like them they are respected.  You rarely see them as they taking sneaking around our area in solitude seriously.  When you do catch them on the water it is joy to watch that top guide ply his trade, but maddening to be around them if you aren’t dialed.  They are going to whack trout and unless you want to look like a red-headed stepchild you better be bent to.

So I spent the week guiding with the killers and I want to share with you how tight the margin of error can be.

Tues – I head up to the upper Bitterroot and do the pain in the ass boat pack in access.  The upper river is fishing well and this effort play gives us first fly water.  The morning goes well, but when the bugs come our dry fly fishing is so-so.  Little did I know a couple killers not on our staff were just ahead of us sucking the risers off the banks.  Well played boys.  Now we still had  a 25 fish day, but when we hit home Blake and Brooks had made the better access choice in the mid river and really smoked them.  No way to know that sneaky veteran traffic was going to damper fishing – I blame the evil of the doll head.

Wed – We all headed to the Missouri.  I don’t like fishing the Dam for a number of reasons and chose to cruise the mid river.  Again a nice day of fishing close to 30 fish day, but Blake and Brooks opt for the Dam and serve up the epic fishing. Brooks ends up with 12 doubles and Blake does the same.  I am low boat again – dam the doll head.

Thursday – Back to Missoula and I decide to swing for the bleachers in the lower river on all the dry fly water.  Brooks and Blake don’t make the gamble and opt for stretches in the Bitterroot that have a better build if they need to bail out on droppers or straight nymphs.  We get a huge push of bugs but the Bitterroot trout only get up in the Hamilton water – Blake is whacking them.  The mid river is Brooks and while he didn’t get any dry fly fishing he gets them good on straight nymphs.  I am stuck in no man’s land in the lower river with no rising fishing and nowhere to nymph them – 9 trout, 1 sucker, and a squawfish – Yuck.  So I am low boat for three days in row.

The guides we run with and our staff get it on everyday.  As a guide if you want to hang with this crew you need to work hard every day and make sound decisions.  If you are a guide that takes a day off and it doesn’t bother you to be low guide boat this is going to be a tough place to survive.

I don’t think any of the is little world trout competition ever makes it past the 6 inches between our ears to our clients – and I wouldn’t want it to.  It is about fun and camaraderie, but we do want to catch them.  We are trout fishing guides not Lewis and Clark happy boat ride tour guides.

So Brooks says to me after this three day run – “Hey boss, you still have it, just not like I had it lately.  Can I give you a couple pointers? .” and then a snicker.

Ouch – I hate evil doll heads.