Mon. I was out with long-time angler Bob Rembert. Bob is in fishing for the week after a quick and successful deer hunt over the weekend. The weather report for this week isn't that awesome so when it looked relatively nice up the Blackfoot this morning I figured we had better jump at the chance or we might not get the opportunity. We floated a stretch of the middle river under cloudy skies and temps in the 40's. Bob didn't waste any time hooking a nice rainbow on his first cast with the nymph rod while I was still rigging up a streamer. After a couple more fish right at the put-in on nymphs we switched to the streamer rod and headed downstream. It was solid streamer fishing with about a grab per run and some of the deeper back eddies producing multiple strikes. It only took about a half hour for Bob to get a slam with a brown, bow, cutt, and bull all coming on the streamer rod. Nothing huge in the morning but a lot of nice fish in the 15-17" range. After lunch Bob hooked a good fish right away and then we watched as a monster bull trout closed in. This fish was solidly in the mid-30" range but he never took a real swing at the fish we had hooked. While we were watching the big boy follow at the front of the boat I noticed 2 or 3 more bullies in the run get excited too. Eventually we landed a great 19" bull trout and it's hard to believe that we had another fish right on his tail thinking of eating him! We continued with streamers for most of the afternoon. Bob stuck a few on nymphs in specific spots, but the streamer was turning enough heads to stick with it. There were other nice cutts, a couple smaller browns, and a great 19" leaping rainbow. It was a perfect Blackfoot streamer day and we hit the takeout in the nick of time. Once the boat was on the trailer it started raining and I was thankful that we got the whole day in without any rain.
Tue. I woke up to an inch of snow in my boat and dense fog in Missoula. Bob and I decided on a lower Bitterroot float and he had a fish landed before I even parked the truck. As soon as we were in the boat he had another brightly colored brown trout on a streamer and it set the tone for the morning. Lots of brown trout and streamer eats in almost every run. The tempeture was tolerable and we were fortunate not to have any wind. Most of the streamer fish were mid-sized from 14-17" and they were aggressively pounding the fly. With the overcast and fog and I was hoping for a big hatch of blue-wings but it never really materialized. We found a few fish up on top in spots and Bob stuck some on dries but they were very snotty and there weren't many of them. We turned to the nymph rod to finish out the day and closed with a nice rainbow right at the take-out. Great fishing on streamers in the morning, fair fishing in the afternoon and extremely lucky with the weather. It started raining again as soon as we got the truck loaded up.
Wed. it was back to the Bitterroot but today we floated the middle river. The streamer fishing in the morning was interesting. Early on there were a lot of bumps and grabs but few solid hook-ups. When we did connect most of the fish were bows and browns on the smaller side so I think the little guys were active early which resulted in a lot of short strikes. As the morning continued the sun poked out and put a definite damper on the streamer fish so we made the switch to the nymph rod. It was the right move and before long Bob hooked several nice bows and cuttbows, at one point he even had a single double on, with two fish on his line at the same time. One of them got away but we landed the other. After a handful of nymph fish I started to see some bugs coming off so we stopped for lunch. As we were eating the bugs really poured off and we noticed some fish start rising just upstream so Bob got out for a little wade fishing and poked a couple before we set off for the afternoon. There was a mix of mahagonies and blue-wings and we caught fish on both types of patterns. The average size dry fly fish was a little better today too. We pulled into one back eddy and noticed a fish sip on the reverse current tight to the bank. After a couple of casts the fly drifted in perfect and a trout just sucked the bug under the surface. Bob set the hook and I saw a big fish shaking his head under water. I hoped the 5x tippet would hold and after a good fight he had a gorgeous 21" cuttbow in the net. It was a great fish and the good times kept rolling with a couple other spots that were holding rising fish. After some more dry fly fish the day was getting late, the temps cooler and it was time to head home.
Thur. was a laid back affair. We had a big breakfast and I helped Bob get some stuff done around his place before heading into town to hit the river. The later start convinced me to do a short stretch of the Clark Fork and it was the perfect call. The streamer fishing started off a little slow with only one solid grab in the first few runs, but after changing the fly Bob banged out three classic Clark Fork cuttbows in a row before we pulled into a big riffle to do some nymphing. This is one of the best spots on the Clark Fork and for good reason. I barely moved the boat over the next couple of hours and Bob stuck a pile of big fish on a consistent basis. There were a few smaller ones, but the majority were cuttbows from 15-18" and they were stunningly beautiful with bright white bellies, pink stripes and purples and fuschas in their faces. We stopped to eat lunch there and give the fish a break for a bit. When Bob went back to fishing he must've boated another 6 or 7 before we decided to move on and look for some rising fish since there were a bunch of blue-wings around. Just downstream we found a big pod of fish rising on the edge of a current seam so I dropped anchor and Bob went to work again. The fish were set-up perfectly and when Bob would hook one they would immediately run out into the main river and most jumped several times but the rest of the pod didn't spook so as soon as we landed one we started looking for the next target. Eventually we had poked most all of them and had to move on but it was a lot fun sticking those fish on dries. There were quite a few random risers in the next big slick and we picked off a good number of those as well. Then the hatch started to fade and we only found little fish up top. This time of year there is no real point in forcing the issue, when the fish are done it's time to get off the water so that's exactly what we did. It was a killer day all around. The fishing was great, the weather gave us a little of everything with mostly clouds, a little sun, some snow, some rain, and we also had huge migrations of sand hill cranes flying over us the entire day. It just doesn't get much better.
With such good fishing yesterday Bob and I decided to do the same float on Fri. The first half of the day was pretty much a carbon copy of Thur. Started out fishing streamers with a few grabs and then switched to nymphs at the riffle and lit them up again. The biggest difference was that today at lunch a little front moved in and the temps dropped and brought a cold breeze as well. That didn't seem to affect the nymphing too much as we continued to hook-up with bright Clark Fork bows and cuttbows but it definitely put a damper on the dry fly fishing. We only saw a handful of blue-wings and the rising fish we did find were eating midges. We were able to find enough rising fish to keep us busy, but between the bitter cold and lack of mayflies Bob and I eventually decided to cut our loses and head for the warm truck. There were still plenty of fish today and not another angler in sight. I always look forward to Bob's trips and they always seem to go by too fast. We'll have bent rods together during Skwalas next spring and some good times around the campfire this winter.
Well, the 2012 season is in the books. Friday was my last day guiding and now I'm onto hunting, traveling, and Mr. Mom duty. Thanks to everyone for making this another great year. In the weeks to come I'll take a look back at some hightlights of this season, and a look ahead at what's up for 2013.
Tight Lines,
Tony Reinhardt
