D'Angler

East Rosebud, September 19, 2011. Air temp 64 degrees, windy (pretty calm on the river). Water Temp 60 degrees.  Had a few hours to spare while waiting for some primer to dry on the cabin, and grabbed the Winston IIt 4wt and fished the usual stretch.  I ran in to Rob Nixon who was also fishing and working a hopper same as me. Nice old fella. He said he was staying until the middle of October this year as long as the fishin' remained steady and a panther doesn't get him.  I asked permission to pass him down stream and did well with a number 6 Rainey's Grand Hopper. Six nice browns in the course of about 2 hours with a half hour out to chat. The water was down a bit and it was possible to sight fish to two of the bigger fish. Gorgeous water this time of year as you can see in the photo.  I did want to pass along something I've come across that you might appreciate if you like casting, and particularly, if you like casting dries.  I was fishing a new Lamson Litespeed reel, which I really enjoyed. Of course, all it did was sit their and not weigh much, but that light weight is awful nice to a lazy guy like me.  I put a double taper XPS 6wt line on this, having heard about the technique from Bruce Richards (formerly of Scientific Anglers).  This made that little 4wt just sing and absolutely effortless to cast. Finally, I've been using the AirFlo polyleaders for a few years while steelheading, and just recently began using them with single handed rods. After first, I shied away from the short 5ft leaders, but I decided to try one. After some trial and error, and discovered the secret. I take a standard 5ft polyleader and cut off the loop but leave enough mono to tie an overhand know close to the poly coating. I then use different widths of Maxima leader material to extend the leader (i.e. tippet).  This makes the most incredible leader you can imagine. It turns over the smallest of dry flies with ease and even does a heeluva job with big hoppers. If you like gentle, precise landings, check out this leader system!  Anyway, al;though the fishing was brief, it was quite enjoyable. Didn't see much for wildlife this trip, and ahven't seen either bear for some time, nor any of the lions. Should be time for one more trip before hunting season.

Rock Creek, August 13, 2011. Air temp 78 degrees. Water temp 49 degrees. Windy, clear skies.  After several trips down to Rock Creek during the last 4 weeks, the creek levels have finally receded enough to safely fish. Wading is still tricky, and one muct be very careful when fording, especially in areas of higher gradients and loose substrate.  The effects of the flooding were mind boggling. The creek is entirely different than in years before. Many new and dramatic side channels, and tons and tons and tons of trees and debris piled up everywhere. On one hand, it was like finding a new place to fish. On the other hand, all my favorite spots have been completely and utterly obliterated. The good news is that the fish made it through... at least the browns.  I fished a hopper all day, and the browns came to it readily. I briefly had one small rainbow on, and it would be the only rainbow I saw all day.  With log jams and root balls everywhere, it seemed like every 100 feet was another deep pool followed by a long tailout.  Each had fish looking for hoppers. I did get a chance to cycle through a variety of hoppers, and here's what I discovered:  The Moorish Hopper with the pink bottom worked best.  Second place was a tie between the venerable Raineys Grand Hopper and the Morrish Tan Hopper.  A yellow and olive  Rainey's good a few looks but no hookups. A Dave's Hopper got some strikes which were probably refusals, but no hookups.  I'd been wanting to try a PMX stone with a peacock body, and it worked very well. I'm anxious to try that outside hopper season.  With all the sediment, I was able to spend some time looking at tracks. I haven't seena any sign of the griz from last year, but I was able to identify at least two different sets of black bear tracks. Surprisingly, I'd seen no moose tracks but ran in to a young, but large, bull about 50 yards from my property. We stood and watched each other for a while. He didn't seem to mind me fishing, but when I got close enough for a picture, he wandered off. It was sure nice to get back on my favorite freestone. I look forward to the coming weeks as the water continues to drop. I have about a half mile more I haven't checked out and hope to do that this week.

Bighorn River, July 16, 2011. Air temp 97 degrees, winds calm, sunny. Water temp 62 degrees. On an invitation from good friend KVD, my son and I joined him for a float from Bighorn FAS to Mallard's to see if we could catch some of the extraordinary dry fly fishing that really exploded during the prior weeks when the flows were down.  On the water by 9am, our first stop was just below the first island, where we saw dozens of heads rising in the slack water.  We were immediately in to fish. KVD was committed to using a hopper and hooked up several nice fish fish right off the bat, as did Owen casting from the front of the anchored boat.  I tried of few different Frank Johynson CDC patterns, and managed to hook up with each of them, but never could settle on a pattern that worked time after time.  We stayed in the spot for four hours or so, taking breaks for ice cold Coronas with lime, and to re-rig and try different flies.  Most of the time we were sight fishing, and the action was steady but not blistering hot. Eventually, it was time for some new scenery and we continued the float about 2pm. It was slow going the rest of the way out. A few takes here and there, but nothing memorable. We stopped at the Stock Tank hole to await the black caddis hatch, and KVD got a monster Goldeye on a streamer. The black caddis never came off. All day, however, the PMDs and Yellow Sallies came off in great numbers, but not the length of the river as was common last year. A big thanks to Kendall for the float and great company, as always!

 

White Deer Ranch. June 15, 2011. Air temp 72 degrees. Winds calm. Sunny.  First visit to this place in over a dozen years. Used to be semi-public back when it was stocked by FWP.  Got an invite to join fishing bud Josh Cavan for the day, and it was one of the nicer weather days in a long, long time. Calm winds, bright, sunny and perfect temperature.  Upon arrival, we began fishing right away and Josh was in to fish almost immediately. I scouted the entire circumference of the lake, and found only about one-tenth of it best suitable (i.e. deep enough) to hold some nice fish. Once I was back near Josh, I started getting some fish as well. We caught fish fairly consistently all day. Josh has perfected an interesting style of nymphing with an indicator that took me a little while to master.  Whenever I got a run of fish that threaten to pass him, he'd turn up the heat and kept landing one nice fish after another. The size and shape of these fish is extraordinary. Heavy and healthy, they were excellent fighters every one. Towards the end of the day as the wind picked up I switched back to a sink-tip a tied on a small Pistol Pete. On the second cast I got the big guy in the photo.  He gave me a heckuva fight on the 5wt.  For the day, Josh had more than a dozen fish over 20 inches, and I had six or eight. It was well worth the $50 rod fee, and I look forward to getting back.

[My apologies to regular readers. I have been fishing more than I've been posting, and I promise to try and do a better job of keeping up this year. - Doug]

Rock Creek, April 16, 2011. Air temp 62 degrees, water temp 54 degrees. Overcast skies, occasion rain, winds calm. Worked the morning at Cabela's and head out shortly before two arriving at Rock Creek just before three. Walked down to fish the lower section. Second cast I hooked up and landed what turned out to be the largest fish of the day, a solid 18 inch brown that was rather plump for this time of year. He took a size 14 Royal Wulff drifted tight next to a long log in about 8 inches of water. Looked lie a stick of butter pouncing on the fly.  Fishing wound up being damn good the rest of the day, although I didn't have high expectations. With one exception, the fish were all back in there usual spots. You could tell the shelf ice had just gone off, and there are still some huge ice slabs buried under mud waiting for a warmer day. The ice moved the creek in one spot a considerable distance, completely obliterating what we used to call the Tar Pit, which was a spot that was always good for a couple of fish. I'm thinking about heading back on Wednesday to fish the much more dense upper section, and hope to bring a friend. Saw a cow moose downstream at the north end. She was a good ways away, and just stood and watched me.  There was some bear sign close to the property, but didn't see anything fresh. No deer or tukeys this time.

Rock Creek, March 20, 2011. Air temp 44 degrees, windy, overcast.  Made the annual birthday trek to Rock Creek again. I had my hopes up until I reached Roberts and saw all the snow.  Couldn't even get in to my place as there was a good two feet of snow drifted in there. Nonetheless, someone had scratched out a turnout, so I parked there, rigged up and trudged down to the creek. There wasn't much open water other than a few pools, where I made a few half-hearted casts but never saw a fish. There was an abundance of other wildlife, and I did manage to snap this picture of a mink that was busy working the banks. Beautiful creatures. We took turns stopping and watching each other. The ice made some new channels that look to have some potential. I'm hoping one more good warm week will have the creek ready, although the forecast is for more cooler weather. Shouldn't be long, though!

from The Montana Standard 

Anglers are blasting a bill carried by a Dillon lawmaker that would revamp Montana's stream access law to make any waterway that receives water diverted from a natural stream off limits to public recreation.

The measure, carried by Rep. Jeff Welborn, R-Dillon, would change state law to bar anglers from using water bodies that get water diverted into them. The measure is a sneaky attempt to undermine Montana's stream access law that guarantees the public the right to get to streams and rivers, said Bruce Farling, executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited.

"This is going to kick Montanans off of streams they've been fishing since Montana was a territory," he said Monday. "Hundreds of miles of streams would be affected."

But Welborn disagreed. He said the bill is only intended to clarify that irrigation ditches through private land are off limits to the public. The bill is intended to remedy the wrong to landowners caused by a recent Montana Supreme Court ruling on the Mitchell Slough coming off the Bitterroot River that said it was open to the public, he said.

"The bill basically says that if you build a ditch and there's some naturally occurring water present, it's still a ditch because that ditch is man-made," he said. "It does not say that water diverted into a ditch and then returned to a river makes that a ditch."

The bill was spurred by the Supreme Court's ruling on property owned by rocker Huey Lewis in the Bitterroot Valley. Lewis contended Mitchell Slough was in fact an irrigation ditch, but the court unanimously found it was a side channel of the Bitterroot River and therefore open to public use.

Sportsmen hailed the decision as upholding Montanans' right to use their waters. But agriculture and Libertarian groups said it will discourage landowners from making habitat improvements to streams on their land.

Welborn said as a sportsman he supports access to streams, but the law has been abused in recent years by people who want to use private ditches. He said the language in the bill ensures that the public wouldn't lose access to rivers.

But in testimony before the House agriculture committee, the attorney for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said the bill would obliterate the state's stream access law. Bob Lane, FWP chief legal counsel, said the provision of the bill that defines any stream that gets the majority of its water from return irrigation flows would privatize virtually every river in the state.

"HB 309 almost completely repeals the public's right to recreate on rivers and streams," he said. "The most comprehensive and partially hidden but intended effect of HB 309 is that return flows would count as diverted water when determining whether diverted water is the principle source of water in a stream or river.

"HB 309 as written defines the Bitterroot River as a ditch."

Farling said while Welborn is claiming the bill is meant to clarify what is and isn't a ditch, in fact it's a gutting of the law at the request of a small group of landowners. He said if landowners are having problems on legitimate ditches, trespassing laws are more than sufficient.

"If there are people trespassing on bona fide private ditches, tell us where they are, and we'll turn them in," he said.

The bill passed last week in the House agriculture committee 13-8.

Reporter Nick Gevock may be reached at nick.gevock@mtstandard.com

Yellowstone River, October 31, 201. Air temp 45 to 58 degrees, winds calm to gusty.  First, if you happen to read this blog I apologize for my absence in blogs lately. I started a new part-time job but was given full-time hours, which when coupled with my real job, have kept me busy. I promise to add an update on steelheading soon. Anyway, work had me pretty pooped and I slept in VERY late this morning (which felt wonderful). After getting a few chores done, I didn't have much of the day left and I needed to get back before dark as the lights on the truck aren't working (because of the deer collision last week).  That left only close places, and I elected to take the two hander out to Sportsman's name;y because I haven't unpacked the equipment from the steelhead trip THREE WEEKS AGO.  I arrived to have the site to myself, and bright sunny and calm day.  I tied on a green butt skunk, went with the long spey line and started at the top of the side-channel. 30 minutes later, upon reaching the mouth of the channel, I picked up my first brown (pictured), who was pretty pissed.  In the next 30 feet or so moving downstream, I continued to pick up pretty much the same size browns. Once I hit a little faster and deeper water, the hookups stopped until I got down to some slower water again. I never did put on eggs as the skunk seemed to do the trick. All the fish seemed identical in color and size. If there was a spawn going on currently or recently, you couldn't tell by looking at these fish. After three hours or so, it clouded over and got cold when the winds really came up. My reverse double spey with the long line sucks, and rather than practice that, which I need, I packed it in. Elections are this Tuesday, and KVD, if you're reading this, let's get out next week. I'm sure you can use a break.