Enjoying Montana

It's nice having daylight so late in July. It means time on the streams when not in the hills riding on the bike. It's also a taper week. My friend Nick and I managed to get some time in late Wednesday on a local stream. Most things were working, including my usual patterns of stimulators and adams flies. However, we had the best success on dark green number 18s. Or bugs with a green body and gray wings. The caddis were coming off at times as well. We were fortunate to catch many fish today; however, the highlight came with an explosion I witnessed from the other bank. "There's a fish after my fish!" That's the edited version, anyway. He had on a nice cutthroat that was being aggressively pursued by a very large bull trout. I knew immediately what was going on, as this has happened to me before, especially on the Elk in BC. Nick managed to get the smaller trout in and off the hook and released. By the way, the "smaller" trout was a very nice fish similar to the above. It occurred to me that bull trout are aggressive carnivores and this one was almost so to a fault. Nick brought in another nice native, and the bull surfaced again. Once again, the cut was quickly released. Following one more episode of this, this time with me, I managed to grab the bull by the tail briefly and at that point slipping out of my hand he quit harassing our fish and settled somewhere nervously on the bottom of the pool. We caught a few more fish and there was no bull trout chasing them down. The bull trout appears to be making a significant comeback in sections of Montana.

It's nice to note that the streams are so cool at the moment. My hamstring appreciated the cold water as I almost went for a swim crossing back to the initial side of the drainage. There also was a nice breeze in the evening. While walking out we discussed the strange sound the wind was making whistling against the burned stands of trees. It's not even August and I found myself thinking of grouse season and asking my friend if he had drawn any big game special tags. "I forgot to put in this year, mixing up the dates" came the reply. His brother, however, had drawn a moose tag. Following a visit with a Forest Service official who was conducting a usage survey, Nick indicated that this day had been his best fishing experience ever. I had to admit, it had been a fine day indeed.