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You see them all summer long - those little sand-and-gravel cases on the downstream side of rocks in the shallows of the stream. They might have a little black head and legs sticking out and crawl slowly across the bottom. Spook them, cast a shadow over them, and they pull their heads in, lie still and seem to disappear. They crawl out of their cases and build new ones several times through the summer. Each case is glued together from the sand in the river bottom using a special UV-reflective...
My first meeting with Dave Inks was inconsequential. It was somewhere in the mid-seventies and my young family was attending a sportsman's show in California's Bay Area. A number of fly fishing greats would be there and I was eager to meet some of them. My young son Jay and I visited Randall Kauffman's booth, where Randall graciously signed a copy of his new book for Jay. A few minutes later we were in the Creative Sports booth, the first mega-fly shop, manufacturing and wholesale conglomerate i...
Early this evening the air was pleasant. The air quality index varied between moderate to good - stable enough for Jan to plan ahead, marinate some fresh veggies and chicken chunks for kebabs, throw them on the grill and plan a pleasant outdoor meal. Left in my hands, we'd have eaten cold tuna sandwiches indoors. It's a good thing she's more energetic and playful than I am these days. Smoke gets to me and I become a house-bound creature of dour habits when enough wildfire smoke hangs in the air...
These days we're having now, this little tweener season that I call late summer, is one of my favorite times. The heat of summer - and hopefully the fires and their shrouds of smoke - are winding down. Days are getting noticeably shorter and the nights are noticeably cooler. The kids are getting their last lick of vacation in before the start of school. It's 4H animal projects and county fair time, sweet corn fresh from somebody's garden or maybe a roadside stand time, and time to think about...
At first I hated fishing tricos. They were too much of a mystery - not much was written about them then and all I knew about them were things I didn't like. They were too small. There were no standard patterns - that I knew about, anyway - so I had to start from scratch. The trout kept sipping them off the surface with maddening regularity for hours every morning. And when the tricos were on, it was useless to fish with anything else. If I wanted to catch these fish, I'd have to learn more...
You see them everywhere - maybe not in blizzard numbers but usually at least a few - all summer long. They start while salmonflies are on the water in June and they last, most years, well into September, depending on how chilly the nights get. You'll often find more of them clinging to streamside willows and tall grass than you'll see on the water. When they're ready, you'll see the egg-layers flying almost haphazardly over the stream, then dropping to shed their cargo of eggs into rifled...
Jon is a great kid. When my grandson Silas invited Jon to join us on a fishing and camping trip I couldn't have been more pleased. Silas is a great kid, too. I knew they'd bring a sense of adventure, enthusiasm, laughter and just enough delightful mischief to keep each other busy. I wouldn't have to do much but direct traffic, pass out chores and enjoy my time with them. Jon and Silas are both 13, and have known each other since they were babies. Their moms are best friends and their children, J...
Anybody reading this column who is old enough to be a Gordon Lightfoot fan might recognize the title of this column from one of his songs. Like many of you, and without going into the reasons why, I could use a summertime dream about now and over the next few days I might get one. I'm taking a grandson and his friend camping and fishing. They're wonderful kids and at that barely-teen age when the world comes alive with things to wonder at while they're still young enough to see it all fresh,...
Our trout streams in western Montana or the Idaho Panhandle have a lot in common. Whether you fish the St. Joe in Idaho or the Blackfoot, Bitterroot, or Rock Creek in Montana, you'll find the same trout species, the same insect hatches, the same general topography, but with infinite local variations that can differ slightly as you move from one run to another on the same body of water, much less into a different watershed. It's theme and variation. Each stream has its own character, its own...
Last week, water temps in the upper Bitterroot crept into the low and mid-60s and the East Fork and West Fork held in that range. Insect hatches are abundant at those temperatures, trout of all species feed actively, the angler can have a great day and all can appear to be well. But that was last week. This week and for the foreseeable future, day temps in the 90s will push water temperatures skyward by mid-day. As I write, hoot-owl restrictions, no fishing from 2 p.m. until 10 p.m., have been...
"I'm not a quitter, grandpa!" Seven-year-old Chance was not about to give up. His older brother had caught a couple of trout on his own and his four-year-old younger brother had caught one too, with some undivided assistance from Grandpa Chuck. Now it was Chance's turn. He was standing on a narrow strip of gravel between a current seam on the West Fork of the Bitterroot and a strip of willows behind him. I had been watching from downstream. As his casts neared the point where some small fish...
There still might be some leftover "super hatches" here and there; I remember one year when there was still major salmonfly activity well into late July on the Blackfoot. And then there was the year that green drakes, which might be done by mid-June most places, persisted until after the Fourth of July on the Bitterroot. And I don't mean occasional sightings. When I fished both of these hatches, years apart, they were the major happening on these rivers. The "super hatches," as they're called, a...
It's not every day that a fly shop owner has a client take him on a guided float trip. My friend John was in the front seat of the boat, I was in the rear. John and I first met at the Portland Expo Sportsman's Show where I was doing seminars and demonstrations. We hit it off and over the years he fished out of my shop regularly, bringing groups of friends with him. He was the gracious host to our dinners after fishing or after show hours in Portland. I wasn't too surprised when he invited me to...
"Chuck, what are you doing?" We had just launched on a not-quite-treacherous stretch of water. It was too early in the day, and possibly too early in the season to expect much dry fly fishing with the salmonfly hatch. It could happen, we told ourselves. There were telltale nymph shucks on the rock near the high-water line and in the willows. We had seen some adults flying around. The ever-hopeful guy in the front seat started with a big salmonfly dry. He was busy fishing - hitting the...
Safety any time you're on the water begins with preparation. For the wading angler this means gearing up for safety (and comfort) before going out. Comfort, you say? If you're miserable it follows that you might put yourself in danger. Getting chilled in a sudden downpour might not lead to hypothermia, but why take the chance? Slick-soled sandals or running shoes instead of purpose-built wading footwear? I've done it and survived the falls, but I've outgrown that silliness and don't recommend...
Safety begins with preparation. When you wade fish in streams, be they big rivers or small creeks, you stalk your fish. That usually means getting into the water, staying at angles where you are concealed, and positioning yourself away from swift currents and slippery rocks as you prepare to make your first cast. Preparation begins with respecting the swift currents and staying out of them. That's not where the trout are anyway. They're along the edges of those currents. At any time of year,...
Sometimes you just need to go fishing. You just need that time alone, time away from what doesn't give you peace. You might catch a trout or two but that doesn't really matter. The trout aren't what you're after. You need for your peace to return and know, when you fish, that you're connecting with something greater than yourself that will restore your peace. At other times it's about being with those rare people with whom you share a special bond - it's about strengthening the bond and...
What I see on too many YouTube videos makes me wince. Some of the trout, I'm sure, don't survive. Most of them probably make it, despite the rough handling they're subjected to. Wild trout are hearty creatures, but still, they're deserving of our respect. They deserve - and require, if they're to remain viable when subjected to natural stresses and unnatural fishing pressure - informed and responsible handling that will give them an optimal chance of survival. I've written comments in response...
You see the same thing every year: on the Bitterroot, some anglers get so fixated on the skwala hatch that they forget everything else. Never mind, especially in a year like this one, that the hatch might sputter from day to day. The angler armed with the hot new skwala fly, or a proven old one, for that matter, might find himself out of luck. These big brown-olive stoneflies bring the big fish up when they're present. And when they're not, the fish might still come up for them. It's no wonder...
It's ultimately up to us to take care of our fisheries. Montana's Fish, Wildlife & Parks has a complex job to do, but when it comes to taking care of western Montana's fishery resources, the most critical jobs are in our hands - literally. I'm talking about how we handle trout. Last week I promised I'd write more about the best ways to do that. Catch and release fishing is an effective management tool for preserving and conserving wild trout fisheries. For some, it borders on a religious...
The conversation over coffee with friends, naturally for us, was mostly about fishing. We talked about fly rods and my recent conversations with Kerry Burkheimer. In what had to be a weak moment Kerry said I could trade flies in partial payment for two of his rods. Time marches on and I hope to get some flies in his hands before he changes his mind. His rods are superb. You could make a real good argument that Burkheimers are the best graphite fly rods made. They are made from scratch with...
For a few days recently it has seemed like spring. Maybe it is. On the Ancient Roman Calendar the Ides of March occur on March 15. Winter is supposed to separate from spring precisely on March 15, according to the ancient Romans. They never made it to Montana. On the Modern Montanan Calendar the days of winter and spring bounce around on both sides of March 15. We take the spring weather when we can get it. "Beware the Ides of March," one Shakespearian character said, and when that line was...
Remember that old Rodgers and Hammerstein tune? It Might As Well Be Spring, from the musical Oklahoma? It feels like spring should be here but hasn't arrived yet. It might as well be, and should be, but isn't yet spring. I remember Februarys in years past when Jan and I would take long walks on the banks of the river. Winter eased up to the point where it felt good to get out. Taking a fly rod on those walks would come next. The past few days have been sunny enough. But instead of rising trout,...
My fly tying friends are at their vices already. They're tying skwalas - old favorites and some inevitable new ones. They can't help themselves. And they can't help but add too much of this, and a dab of that to their flies. Every flytier in western Montana where the early season skwala stonefly hatch occurs probably has at least one favorite skwala dry fly pattern, a fugitive from the accumulation of wild overdressed experiments gone wrong. Taken together, that scrap heap of abandoned flies...
It’s been a few years since I deliberately fished for winter whitefish. The last time, I joined some friends at a café in Darby for a late breakfast. The object was to fuel ourselves up with enough calories to withstand a chilly afternoon on the river, where we planned to catch a mess of whitefish. After that, the plan was to cook a few for an early dinner according to one of Mike’s all-time-great whitefish recipes (he’s a great cook) and if enough were left over, to smoke them. Who would do the smoking was uncertain. Both Jim and Mike are gr...