MadocFlyGuy

Angling Day 2 - The Big Blackfoot (yes, the river from A RIver Runs Through It):

On our way home on Day 1, Joe made a quick stop at the Blackfoot to check out its conditions. Around this time, there are very small windows to chase big fish in high water, and Joe felt that the Blackfoot was at a perfect place. This is an excellent example as to why you should consider hiring a guide for a few days in a new location. With Joe's 20+ years experience angling these waters, he made the perfect call, and we were in for an absolutely epic day.

To start with, however, we made a quick pit-stop at one of the local Missoula fly shops.

Our vessel for day 2:

With these river conditions, we were using what the guides called a "Slop Rig" (just named for how sloppy it can be to cast). We were rocking a 7 wt today, and running a streamer as the anchor fly, followed by a squirmy worm. At the second hole we pulled up to, I managed to convince 3 nice rainbows to come out and play:

Leaving that run on a high, I wasn't sure how much better the day was going to get. After a few drifts in the following hole, we were about to pull up and head to the next run, when I set the hook on this beautiful 23" brownie:

I couldn't believe how well the day was going! After releasing this beauty, and getting over the post-release high, we moved to the next run. Two drifts in, my indicator drops, and I feel a HEAVY fish on the other end of the line. He hugged bottom for a long time, moving where ever he desired. Finally, he got pissed off enough to head into the heavy current, and the chase downstream was on. After a 5-10 minute battle, we pulled my very first bull trout into the net (~31").

I was on cloud 9 - I had been dreaming about this fish for years, and I was in awe as I watched him slowly swim back to the depths out of our net. 

We anchored the boat after this fish and had some lunch. Unfortunately, after lunch, the river spiked from 5250 CFS to 5900 CFS, and the fishing shut off. Nevertheless, the float out had some beautiful scenery to enjoy:

Everyone who's been around OFF for a while knows that I never chime in on things like this, and I'm cool with a good debate, but can we please refrain from blatant ignorance and gross generalizations like the sentence below? Growing up very close to a Native community, and having many friends with families that had to grow up with numerous difficulties that we cannot imagine, I find this to be offensive. I know this was not your intent, FF, but I'd appreciate if we kept this debate to fishing and facts, and keep OFF as a positive community for anyone.

TBH i don't believe natives in this area of Ontario are not struggling more or less than anyone else, the ones that are, are the ones too lazy to get off their butts and find work, theres lots of work available this time of year, especially in a rural area, lots of farmers need help getting their fields ready.  so sanctuaries, although part of their 'Native Treaty' should be off limits.

Was very excited to wake up and find our video featured on the Moldy Chum site

The following morning was HOT, and we were on the water at around 6:30am. The trout remained active very briefly, but they quickly hunkered down due to the heat. We did manage one on a nice, meaty streamer though!

The rest of the day was spent playing with all of the largies in this lake! They’re not huge here, but still very fun on a fly-rod!

The highlight of the day came when we had the opportunity to sight fish for a largie that was likely in the 4-5lb range, however he did not seem to want what we were selling, and quickly returned to the depths. Oh well, it gives us motivation to keep returning and try to catch him on the next trip!

Tight lines,

Cody

For what seemed like the first time in forever, I finally had an opportunity to return to my favourite rainbow trout lake with Alex. We had planned to meet late Friday afternoon, fish that evening, and then spend all of Saturday chasing rainbows as well. However, a few days prior to the trip, I suddenly realized that Saturday would also mark the opening of bass in this region. Hurray! Seeing as this lake is teeming with largies, we now had a viable alternative plan if the still-water trout bite was off.

Lucky for us, on Friday, this was not the case. We managed to get on the lake around 3:30pm, and immediately started seeing active, feeding trout. For the first half an hour or so, we stuck to our routine flies in this lake – Woolly Buggers in various colours. Although these flies typically attract the trout here, we weren’t finding any luck with them today. On one of our final drifts in the boat, we watched as a giant baitfish school swarmed beneath us – something we have never witnessed in this lake. That got us thinking, and we immediately transitioned over to nice, meaty streamers for these still-water rainbows. We were giddy just tying these streamers on, as Alex nor I have really managed to catch large trout on big streamers. Well, that would certainly end today! The first fish came very quickly after our first change on a large muddler minnow pattern:

This was an average fish for this lake – nice to see them growing healthily year after year!

While the GoPro was attached to our net, it managed to snap a pretty neat pic of our team!

… as well as the release, of course!

Eventually we tied on some even larger patterns – patterns we would typically use for chasing gar in the flats of Lake Ontario. Still, the hungry trout wanted more!

.. and again, the release 

We finished our time on the water at around 7pm (much to our dismay, just as the action was picking up even more!) in order to meet my family for some dinner. One thing I definitely need to do is tie up some large articulated patterns with stinger hooks for these fish. Although we managed some nice trout, we had many missed fish just due to the lack of a stinger hook. The trout were chasing the flies, striking from the back, and just catching the tail of the longer streamers, and not the hooks. Regardless, this was an adrenaline rush! Twice I had the opportunity to cast to a fish feeding on the surface, distract it with my streamer, watch it create a wake in the lake’s surface by racing after my fly, and striking the streamer. It was an absolutely amazing experience!

Another very cool video popped up on the Orvis blog from Dave and Amelia Jensen. Enjoy!

A new video in the "Run" series from one of my favourite fly-fishing videographers, Todd Moen.

Check it out:

Was playing around with B&W, and really liked this one:

Once again great read Cody, and beautiful fish. Now stop posting these pics!!! Your driving me nuts and making me jealous!

 

We have to wet a line together one day.

Haha thanks man! Yes, we definitely need to get out soon! I'll be taking the second part of the summer off before starting my MBA, and will be fishing like crazy then!

Hey Will,

We were on a similar stream, and had a similar experience with the resi browns. The water was collllld and so they were pretty inactive. They were stacked up in slower pools, and were only hitting small nymphs (for me, they seemed to like a yellow caddis pupa I had tied in size 18). I had 5 fish on throughout the weekend, but only landed this one (somewhere between 10 or 12" I think):

We saw limited success with other anglers as well - those who did have success were using very small nymphs too. It wasn't until late in the day on Sunday that we saw some browns rising for midges, but it was so few and far between that we stuck with nymphing.

Tight lines!

Cody

87 days and counting.....

ar

 

isnt that close to 60 dollars in entrance fees? unless you are going in for free. i dont think you will make up that 60 bucks with any amount of handouts. but to each their own.

Last year, the guy at the Cortland booth gave GBA and I both Trout Boss fly lines, which typically retail over $60. If you work your charm, you can come out on top

I think that's a great idea td!

Thanks for all the congrats!

Very much looking forward to continuing my contributions to OFF and, as alwayscatching said, look out for the best interests of the forum.

Cheers,

Cody