So today I was proud of myself. I finally caught my first fish on a streamer from a boat. And, not only did I catch a fish – I caught three fish on streamers. And, not only three fish, but two new ones for me – a bull trout and a west slope cutthroat. Yippee!
The bull trout was one of the prettiest fish I have seen this year. Although the Blackfoot River breeds them a lot bigger than the one I caught, this was a pretty fish, as was the west slope cutthroat.
When my guide, David Hufman with the Grizzly Hackle Fly Shop in Missoula, MT contacted me about a start-up time, I thought he was a little hardcore when he said to meet him at 7:00 a.m. at the fly shop. In cold, rainy, weather? I agreed, and I’m glad we did – we caught our best fish in the early morning hours when it was cloudy and still sprinkling. That shows you how much I know.
We put in at River Junction, which required us to travel down a very narrow dirt road through a thick forest that had several large trees down. Fortunately someone ahead of us had a chainsaw with them and cleared a passage for us. Only one boat had beat us to the river and thus our chances of a good fishing day rose dramatically.
More to come…
