Fly Fishing the West

Vol. 30, Issue 1

Sept. 17-19, 21 2018

Clark Fork (Deer Lodge), Missouri River (Land of the Giants), Box Canyon on Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, Island Park, Idaho

Monday, Sept. 17, 2018—Tyson and I went with nephew Trent Brown (Montana Fishing Guide) at 8 am to the Clark Fork near Deer Lodge. We floated the small stream in a drift boat for about 8 hrs. We fished mainly dry flies toward the bank and some streamer fishing and nymphing. Tyson caught one brown and lost several others using streamers. Later in the day he caught a 16” brown on a streamer “mouse” pattern. A fly called a purple chubby also worked well casting right next to the bank. We stopped the boat about 3 pm to fish. Trent went down a small side stream and caught a 19” brown on a size 12 purple chubby (see picture below). We caught about 6-8 more, smaller browns and several mountain whitefish. It was a sunny, warm day, maybe not the best for fishing, but it made for an enjoyable day under the Montana big sky. 

Tuesday, Wednesday,  Sept. 18, 19, 2018—Tyson and I again went with Trent each morning about 8 am to Holter Reservoir, which is below Hauser Dam. On Tuesday we traveled in Trent’s very nice jet boat first several miles up the east canyon called “Gates of the Mountains”. This is a part of the Missouri River which is very scenic and inaccessible by motorized vehicle. It has steep cliffs mixed with pine and fir trees. The cliffs have many caves and rock formations. It also has ancient petroglyphs of buffaloes at one place in the canyon wall. We then returned to the ‘lake’ part of the reservoir and fished for several hours with no luck. We then proceeded south toward Hauser Dam, an area known as “Land of the Giants” We nymphed from the drift boat both days and caught about ten 16-18-inch mostly rainbows on a size 18 green machine and one rainbow on a sowbug with another fish lost on a sowbug. ).One brown was actually ‘chunky’ like some rainbows, which I had never seen before. We lost several good-sized fish. One that broke the line right at the green machine fly. Later in the day on Wednesday we fished the ‘lake’ part of the reservoir where large fish were ‘finning’ on the top of the water, due to a massive callibaetis mayfly hatch on the lake. Trent caught the largest fish of the trip (a fat 19-inch rainbow) on a hare’s earnymph suspended a couple of feet below a palsa pinch on a strike indicator (see picture below). During the hatch on the lake Tyson had a big rainbow take a size 18 green machine fly suspended a couple of feet below a parachute dry fly. The tippet broke just as he set the hook. Later on Tyson lost another big one using the palsa pinch/hare’s ear setup as Trent.

Friday, Sept. 21, 2018— On Thursday, Nancy, Tyson and I traveled from Helena (where we stayed with Rachelle Brown, recently moved from Seattle) to Ashton, Idaho. About 7 am on Friday morning Tyson and I drove about 25 miles north to Box Canyon on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River to fish. We started where the Buffalo River flows into the Henry’s Fork. Tyson caught a couple of rainbows on an olive streamer, one about 16 inches. He also caught 6 small fish using nymphs (all rainbows and one mountain whitefish. We returned to the car about 1 pm for lunch. In the afternoon I went to the upper part of Box Canyon where the Buffalo Rivers enters the Henry’s Fork. I caught two fish there, one a rainbow and one a 10-inch brook trout (see below) on a size 16 tan midge. At about 6 pm fish started breaking the water with one small and a large fish jumping 1 foot out of the water. I switched to a size 12 parachute hopper and caught 3 more fish, two rainbow and another brook trout, all 8-10 inches. Tyson caught another 16-inch rainbow and several other smaller fish, one being a brook trout, all on a streamer. We returned to Ashton about 6:30 pm.

Other Miscellaneous Information/Observations:

1. The weather was very nice in Montana. Monday was warm and sunny (72 F high). Tuesday was cooler and Wednesday was cool and overcast (45 F in the morning). It looked like rain on Wednesday, but never did. Returning in the boat from Land of the Giants on Tuesday we were heading into a 10-15 mph breeze making the water choppy with 2-3 foot swells.
2. The water in the Missouri had a green tinge to it, possibly from some algae growth occurring during the previous several weeks. We met another fishing guide on the dock who said the off color had slowed the fishing down the past week. (Youtube videos show the Land of the Giants water to be very clear, not green as we had it.)
3. We saw deer in Montana and in Box Canyon a Great Blue Heron, see pictures below.
4. The trip was very memorable with Trent Brown as our guide. We would highly recommend him to anyone looking for a Montana fishing guide. He is one of best at what he does, for sure. Also staying with Rachelle, his sister, was very nice as well. (She was considering possibly one day getting into the bed and breakfast/over-night stay business.)
5. Non-resident Montana fishing license for 2018 was $35 for a two-day license. (So, I had to buy two two-days even though we only fished 3 days in Montana for $78.) In Idaho a one-day non-resident fishing license was $17.
6. Regarding this part of the Upper Missiouri River (upstream from Holter Dam), on July 19, 1805 Meriwether Lewis (Lewis and Clark) on their way to the Pacific Ocean recorded in his journal, “…we entered [much] the most remarkable clifts that we have seen. These clifts rise from the waters edge perpendicularly to a hight of 1,200 feet…the towering and projecting rocks…seemed ready to tumble on us. For a distance of 5¼ miles [the river is] deep from side to side nor it there in the first 3 miles…a spot…on which a man could rest the soal of his foot… From the singular appearance of this place I called it the ‘gates of the rocky mountains’..”.  Lewis was also within a couple of hours march from one of the great gold deposits [in the west], Last Chance Gulch, near Helena, Montana…. But they were not looking for gold. As far as Lewis and Jefferson were concerned, animals, not minerals, were the great wealth of the Rocky Mountains. They caught cutthroat trout, encountered buffalo, deer, large elk, grizzly bears, bighorned sheep, beavers, otter, cranes, geese, red-breasted mergansers and curlews, ‘and a great number of snakes’. They were hampered by prickly-pear cactus, numberous  bothersome ‘musquetoes’, and ‘needle grass, an invention of the devil, consisting of barbed seeds which “penetrate our mockersons and leather legings..”.  On July 27, they arrived at Three Forks where the Missouri split into the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallitin Rivers.” (Source: Undaunted Courage- Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West, by Stephen E. Ambrose, pages 252-258.)