rockymountain_brown
03-19-2007, 02:27 PM
Had the oppurtunity to go on my last spring break trip before grad school. I went with my younger brother. Saturday morning we headed to the upper clark fork. It was actually quite busy. The water there was very Beaverhead like, and the fish were mostly browns and whitefish. Caught about 16 between us. Most of the fish were caught on small nymphs and SJ worms. Due to little camping availablity, we drove down to Rock Creek and spent the night. Woke up on Sunday, and fished the lower river. We caught some whitefish, browns, and bows, with the biggest being a 16" bow. Water level was low and it was quite clear. We then headed up to the Dalles region (lower-mid river). There was about a 20' bank of ice on each side of the river, and Rock creek was flowing in the middle of it. Despite that and the cold water temps, I managed to land one small brown on a bunny. Drove back down to the campsite and called it a day. Ran into JMills81 and his dad, and they kindly offered us some Tequila and dessert. Talked for a few hours and told some stories. In the morning (monday) we woke up and fished the root' for a bit, and it was a bit up and visibility had gone down quite a bit. We didn't see and skwalas the entire time, drys or nymphs. Drove down a few miles below were rock creek dumps in on the clark fork, and fished it halfheartedly for a half hour. It was pretty muddy, and didnt have a touch. We proceded to drive into Missoula and then up along the Bitterroot. It was gin clear despite the warm weather. We got down to the river, and the first cast Ryan (my brother) caught a nice rainbow. Waded downstream from the bridge a few miles and caught a ton of whitefish, some rainbows, cutbows, 1 brown and a nice sucker. Hiked back up to the truck and ate some good Mexican for dinner. We then went to the west fork of the bitterroot which looked good, but it was raining the entire time, so we spent the night camping in the rain. Fished it for about fifteen minutes in the morning and landed one petite whitefish. Drove up over the pass and into the big hole valley, and then over another pass into the beaverhead valley. Fished the beaverhead on tuesday and wednesday morning. It was really quite good. We fished just below the closure and caught some really nice browns and a pig whitefish (21"). Also managed to land one nice 20" bow. The bigger guys were all caught on streamers, and nymphing was productive as well. It was a good trip. These are just a few photos, hopefully I will get some more added later... The funny looking guy in the photos is my brother.
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