Montana Getaway!

I just returned from a long overdue fishing binge in Montana with good friends, Ben Brennan and Mike Patron. We managed to slip away from the wives unscathed and journeyed north to start the trip on the Missouri River near Craig, MT, this is a very well known tailwater emerging from the Holter Dam in Wolf Creek, MT. I have only fished this river in late October and in general it has always treated me to some of the finest "technical" dry fly fishing around. Technical just means small imitations of BWO's and midges(#18-22) combined with lighter tippets, demanding drifts and "hot", picky rainbows! The overall feel of this river is that of a giant spring creek(3500cfs) with long slow glides and bottoms mostly covered with aquatic vegetation-an insect machine! Our weather was a mixed October bag of warm, overcast wind on the first day then colder gusty winds on the second and lastly a cold calm snowy day... our final day was our best with steady snow and temps near freezing all day- Pod mania! Rainbows and browns scattered on flats and banks sipping and rolling all around... it was surreal, especially since we were one of two boats on the entire river. If you have never experienced a fishery like the "Mo", make sure it is high on you list and go during the off-season, traffic is very high there mid-summer.

Mo-Bows are wild and hot!

Casting streamers between pods works out nicely.

A Jefferson October Double!

Our final day after exploring the MO landed us just south on a river not too many ever get to fish or have that much to say about, the Jefferson River. This river is formed by some of the most acclaimed rivers in all of Montana, the Ruby, the Big Hole and the Beaverhead. Our knowledge of the river before launching was minimal... in fact, it was hard to get any report on this fairly large freestone stream not far from Bozeman. We had always heard low numbers but chance for true trophies existed. Well, we went for it and had good streamer fishing near mid-day in long slow runs. The water was very cold, high and off-color. When we started we actually thought it could end up being just a nice float with a few beers... but we were persistent with the streamers and figured out quickly that all the trout were not asleep yet. Slow retrieves with sink-tips caught the fish and some were nice, no hogs this go-round but I aim to return. Nice river with no crowds... my kinda place!

Guide Season 2009 Ending-

The 2009 Guide season came to a screaching halt this week as October ushered in some significantly cooler weather with wind and snow covering the region for several days. Up until now we had nearly 8-10 boats daily heading out for folks to try their luck on our wily fall cutthroats and now with the weather change only 1-2 are brave enough to go for it... this is tough on guides' late season income but the flip side is that we finally get a chance to head out and play on some of the rivers we know so well. Guide friends Ben Brennan & Mark Fuller teamed up with Louie and I as we saw the weather break and headed to the lower South Fork on 10/7. Conditions were pleasant and much warmer than Jackson Hole, therefore our streamer fishing suffered somewhat( it was still good just no jumbo trout) but near noon a wonderful BWO hatch brought out the cutthroats & browns in big numbers but substantial size was not found(best fish nearing 18")... hey, I loved it; I drank beer and caught beautiful trout on dries all afternoon... I have to practice what I preach(read my entry from August 12th)!
This week many of the local river flows are dropping to winter levels so when the seasonal weather returns there should be some excellent fishing to be had in the afternoons. I have several fun trips planned throughout the fall so I will post updates as the stories come in.
Had a fun day with my father-in-law, Bob Allen from Spartanburg, SC last week on the upper Snake as we found fantastic morning dry fly action and then later pulled this real nice "river Mac" from the depths... this fish is the largest I've seen in the net on the Snake... it measured nearly 29" and was 8lbs according to the weigh net.

Transition Days & Indian Summer-

Since my last update we have had the One Fly and said so long to summer. Over the past couple of weeks my fishing has been good and a few days exceptional... but as of lately getting tougher. Guides always have a few excuses hiding back in their minds, so here is my take on the conditions now- transition! Late summer is awesome here in JH and now it is officially autumn with lingering hints of summer(today it hit 80degrees), so why is the fishing up and down? Well, actually I am still seeing wonderful fishing but the fish are absolutely picked over and pressured. Seeing lots of refusals and bumps- the water temps are nice and cold, its bright, and the river is still flowing good @ 2700cfs near Moose. Once we get a weather change the water drops and pressure decreases I think some folks will be rewarded with Cutthroat gold! Thanks to all I fished with in the 2009 One Fly, I had my best finish ever...2nd place in Wyoming.

Into the Home Stretch- Autumn is Nearing

South Fork at Sunrise

Cutty's are looking up!

Shane and John enjoying a trophy cutty!

I just finished one of my longer work loads of the season... about 15 days in a row (I prefer a day off every 4-5 days as to stay on top of work and family duties) and as I get over the hump of the season I begin to reflect on the rewards of this "job" of mine. The daily grind, as with any job can be daunting but the overall benefits of being a fly fishing guide are wonderful and I am often reminded by many clients, new and old of these obvious benefits. One of my favorite rewards these days is all the folks I get to meet and build relationships with and over time watch them grow as anglers; sharing the sport at this level is very gratifying. So, as the season moves into the final third I sometimes think of winter and how I will miss the ole' summer grind. 

Conditions are prime for the up coming One Fly event, however pressure has been significant and the larger trout are no push overs so choose your fly wisely and make clean presentations. Snake River has good numbers of stoneflies around and also seeing drakes and mahoganeys on the cloudier days. Staying warm for now so hoppers are on! Thanks to all for an awesome August... special thanks to John and Shane Campbell for letting me show them some new water and taking in all the area has to offer. -SS

Big Cutty!

So, just as I posted last week that water temps were a concern a nice cool front passed through over the weekend and cooled everything off for several days and nights. Now we are looking very good through August unless it soars into the 90's sometime soon... our long range forecast actually looks cool so that is great. Fishing this week has been near epic everyday with great numbers and plenty of trout in the 15-18" range... and a few over 20", that is great on the Snake. Honest guides that do not stretch our sizes agree we see only a handful of trout over 20" each season on this river... my thoughts are that there are not that many in that category and we fish way to many dryflies to catch those fish on a regular basis. But every once in a while you find one and it makes you think should I give up my 3wt. and dryflies and start chunkn' lead and bunny fur in every deep hole you find... my answer is no!  Good dryfly fishing is the pinnacle of our sport and is aesthetically more enjoyable overall... big fish are always special but they are not everything!

Here is Skip Hildebrand with a nice 20" cutty taken on a #16 pink pmd dry... the best part is that we were able to sight fish to this guy. Then later the same day, while Skip and Eddie were taking a break, I tied on a minnow jig  and toss it out for a few swings through a deep trough. Hooked and landed this hefty 23 1/2" cutty!... feel free to comment what you would have rather caught... they were both equally fun and posed different challenges- Great Day!

Hoppers are heating up and also seeing clissinia stoneflies in Teton park.

Hot Diggidy- Dog Days of Summer!

This is that special and sometimes not so special time of the season... why? Well, by now most of the early summer hatches are over with only isolated hatches occurring and most of those are early and late in the day, perhaps before and after the fiberglass hatch. In addition, area rivers have dropped to great low fishing flows but the flip side to this is water temps can rise over 10 degrees in about 4-5 hours and good fishing can literally shut off, not to mention kill trout if caught otherwise. Lastly, pressure on all the rivers have some trout super selective... I see fish refusing flies all day that would have been snatched up just a couple weeks ago- I personally love a challenging fish yet when guiding it is nice to run across a few gullible 18"ers.  Now for the good stuff- trout are looking up! With lower flows and a variety of nice fat terrestrials falling into the water our trout are on the feed and when it is on it can be awesome! Most of us hate windy conditions but those windy days in August can lay down a lot of bugs from the grassy banks... put it in there and twitch it! Take off your barbs and handle the trout as little as possible... 65-68 degree water to a trout is like 95-105 to us, try a good sprint in Phoenix next time.

Finishing July every year is a relief... I love the fishing on the Green, NF & SF but the driving is brutal... from now till October my eyes are on the Snake River in JH, chasing those wily cutthroats. Thanks to everyone for a fabulous July- Scott

Browns of Western Wyoming-

Over the past two weeks my guide work has been steady and my clients and I have most often found ourselves exploring Western Wyoming. Many years at this point I would have been on the South Fork of the Snake River at least half the time, however this year the SF was extremely high during some of its prime hatches and that forced many JH guides to make do closer to home. Well, the summer to this point has provided some fantastic angling and some tougher days as well... as we all say, "that's fishing"! Lately, the Upper Green drainage has been absolutely gorgeous and for 60% of the day awesome fishing... you cannot always expect it to be great all day, those days are fairly rare and special. Morning periods are best now as we are seeing days near 90 degrees, I have been noticing a significant slow down after 1pm and the water temps are nearing 67-68 degrees, much above that it is not recommended to fish... I always like a couple cold beers to float off the dead zones. On the Green and its tribs it has been brown trout madness... I love those browns but I sure do miss my SF bows. The Snake in JH is really looking good and like clock work it is dink mania with a few shots at nice trout. If we get a slight cool down,  August will be great on the Snake and that will relieve pressure on the other rivers, therefore late summer is looking terrific at this point. Thanks to all for a great couple weeks!

Check out more client shots on the Jack Dennis site.