Spring time in the Northern Rockies

Yesterday it blowing 75 mph in the valley, today it was absolutely spectacular. Me and the boat dog got out for a float and enjoyed the great weather.

Listening to the Masters while floating down a river in SW Montana...man it doesn't get much better.

Nymph bite kept our attention. He's a pretty mellow boat dog but does get interested whenever you hook a fish. Like, every single time.

And not sure patterns really mattered as I found success on wire worms, march brown nymphs, and egg patterns.

Don't recall ever seeing these on this stretch. So that was kind of cool.

And managed to find my first decent fish of the year on the streamer. Been messing around with some different colors...this one fell for burnt orange.

Weather is about to turn again so I'm going to settle in on the bench for a couple days and watch one of the great sporting events of all time.

But today was great. Love spring time here and more to come.

 

[_WW_]

What an amazing day. Temps have really cooled down so runoff has been tamped down. It is the absolute best case scenario and awesome that we are fishing clear water on some streams this late in May.

It was my friend's oldest kid's birthday so we all met up for a day on the water. Impressive how good this kid is with a fly rod. @Evan B the little guy was rockin' an Ecko Gecko

He even managed to catch a few. What's better than a birthday brown?

My friend's father in law rode in my boat all day.

Dude has an interesting story. He was a professional skate board racer in California in the 70's. He outgrew racing and decided to move to Jackson, WY in '77 where he met up with John Simms. Together they started Simms. They sold to Walsh in the early 90's and he then went on to start several other companies including Croakies and Life-Link. Now he runs a production company called Teton Film Works. He is way into cool ass music (huge Panic fan) so of course we hit it off.

This was his last project. Dang it is SOOOOOO fucking good. I've never heard the kid miss.



Back to our day. Weather was not exactly what we were thinking but no biggie, this is spring time in the Northern Rockies! Just kind of wish the light was better for this one.

I've been out a couple times this week and the afternoon streamer bite has been en fuego. Fun when they are eating the big stuff and I'm always amazing the water these browns will hold in. I hooked quite a few, including my best of the year. Just a tank

I wasn't the only one having a good day. Of course I missed the money shot when he dove and grabbed a fish right in front of us. I didn't have much of the bird in the image and what little I did was out of focus. That is so hard to get right. Still cool just watching this guy hover.

Driving back to town the sun started peaking through. What an absolute fantastic landscape in a special time of year. This place is silly beautiful and I'm so grateful to call SW Montana home.

Today is calling for more wind/rain/snow. We'll see what the day brings but will be hard to top yesterday.

I'm liking that Billy Strings kid! On my list.

 

[Coach Potter]

I'm liking that Billy Strings kid! On my list.

Agreed…he’s really good.

 

[jasmillo]

I don’t mind a little Rocky Mountain snow in spring. Helps you figure out quickly if the critters you are trying to photograph have been around or not.

 

[swimmy]

Took an ole' boy out yesterday for his first time ever. Dude is from Georgia, not much of an outdoorsman, and had never been to Montana much less held a fly rod. His idea of trout fishing was heading down to the local trout pond and feedin' 'em some pellets. Yesterday changed all of that.

When I take beginners my goals are as follows:

1. Stay safe
2. Have fun
3. Learn
4. Maybe catch a fish
5. Maybe catch another one
6. Have fun

Bite was streaky but we checked off every box.

It was a chamber of commerce kind of day. Weather was pretty darn good...temps topping out in the low 70's with light winds. We also jumped a cow and calf in a side channel which was a bit sketch but also super cool. He'd never been that close to big game.

Then a few bends down river we got to witness this guy cross right in front of us. We dropped anchor and watched for a few minutes. My friend was stoked and got some video. He'll be telling that story for the rest of his life.

This guy is the perfect personality to take fishing. He was super content just being out. I could've left him on this hole, come back the next day, and he probably would still be shin deep. I had told him early on that in many ways catching a fish is just a bonus. It didn't take too long for him to start to understand and towards the end of the day he commented that you can really lose track of everything....including time.

Yeah, 'ole boy is heading back to Georgia with a completely different perspective.

 

[_WW_]

Yeah, 'ole boy is heading back to Georgia with a completely different perspective.

Probably to start packing his stuff for a big move!

 

[swimmy]

Probably to start packing his stuff for a big move!

Yeah he asked me what the calendar looked like in September.

 

[creekx]

Took an ole' boy out yesterday for his first time ever. Dude is from Georgia, not much of an outdoorsman, and had never been to Montana much less held a fly rod. His idea of trout fishing was heading down to the local trout pond and feedin' 'em some pellets. Yesterday changed all of that.

When I take beginners my goals are as follows:

1. Stay safe
2. Have fun
3. Learn
4. Maybe catch a fish
5. Maybe catch another one
6. Have fun

Bite was streaky but we checked off every box.

It was a chamber of commerce kind of day. Weather was pretty darn good...temps topping out in the low 70's with light winds. We also jumped a cow and calf in a side channel which was a bit sketch but also super cool. He'd never been that close to big game.

Then a few bends down river we got to witness this guy cross right in front of us. We dropped anchor and watched for a few minutes. My friend was stoked and got some video. He'll be telling that story for the rest of his life.

This guy is the perfect personality to take fishing. He was super content just being out. I could've left him on this hole, come back the next day, and he probably would still be shin deep. I had told him early on that in many ways catching a fish is just a bonus. It didn't take too long for him to start to understand and towards the end of the day he commented that you can really lose track of everything....including time.

Yeah, 'ole boy is heading back to Georgia with a completely different perspective.

Have you named every trout in that run (top photo) yet? I know that spot!

 

[swimmy]

I'm liking that Billy Strings kid! On my list.

Check out him and his dad. In the hopes that it will one day quit raining, I’m on the bench filling boxes for June and listening to some tunes.

This is good.

 

[Porter2]

I some how missed this thread. Nice pics swimmy!!! Big Sky Country, just amazing.

 

[_WW_]

Check out him and his dad. In the hopes that it will one day quit raining, I’m on the bench filling boxes for June and listening to some tunes.

This is good.

 

[Porter2]

Good!!!!

 

[SpeyrodGB]

A short time ago.

 

[swimmy]

While technically spring is not over, I'm going to close this one out to honor my favorite fishing month in SW Montana...