Tis the Season on Lesser Ape Creek

Runoff in SW Montana is in full swing. However, there are some headwaters that recede early. Lesser Ape Creek is one of those and graced anglers with dropping flows on the season opener. A week ago Lesser Ape Creek was in full flood, overflowing its banks, but a precipitous drop in flows and clearing water bode well for the season opener.

A 3AM wake up, a cup of coffee and I was off by 3:30. It is about an hour forty-five to my favorite stretch of Lesser Ape Creek and I made it, geared up ready to go by 5:30AM, 15 minutes before official sunrise and the kickoff of the season. My favorite stretch of Lesser Ape Creek runs through large, open meadows with zero obstructions to facilitate long casts to productive lies. Lesser Ape Creek in the meadow is low gradient, meandering, wide and shallow with the exception of a very deep channel that is usually hugging one bank or the other. However, when it is bank full, wading can be problematic even in the normally shallow sections because of soft sand and mud. The T&T No Sanctuary II 5 weight armed with a 200 grain 30’ SONAR sink tip was just the ticket to get unweighted streamers into the zone.

I tied up a special box of flies just for the trip as two conditions are always present in post-runoff meadow streams. These meadows hold mostly (95%+) browns whose fall spawning put a ton of brown trout fry in the stream. Additionally, the meadows seeps are full of leeches and loads of worms succumb to the creek as grass banks collapse during run-off. All the browns I caught manifested deep bellies chock full of fry, worms and leeches.


Despite all the hype about crowded rivers here in SW Montana, I rarely encounter it. This morning I did not see another angler until after 10 AM and I’d been on the water for 4 hours. I was off the water by 11 AM as wind and thunderstorms loomed large. I made three passes (interrupted by a tailgate breakfast) over 3/4 mile stretches of water. Twice on one stretch and once on a tree lined stretch at the margin of the meadow. I connected with at least three dozen browns, mostly in that 14-16” range but several were pushing 19”, the largest I’ve ever caught in this particular meadow.

The meadows of Lesser Ape Creek will fish well as flows drop throughout June, but will stagnate in July into early September. Fall fishing on Lesser Ape Creek is usually good if the weather is cool and flows stay normal. All in all, Tis The Season opener on Lesser Ape Creek was a good one.

 

[Matt B]

That looks like a blast! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Otter]

Great report! Trouty and open country rivers like that are my unfulfilled dreams. We have nothing even close here on Vancouver Island.

 

[Brian in OR.]

Nice report

 

[Sagebrush]

Great report and beautiful water. Is that smoke or steam in the background of your first photo?

 

[Mike Cline]

Great report and beautiful water. Is that smoke or steam in the background of your first photo?

Steam, might be a clue to the location.

 

[krusty]

Beautiful pics! Can't resist asking if Lesser Ape Creek feeds into Greater Ape Creek?

 

[Florida Man]

Enjoyed the photos. Some great fishing production to boot.

 

[Mike Cline]

Beautiful pics! Can't resist asking if Lesser Ape Creek feeds into Greater Ape Creek?

No, flows into Secretary of State (1801) river.

 

[Mike Cline]

A bit of an addendum: Missed a big brown last Friday at the mouth of a small creek entering Lesser Ape Creek. Although flows are down considerably, and water is pretty clear I thought I'd see if the bruiser was still around. Indeed, at about 11AM this morning he fell for a soft-hackle streamer about 25 yards downstream from the creek mouth. Released unharmed and in good spirits. I'll hunt him down again this Fall.

 

[Divad]

That is one dry brown in the grass I hope he is strong and healthy for you come fall.

Edit: I mean that in a good way, catching the same fish throughout time has happened to me once and I wish it was more often.

 

[Crawbugger]

That is one dry brown in the grass I hope he is strong and healthy for you come fall.

Edit: I mean that in a good way, catching the same fish throughout time has happened to me once and I wish it was more often.

They’re tough invasives. You can slaughter all non natives on some of the best Brown trout water in my state. Thanks for sharing Mike.

 

[Mike Cline]

That is one dry brown in the grass I hope he is strong and healthy for you come fall.

Edit: I mean that in a good way, catching the same fish throughout time has happened to me once and I wish it was more often.

They’re tough invasives. You can slaughter all non natives on some of the best Brown trout water in my state. Thanks for sharing Mike.

This particular water lies within the YNP Native Trout Conservation Area. When the park was created (1872) this was fishless water. Sometime in the 1890s, the NPS (actually the US Fishery Bureau) introduced non-native brown, brook and rainbow trout as well as somewhat native (adfluival not flulvial) grayling to this watershed. Clearly brown trout came to dominate the watershed above the falls creating a very challenging fishery in the meadow reaches. Several years back the NPS designated two park regions as 1) Native Trout Conservation Area and 2) Wild Trout Tolerance Area.

The upper reaches of this particular watershed falls within the Native Trout Conservation Area which brings with it a regulation contrary to the typical catch and release ethic of most fly anglers. That regulation allows the unlimited taking (killing) of non-native trouts. In other words, I could kill the 30+ fish I catch every trip if I wanted too and throw them on the bank for the ravens, coyotes and wolves. The NPS however encourages that any trout you kill be returned to the water or placed in an NPS trash can. Several years back the NPS began dumping (unpublicized) Westslope Cutthroat brood stock into this water. They are not indigenous to this water but that doesn’t seem to impact the NPS view of things. See image below. Easy to catch but they don’t survive long in this brown trout water. Haven’t seen one this year although I caught a number of them right after they dumped them in. Their goal it seems is to destroy a world class brown trout fishery to create a haven for non-indigenous Westslopes. Lets hope the browns win. I’d much rather catch a challenging brown in tough water than a wimpy Westslope that was never indigenous to the water to begin with.