One of the great joys of living in Bozeman, MT is that within a 100-mile radius of town, there are innumerable miles of high quality, trout infested water, no matter which direction you head. Yesterday morning I headed out well before dawn to a small creek just 72 miles as the crow flies away from my home. Unfortunately I don’t have a crow, let alone one that could carry the gear so I drove the 112 miles it takes to get to the spot. Indian Paint Brush Creek gets its name from the prolific spreads of bright red Indian Paint Brush that adore the willow bottom creekside. I’ve also heard it called Nothing Straight Here Creek as it murderously snakes its way through the willow bottom. After some 40 miles of unimproved road, my favorite spot forces me to cross about a mile of sagebrush losing several 100 feet of elevation to reach the creek. It is usually a pleasant walk at dawn with lots of beasts to be seen on the opposite hillsides. This morning I was treated to a pair of Pronghorns with two fawns frolicking in the sage. A big Mule Deer doe created me as I reached the creek as well. This is Moose country and although I didn’t see one this morning, its fairly nervy busting through the high willows to reach the creek for fear of encountering a cow and calf of which I’ve seen along the creek many times.
Indian Paint Brush Creek is home to a very healthy population of Cutbows, a few whitefish and grayling. It displays decent mayfly and caddis activity and is dynamite hopper stream as the summer warms. Even on this early June trip, 1/2” juvenile hoppers were plentiful in the creek side grass.
On this trip I broke out one of the 7’ glass 3 weights and restricted flies to dries and emergers. As the morning warmed a #14 parachute Adams was the fly that generated the most takes. After about 5 hours on the creek that was completely devoid of any human footprints several dozen 8”-12” fish had come to hand. As primarily a streamer guy on bigger rivers the dry fly action was fun but tedious. Having to re-dress the fly every time I caught a fish and the tedious nature of threading 4X tippet through a #14 hook was not my favorite part of the trip.
I’ve fished Indian Paintbrush Creek at least once every season for the last 15+ years and saw something I’d never seen up there before. Beavers have invaded a section of the stream, started a dam and created a lodge. Beaver slides were prominent stream side and its was evident they were effectively harvesting the local willows. Not much ponding yet, but next season we’ll see.
Indian Paint Brush Creek is a long trek from home for a day trip but everything about it is well worth it.
