Here's a report from Jeff Sturm. "I’ve been getting out on Pass Lake semi-regularly (almost weekly). Nothing too surprising, 2-3 rainbows to the net about the same number lost. However, I was there a week ago and while a beautiful day, I only had one bite and luckily I kept it on. I knew from the way it fought that it was something special (pic below)." Jeff's experience matches mine of the last few weeks: 2-3 fish per outing casting leaches to the bank and retrieving.

Dateline, Montana. Evidently I need new waders. Fishing Rock Creek today I felt like I was fishing in a Northwest downpour: non-stop heavy rain. By the time I got off the river my pants and socks were soaking wet, and I hadn't fallen in the river for a change. The water just ran down my raincoat and soaked through my aged waders. I've never seen it rain steadily all day in Missoula in the fall before. As you can imagine, I had the river to myself. When I awoke this morning, it seemed like the perfect day to try some streamers for trout moving up out of the Clark Fork in preparation for spawning. I fished the very lowest section of Rock Creek and did, indeed, catch a couple fish. The first was a beautiful cutthroat, about 16 inches, that I pulled out from under a fallen log. I also caught a helpful bull trout (12 inches) that, when I over-reacted to its initial strike by jerking the fly to the surface, came up to take it like a dry fly and hooked itself. I'll take luck when skill fails me. The rain should stop later tonight, and the forecast for next week, when other club members come over for an outing, looks dry. Skies will be mostly sunny with high temperatures in the mid-toe-upper 70s. Fishing will be fun and, I hope, productive.

A heart-warming turnout, weather as good as we could have expected, aggressive fish, and fine eats: what more could a person ask? The revived first annual Nyerges Nymph One-Fly Outing was a hit! Nearly a dozen club members took to the water, and another half-dozen came to help with lunch. That's my definition of success. Gianna Holle did a fantastic job organizing this outing; give her a high-five next time you see her. The fish were quite cooperative, and nearly everyone caught fish. New member, Carla, caught her first fish ever on a fly rod as well as catching the biggest fish of the day--perhaps 20". Bob Adams caught another large fish. The majority of fish, however, ranged from 14" to 18". They were scrappy and acrobatic. As you'll see from the following photo, they were responsive to quite a range of colors. A hard day's fishing gives a person a hearty appetite, so for lunch we all chowed down on pizza from Village Pizza in Coupeville (another thing arranged by Gianna). There was good conversation and much laughter. Here are a few photos from the day (note that the last one is a video):

Not until today. Carol and I are exploring Idaho's scenic byways and have landed in Island Park, on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River. I've read stories of the fantastic fish here and how hard they can be to catch. Now I can vouch for the first but not yet the second. Perhaps it's the early season, but even as a first-time fisher on this river I managed to net three nice rainbows (17"-19"), and I hooked several others. The water in front of our hotel room (after several days in campgrounds, it was time for a shower) is wide and shallow, much like I remember the Madison River in MT being. So, finding fish means finding small slots and rocks. My approach was to start moving directly across the river, casting as I went. I found good and bad water and fish where you'd expect. On my four-weight rod, these strong and heavy fish were a challenge to land in the fast current of mid-river. Even this early in the season, there are a good number of people on the river, but they come and go, so I never felt crowded. It may be that other sections of the river are busier, avoiding this section because I heard that releases of water from the Island Park Reservoir have had the river here going up and down daily. That works for me.

The weather was great, the bugs were out, and the fish were up! We couldn't have asked for more last Wednesday as eight club members enjoyed a day's fishing on the Yakima River. Four guides from Red's Fly Shop shared their expertise and pleasant personalities with us--putting us on a lot of fish, teaching us a few things, and matching us quip for quip. While mayfly nymphs brought several fish to the net, the highlight of day was that the warm weather brought out the Skwala stoneflies and had large fish looking up. We all caught fish in the 16-inch to 20-inch range on dry flies. There's nothing quite like seeing that dark shape emerge from the depths, focus laser-like on your fly, and suck it in. McGinn deserves special thanks for sponsoring this trip and for herding our motley band in the right direction at the right time. Our consensus is that this should be an annual trip. You won't want to miss the next one.

I fished Ala Spit near the beginning of the incoming tide mid-day yesterday and had pretty good luck: two Dollys, one of which was 27". The bright sun evidently wasn't a deterrent for these fish. I was using a fly called a foul-free herring (purple over olive rather than one of those shown here). I'm sorry there aren't fish photos to share.

I've always wanted to start a fishing report with words like these. The places I fish just don't seem to be anyone's secret. But the success of a fly fishing guide, like my son, often hinges on knowing those places to go that others don't know of or don't think about. So when Dave took me out for two days of fishing this week it was with the understanding that I'd keep his secret. For our first day we were joined by long-time club member, Judy Tuvey. She had been fishing the St. Joe River in Idaho with her brother for a couple days and was kind enough to hop over the mountain to keep me company this day. Given the two-hour drive and the hour time change between ID and MT, Judy was already on the road by the time I thought about getting out of bed. She gets a good deal of extra credit for that. She arrived in Missoula at about 8:30, and since our put-in for the day was still an hour away, we wasted no time getting Judy on the road again. The time passed quickly as we told fishing stories and did question-and-answer as she and my son, Dave, got acquainted. We were on the water by about 9:30. I've fished with Dave enough to know that his go-to rig is a dry dropper with a Chubby Chernobyl on top and a very sparse bead-head mayfly pattern (very much the Euro-nymph design) on a three-foot dropper. If we start to get a lot of takes on the surface, he'll remove the dropper and change to a more natural dry fly. The dry-dropper rig worked like a charm for us, and we stayed with it all day, catching a lot of trout (mostly browns) and, perhaps, an equal number of mountain whitefish. Both trout and whitefish were FAT fish averaging, say, 14 inches, with several in the 17-inch range. Literally every fish, large or small, surprised me with their strength and stamina. These were not fish that came to the net willingly (though there was that 4-incher that came flying into the boat on my hook-set). We had seven miles of fine river, great fishing, good conversation and laughter, under a perfect Montana sky and temperatures in the 70's. Who could ask for more. Day two was just father and son: always a treat for me. "Second verse, same as the first.": a different stretch of river, but lots of fish in a nice mix of cutthroat, rainbows, hybrids, and whitefish, with perfect weather. These are the days you dream of.

Carol gave me a pass on new-puppy duty today, so I spent a few hours on Rock Creek. The weather is beautiful here in Montana, with clear blue skies and temperatures in the 70's. I was expecting crowds on the river, it being Sunday, but found it rather sparsely populated. Maybe the rising water levels have people thinking the river's unfishable. This is actually my favorite time to fish Rock Creek. With high water, the lower river turns into a braided stream in several places, and fish will move into these smaller side channels to get away from the raging current in the main stream. In addition, these side channels reduce my chances of drowning in a stream notorious for its spring wading conditions. You can usually find wadable conditions along with nice fish. The rising water of the past couple days does seem to have the fish "off their feed" compared to what I experienced last week, but some hunting revealed several nice pockets and seams holding fish. Actually, two fish I caught today were the largest I've landed this season (photos below). I continue to play with tight-line nymphing and find it enjoying to try something new. I've not invested in specialty gear yet, opting to simply cut the head off an old floating line I had lying around and tying 20 feet or so on Maxima Chameleon on as my main line. Also, the raves about how productive this technique is seem to be true. Because this is a close-in technique, I find I have to pass up some productive water that I could fish with a conventional setup where I'm able to make some longer casts. I also find myself watching the wind forecasts more closely, because strong wind is a killer. I always throw a reel with my conventional line into my vest in case water or conditions make me want to change away from the tight-line. A pink rubber worm tied on a jig hook was the "fly" of choice today. Typically I use two flies, with a mayfly nymph above my worm, but once I figured out the fish weren't interested in anything but the worm, I took the second fly off, saving myself any frustration from dealing with two flies. That's it, except for the fish photos: