I made the trip and the fishing was great
But, I left my camera in my rental car. I met my buddy (Wes) in Hamilton, MT Thursday night for a great sushi dinner at 2nd street Sushi. Yes, eating sushi in Montana strikes me as odd too. Not because it is consider as bait in TN, but Buffalo comes to mind as Montana fare not raw fish.
We met back up on Friday afternoon and began our journey to Melrose, MT which is just south of Dillon. The original plan was to float the river, but Wes had hurt his shoulder and was on medical leave only allowing him to lift 10lbs. luckily the doc let him fish. We made it most of the way to Melrose when we decided to pull off and set up camp @ 11:30 PM on Forest Service land. As I pitched the tent Wes made the camp fire and started dinner. Elk Backstrap, Mashed potatoes,corn on the cob straight from his garden and Long Haul IPA to wash it down.
Saturday AM we broke camp and made the 20 min. trip into Melrose to start our day of wading, casting, and documenting the lies. Well, From this report you can see the wading went well. I made it back. The casting went well. I didn't hook anything I wasn't supposed to. I didn't even lose a single fly. I did miss a LOT of fish. The documentation on the other hand is just going to be written because this idiot left his camera in the rental car back in Hamilton. Wes did get some pictures, but if you know the typical guide the only thing you can count on is that they will be ready to fish. Pictures and the ability to comprehend computers seem to be beyond their grasp. If he does send me pictures I will post. I am currently working with his sisters to nag the heck out of him to give them his camera. I'm not holding my breath.
In total we landed 10 - 20 fish each. We fished with Stone Flies, Caddis Emergers, Pheasant Tails, and a Copper Johns in a few different colors. The Stone Flies worked the best and they worked all day. The Trico hatches in the mid morning were impressive, but the fish still hit size 12 Stones so why switch to tiny bugs. The first fish of the day was a 14" Brown followed by a 15" White Fish. Then the surprise/Trophy of the day came next. A 12" Grayling landed by yours truly. The nice part about the Grayling is that they are found in The Big Hole, but usually much further upriver, about 100 miles. Apparently the heavy runoff and cooler waters down river brought them down this year. The big fish of the day topped 18" with the average @ 17". Most of the Trout caught were Browns, but Wes did land 1 Rainbow @ 18". I was the Whitefish King since I landed more than I'd like to admit since we were fishing for Trout. We did see some larger Browns, but made no connections. One of them looked like a yellow football.
We're supposed to hook back up in Idaho in a few weeks for Steelhead. If it works out I'll keep you posted. The attached picture was taken about an hour out of Salmon, Idaho.
I hope you enjoyed the lies. No pictures attached.
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Tight Lines
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