Fly-Fishing, Through the Eyes of a Dirtbag

Planning on fishing the Blackfoot, David and I took to preparing for our first full-day outing by tying some flies. Now, I’m not much of a tie, but David is pretty damn good so I watched South Park and watched him make cool shiny things for me.

I Always Work On Vacation

By 12:30 I was ready for bed and David was finishing trying to teach me how to spin deer hair. To his credit, David was able to wake up this morning before his alarm went off. I really appreciate when people do that, because there is nothing worse than having an alarm clock wake you up. I would much rather have David’s soft voice awaken me from my slumber.

Back on track though, after a quick cup of coffee, a short deliberation, a drive of intermediate distance and a rain shower we were ready to put the boat in the water. Now the water on the upper reaches of the Blackfoot has two distinguishing attributes. It is clear, not “gin” clear like you hear about on the South Platte, but it is literally clear. It is one of the few places I have been to that human vision can penetrate twenty feet into the water column unobstructed. The second definable feature of the upper Blackfoot and its tributaries is that they are very cold. This did not detour our copper john maniac David Luna however, he wasted no time tying on some of his freakish looking articulated streamers and a few copper johns of varying colors.

Montana Carp

Within ten minutes David managed to hook this whitefish on his articulated meat strip. I’m not even sure how or why this thing thought it could eat his offering, regardless however, it was the largest whitey I have ever seen eat a streamer. It might be the only whitefish I have ever seen eat a streamer, I’m not really sure. This is how David got introduced to Montana’s version carp (trash fish). Enter captain whitey.

As the day progressed David was overwhelmed with countless whitefish and seemed ecstatic to haul them into the boat. I was thrilled, this is the easiest kid to please in the world, if guides could get paid money to put people on whitefish then not only would their tips be amazing but it would also be the easiest job in the world (sign me up). As the rain started to come down sideways David hooked what he assumed was just another large whitey.

Shoulder Press

I was skeptical as I watched from the front of the boat, shades of yellow seemed to speak cutthroat to me as he continued to battle the fish in the current. “Went straight to the bottom, definitely a whitey” says David as if he is now an expert. I love his enthusiasm. As the battle entered its final stages and the fish began to concede defeat, to our mutual joy it was indeed a native trout, an exhilarating victory. As the smile on his face started to turn to a smirk the only thing he could tell me was how well his opponent fought. He glanced up from his rod to say simply “Nothing like tailwater trout Nathan”. Indeed David, it just is a whole different ball-game when the fish have to fight run-off, temperature changes, and other predators in the air and water.

The day concluded much as it began, with many a whitefish and a few nice trout. For David’s first day on Montana I would say it was an overwhelming success. I pray his new found arrogance will not anger the fishing gods and bestow upon us times of great despair. Developing…

Copper Luna

This summer for whatever reason the flows below GMR have not been to my liking. As much as it pains me to say this, my first float down this section was in September. Pathetic.

The only reason I got to go was because Chad Bowers called me up and said they needed another man who can man the oars. Trust me, if you can teach yourself to row, you will see more opportunities come your way than you ever thought possible. It is truly amazing how many people cannot pilot a raft down a river.

The day we decided to go was the coldest day of the week, as evidenced by the temperature at our 10:30am put in being only 55 degrees. The wind was ferocious, it was seriously blowing us upstream in several sections. This is not an exaggeration, there were five minute spans of us not moving anywhere as gusts of what seemed to be 40 miles an hour pretty much took our boat wherever it wanted. The fishing through the canyon was less than spectacular with a few fish being picked up, most of which were not photo-worthy.

Uncle Paulie's Slide

If you haven’t heard of Uncle Paulie you are missing out. His ranch is pretty much the most incredible thing you will ever seen in your life. If I remember right, I believe the guy made somewhere in the ballpark of $750 million…in 2006. Needless to say this commodities trader, turned retired billionaire has invested an unfathomable sum into his fishing reserve. With the Sheriff, county, and Army Corp of Engineers in his back pocket he has been able to put in massive stream improvements without permission (the Corp of Engineers say they “don’t exist”) and stock the river with some sort of weird hybrid steelhead/rainbow/super-fish cross. Going over his weirs it is not uncommon to see 1,000 lbs of rainbow sitting below each one, most of which tip the scales close to 10lbs. He has manicured basketball, tennis, and volleyball courts. His guest house looks like a 4 Seasons and I’m sure there are a plethora of other amenities that you can’t even see.

After missing several good fish Chad finally was the one to bring in a respectable rainbow so that we could all go home feeling just a little bit better about ourselves.

Bowers

As is becoming the “norm” on this section we ran across several other boats, which brought the grand total to over a dozen fisherman for this stretch on a weekday. For many years this was one of the best kept secrets in Colorado. Recently however, it has become increasingly more popular, and having to wait in line to launch your boat is not uncommon. The fishing on this section has definitely slowed as time has progressed but the big fish are still in there, you just have to work harder for them. I hope that I can squeeze one more float in this year to see if I can get a few real nice ones to help fill up my iPhoto library. Just in case you were wondering, this is what we are considering “nice” to be.

Drapeau