Stillwater and Clark Fork blogs all in one place

 

Montana with High Plains Drifter- July 13-20, 2013

Richard Burroughs invited me to join him, his sons, Chamey and Charlie,  and son in law Hal Yuill to fish in Montana  at the High Plains Drifter camp on the Stillwater River near Columbus Montana. Richard had previously told me about Mike Hillygus, the outfitter, and this camp a couple of years ago when I was looking for a place for the California guys to go out in Montana. Connie and I visited it early in the season a couple of years ago so I vaguely knew where it was. Richard goes to Montana to fish each summer and has been fishing with Mike for several years, including float/camping along the Smith River and the Missouri. I also found out Rhett Starke had fished with Mike up around Missoula about 8 years ago.

There was room for Gordon and also it worked out schedule wise for Gordon due to a job in Jackson and a wedding in Bozeman.

Background on the camp area- The Stillwater camp is located about 8 miles from Absarokee MT which is near Columbus, in the direction of Billings east from Bozeman. The Stillwater River runs out of the Bear Tooth range of mountains which is pretty high so the water keeps a good flow and stays cold. It runs into the Yellowstone at Columbus. From the camp one can fish the Big Horn, the Stillwater, the Boulder, and the Yellowstone. The Big Horn is 2 hours away but the others are easily accessible. The fishing has a chance of catching rainbows, brown trout, whitefish and maybe carp, but the 2 trout are the key. Fishing type includes dry, nymph, and streamer. The dry flies we used were mostly variants on the Chernobyl ant which mimics a stone fly and the Squalla which imitates everything. It was too early for hoppers and we did not use Caddis flies except when fishing 2 dry flies at the same time. All fishing was by hard skiff or float raft.  The weather was 90s during the day and 50s during the night with some cloud cover on a couple of days. The wind whipped up at night but Mike said even though it was rattling the straps on my tent this wind was mild compared to winter. The sky at night was like at the Arc- Milky Way and a zillion stars. The days typically wrapped up fishing about 5-6:30, then the drive back to camp, and then late dinner (9ish) followed by bed. Coffee at 6 am or so. For better or worse phone and Internet service via wifi came and went. The other guys took cell phones with them and got better reception while we were fishing nearer town or the highway.

The view inside my tent and looking out from my tent:

Friday, July 12- The plan was for me to go Bozeman on the 12th and fish a couple of creeks before going to the Stillwater camp on the 13th. I got to the airport but the flight was running so late I could not make my connection and anything else would have had me flying around the country all day so I decided to reboot and try again the next day.

Saturday, July 13- This time it all worked like it was supposed to work. I checked in with Gordon and family and with Mike from the airport. After lunch and the obligatory fly shop stop (license etc), I met Gordon, Leesa, and kids at the Gallatin Mall for a quick walk thru a mini RV show that was going on. The kids were ready to buy every one of the RVs. The vendor from Missoula claimed it was going to sell 400 RVs in 40 days or something like that. Prices ranged from $12000 to $240000.

After visiting with them I took off for Stillwater camp, about 130 miles in the direction of Billings (ie east). I met the other guys and got settled into my tent right on the water with a view across the stream to an open field with a dilapidated pickup and some old tractors. Sleeping was going to be very easy and very deep with the sound of the water in the background, the cool temperatures and the open air thru the tent.

Sunday, July 14- the routine at this camp is a little different from most fishing trips in that the start is more relaxed and letter than usual. The fish need time to wake up and warm up, according to Mike, the high plains drifter. After a great breakfast (all the meals this trip have been exceptionally good- Mike is a grad of cooking school in addition to being a guide), four guides, four boats, and four anglers rode upstream on the Stillwater to the Moraine landing to start our float. Mike was my guide the first day ( four anglers because Gordon did not arrive until Monday morning). The water was fast (class 2-3 rapids and a lot of rock dodging) and I had to get used to this fishing. I used my Tenkara rod while getting adjusted and that was a mistake. Then I switched over to my 3 weight. However I learned from the others that everyone had a so so day. I caught about 8 fish, with the largest being perhaps 14 inches. The run of the mill fish was about 12 inches.

In addition to the fishing the highlight of this day was finding a Rueger 38 semi automatic pistol on the shore. We later found out some not so smart guy put it on the rocks to dry. Mike plans to give it to the game warden and let him educate the guy on why it is not a good idea to leave guns lying around.

Today we stopped floating right at the camp and here's who met me along with a chick or two.

Monday, July 15- on this day we fished the lower section of the Stillwater and ended up on the Yellowstone. Gordon and I fished with Nate, a Wash U grad and artist when he isn't guiding. We both had great days, probably 20 plus fish each, with a true mix of rainbows and browns. The Yellowstone was a lot slower fishing wise and flow wise than the Stillwater and I only caught one there but it was on the Tenkara while all the others had been on the 3 weight.

Other than catching a ton of fish, this float involves the Bear Tooth Drop which is a pretty fast section for perhaps 1000 yards with big rocks and one 4 foot fall.

At one point I hung my fly in a tree and jerked to get it loose. I got my fly back and someone else's fly hung in the same place.

Tuesday, July 16- It was overcast and cooler (jackets and waders for warmth). We woke up early and went to the famous Big Horn River, actually pretty near the Custer battlefield. The water was 47 degrees since it is a tail water coming out of a dam. The fishing was odd and uncomfortable for me, involving a plastic bobber, then 2 nymphs about 6 feet down. The river had a lot of moss and we spent a lot of time getting that off the hooks. I fished with Richard in the morning and Ron as guide and then by myself with Nate in the afternoon. There were a lot of pickups stacked up at the launch but not too bad although Mike says at some times the wait at the launch can be 2 hours.

Gordon caught 3 fish in a row right out of the launch site. Richard and I struggled all morning, me more than him. I had only one fish all day. I think the others have more the hang of that kind of fishing and did much better.

The scenic Big Horn bank:

Wednesday, July 17- back to the lower Stillwater and a mile or so of the Yellowstone. This was my day. Gordon and I fished with Nate in the morning. I set a plan of catching 20 fish by fly rod and then switching over to the Tenkara. Nate wisely recommended that I change my rod to use of the 5 weight. Later he pointed out that he thinks my 5 weight is under lined (maybe by mistake I have 4 weight on that reel). At lunch we switched guides and I fished solo with Matt. Matt and I decided to go with the Tenkara even though I was a couple of fish shy of 20. We used dry fly, then nymph, and then streamer with the Tenkara and had a blast. We invented the Tenkara Trifecta which is catching fish by 3 methods and then 3 kinds of fish- brown, rainbow and whitefish. Probably the biggest was 16 inches. I ended with more than 30 fish total. Matt plans to put that he is now Tenkara qualified on his résumé .

Thursday, July 18- Gordon and I floated a section of the Yellowstone starting at Reed Point with Nate. The Yellowstone is big and wide, kind of like the Big Horn was. I fished dry fly on the 5 weight most of the day but sometimes using a nymph with it or using 2 dry flies. It was a fantastic day, 20 plus fish for me. Gordon stuck with the streamer all day going for the big fish and, for once, I think I may have caught more fish than he did, but it was close.

Friday, July 19- Back to the Stillwater and Yellowstone (but we were forewarned that a cliff fell into the Yellowstone way up in Gardiner and the river was expected to be chalky and not fishable. Gordon, me, and Nate. I used the Tenkara all day with all kinds of combinations of flies. We lost much of Nate's tackle today- lots of broken off flies. Gordon also broke his Thomas and Thomas rod. 23 fish for me and about the same or a couple more for Gordon. High point excitement wise for the day was when I caught a rainbow on the dry fly and had him in the boat but the he flipped out, pulling the nymph dropper into my finger further than the barb. Luckily that broke the nymph off so I kept the fish and fought him while I was cursing about my hurting finger. Today the fish just quit biting about 2 or 3 pm. The Yellowstone was chalky due to the landslide.

The three Desperados- Richard, Mike and me under cover at lunch:

For the whole trip, my biggest may have been 16 inches, Gordon's 19 and 1/2, and Hal had the biggest at about 20 inches.

Saturday, Back to Bzn for the return home. I ran into Teddy and AP in the airport on the way to Ruby.

All in all a truly memorable fishing trip. The group seemed to get along well. The evenings with the group, Mike, and Nate at dinner had plenty of laughs, misadventure stories, and tall tales.

Best T shirt of the trip said- "paddle harder, I hear banjos".

Birds seen this trip- Western Meadowlark, wild Turkey (right at the landing the first day), Bullock's Oriole, Peregrine falcon, Bald Eagle, Brewer's Blackbird, Black-billed Magpie, Northern Red-shafted Flicka, American Goldfinch, Barn Swallow, Cliff Swallow, White throated swift (road), Northern rough winged swallow (river), Belted Kingfisher (in dead tree right across from my tent), Kildeer, Red winged blackbird, Common Merganser, and by sound- Sandhill Crane and Pheasant. Did not count Great Blue Heron and Mourning Dove.

 

Fishing Journal- Stillwater Ranch Lodge July 2015

Our group (me, Gordon, Jason, Dick Banks, Richie, Gray Nesbit, and Jud Williams) convened in Billings on the 13th and proceeded to the ranch in Mike's Silverado. The weather was clear and warm (70s). The river was very, very low- I think Mike said it was about 30% of normal for this time of year. The snow runoff was over but there wasn't that much snow. We all tried fishing around the camp that afternoon but no luck.

 
Our guides were Matt, Eric, and Ron- all great guys with much good humor, fishing knowledge, and great patience. The first day we fished from Jeffrey's landing to Fireman's on the Stillwater. It was a good day- I probably caught 10-15 fish, Rainbows, Browns and whitefish. It was very easy to lose count of the fish and I was getting reacquainted to casting with a bobber and double nymph rig. The gentle bug and either a worm or a hare's ear or prince seemed to work best with the lower nymph slaying the whitefish, which half the group agreed to call a trout related species and the others did not. Weather was warm again and clear.

The next day was the same weather except for a much needed thunderstorm at the end. We repeated the same stretch and then kept going 2 more miles into the Yellowstone. It was a much better day fishing for everyone; my count was probably 20 plus, but I was helped by a hot streak in the Yellowstone section while the other guys weren't catching them there. Go figure.

On the third day, all in the group except me went to the Big Horn and had a great day. Mike ran a bit of an experiment on me- I went off wading on some private part of the Stillwater way upriver, above the Platinum mine. Up there I succeeded in falling in totally at the beginning of the day (the third day in a row for this), and the water was 15 degrees colder than at the lodge. Hoping for a sunny day. I felt like I was in training to be a marine, with a stick in use to cross the river, crawling thru brush and along big rocks at the river's edge. But it was worth it. I had my best day with more than 25 fish. Torrential rain and a leaking radiator on the way back.

 
Then it was launching from the lodge floating down to Jeffrey's. Another good day, 15 or so fish. When I would cast behind the boat, my guide said "Bill, you're fishing in the past." 
For the last day it was Jeffrey's to the Yellowstone again. Slow and steady catches, never boring. Total probably 15 or so but I caught my best brown at the end of the Stillwater before going into the Yellowstone.

 
Our group was great. About 2/3 of the experience is the fishing and the rest is the ambience, food company, and staff at the ranch.

Mike, Chris and Kevin, Mike's son, took great care of us at camp, the sleeping in the tent by the river sound, the stars magnificent, food excellent. We met Mike's wife Pam who came in for a couple of days as did Jay, his other son.
17 bird species- magpie, bald eagle, cedar waxwings, eastern kingbird, horned owl, bobolink, violet green swallow, tree swallow, common yellowthroat, wild turkey, sand hill crane, yellow warbler, belted kingfisher, cowbird, osprey, ruffed grouse, and common merganser. Also robin, turkey vulture, red winged blackbird, and red tail hawk.
Gotta go back next year!

Fishing Journal- Stillwater River Lodge July 2016

I am typing this while I am in the Billings airport heading home. As you know the devices these days fill in words for you after you type a couple of letters. So I started this off typing "report…" and looked up to see my iPad had substituted "erotic on the Stillwater trip". Glad I caught that one- wouldn't want to give you the wrong impression. (It actually turned out that the electric plug in the Billings airport seemed to be sending intermittent electricity to the device and the device kept typing things by itself. Gremlins?)
This report is for those of you who couldn't make it and a scouting report for Richard Burroughs, who is on the way here in a couple of weeks.
The group this year was Gordon, me, Mike Contino, Gray Nesbit, and Gray's friend Jere (Jerry) from Memphis, who was in second grade with my W&L classmate Lee Moffatt.
Gordon, Mike, and I stayed in the 3 tents along the river while Gray and Jerry stayed in the cabin (Gray- "I  am so over staying in tents").

Monday, July 18- This trip is already a success in that it has taken us out of contact with the news in general and with the Republican convention in particular.
This first day I fished solo with Mike H. and we went on his raft (he usually fishes his hard boat but fell in love with the rubber raft all over again) on the upper stretch of the Stillwater to see how navigable and fishable it is. The river apparently is very low and dropping this year.  We found the upper river from Castle Rock to Cliff Swallow "bony" according to Mike. We got hung up only on one rock though and we caught plenty (15 plus), all on the Squalla bug dry fly. One was a West Yellowstone Cutthroat with the rest a mix of Browns and Rainbows, and a few whitefish to boot (a surprise to me that they were that high upstream).

As usual, it was great sleeping in the tent with the cooler evening temperatures and the rush of the stream, and great dinners and breakfasts- I could write a whole blog entry on the dinners (steak, salmon, lamb, shrimp; apple pie, berry pie, bananas foster) and the breakfasts (flaky biscuits and eggs, homemade granola). Mike and Kevin are great cooks and Costco a great provisioner. I put my Simvastatin thru the paces this week.

Tuesday, July 19- Gordon and I fished the lower section from Jeffries to Columbus with Ron while Gray and Jerry fished with Matt, and Mike went upriver. Ron loves the fluffy Chernobyl hopper as a dry and the gertie bug as the dropper. It was entertaining and we caught plenty of fish again (maybe a few more than Monday). At the end of the day it rained really hard so we did not fish the Yellowstone part of the section very intently.
The guides forgot the grill for lunch so we cooked the bratwurst over a fire on a forked stick.

Wednesday, July 20- This was the repeat of my fishing the very upper Stillwater with Mike Mullet, whose family owns the property about 9 miles further upriver from the Monday put in. Mike H refers to this as the Bataan Death March because you hike in and out thru pasture, scrub and streamside,  and over barbed wire. Last year I fell in the very cold water right at the very first pool, but not this year thanks to the loan of a walking stick from Mike C.
Gordon came with me this year. At the first fishing spot we caught so many whitefish on dry and nymph that we lost count. It was great fun though Mike kept saying he did not want to be known as the “whitefish guide”. We then walked further up and split up. Gordon found a honey hole for trout and I picked up a few myself.

After lunch we went downriver a bit and split up again. While the fish were not as plentiful as the first stop with all the whitefish, the trout we were catching were all of better size.
Mike M., who reminds me a little of Wilford Brimley and has been guiding for years (i.e. he is about my age and remembers Bill Deal and the Rhondels from his youth in Hampton Va.), would leave me to go find Gordon, tell me where to get off and on the river, and then just show up with Gordon ahead of me wherever I had moved to as if by magic.

Thursday, July 21- Mike C. and I fished together with Matt and the beat was an upriver stretch of the Yellowstone starting at Reed Point. It was extremely hot (98?) all day and slow fishing. The ones we caught though were bigger. I am starting to become the whitefish King.
The best thing about this day for me was actually at the launch site since there was a Lewis and Clark marker noting that Clark passed by that spot on his return trip 210 years ago this week. I enjoyed looking at the river and seeing what he must have seen.

Friday, July 22- back to the lower Stillwater into the Yellowstone section, with Mike C. and Ron as the guide. (Gordon must be the one who brings out the inner sailor in the guides- unlike Tuesday, Ron was very restrained in his expletives today, and Mike M. had been much more expressive when he had Gordon alone than when he was with me.) Since the morning was cloudy, the fishing was beyond great. No counting past 9:45 or so. In total I probably caught 15-20 fish, all nice size and continued my whitefish streak.

 That's Gray, me, Ron, and Mike C.

As evidence of how low the river is, Ron bent his oar going solo thru the Bear Tooth drop. We walked around the drop with dry feet Thursday while on Tuesday we rode thru on the raft easily.
The day ended with a brief rain shower.
At night it was hot then super windy ( a chinook wind?) then very cold. As Rich would say "it was blowing harder than a ______ at  an  Elk's convention."

I matched this trip with a book by Dayton Duncan called Out West. It is about his tracing Lewis and Clark's epic journey in 1987 in his sister’s VW bus. Full of real Americans he meets along the road, little towns bypassed by the mainstream, modern day Indians, and very captivating stories of the Dakotas and Montana. Inspiration for our road trip to come.
Birds- nothing new, but bald eagles, Ospreys, sand hill cranes,  a king bird, cedar waxwings, a couple or three sets of mergansers and chicks, cliff swallows, red winged blackbirds, American white pelicans, and two clutches of wild turkeys right at the lodge.
Also we saw a couple of minks slinking in and out of the rip rap on the side of the river!

Needless to mention, I think we all had a great time and will be signing up for next year, health and wives permitting.
After I wrote all this I found out my plane was delayed by lightning in Minneapolis so I missed the connection home. I stayed in an Embassy Suites in Mnpls  along with half the population of America on vacation to shop at Mall of America. Woke up at 2:45 to catch the 3:30 hotel shuttle to the airport. The airport was full of little league baseball teams, little league ice hockey teams, and teens going on mission trips. I thought I was groggy at that hour but they all were more so.

Stillwater trip 2017

Stillwater River Lodge trip July 2017

I am writing this on a United flight from Bozeman to Chicago with a sore right hand. I am happy to say it comes from casting all day long for 5 days at the Stillwater. 

As is usual in Bozeman lots of people are getting on the planes carrying fishing rod holders. Some usually ask where did you fish and how did you do. I have been saying I fished the Boulder River outside of Big Timber and did very well to keep the secret of the Stillwater a little longer.

Friday July 7- Va. Beach to Bozeman via DFW. I met Richie in Bozeman after arrival. Our plan was to fish in the Bozeman area on Saturday and then go to the ranch on Sunday, possibly stopping to fish along the way. The plan also originally was for me to meet Rich and to ride with him in his somewhat remodeled 1978 Chinook RV to the ranch and then to ride with the rest of the guys and Mike H to Billings on the 15th to go home. Anticipating problems with the Chinook I rented a car in Bozeman for the week.

As it turned out Richie did have some Chinook problems that started in Idaho crossing the mountains on the trip up from Newport and they persisted. 

When we met he had made an appointment at the Bozeman Ford place to have it looked at while we were at Stillwater.

After the obligatory trip to the fly shop I was pretty much ready.

One other small thing about our stay in Bozeman- it turned out some part of the state baseball or softball championships was going on this weekend so hotel rooms were scarce. Luckily we got a 2 queen room for the first night but then Richie slept in a Super 8 the next night.

Saturday July 8- Thru the help of Gordon's friend David Thompson we lined up to fish Willow Creek which is private water 5 rods per day limit with Zach Neville. Willow flows into the Jefferson down near Three Forks and was about 45 minutes out of town and then on very rough roads. It comes out of a spillway from a lake but since it is on a working ranch was not the classic "gin clear" stream.

We first got out downstream in the valley and as soon as we got out Zach reminded us "this is rattlesnake country". Zach went back and forth between the places he wanted us to fish. It was tough going but we got the hang of it. Toward the end in the valley part while Zach was off helping Rich, I hooked a very nice rainbow and fought it about 20 minutes. It needed a net and a photo and there was no one but me holding on for dear life to catch the fish, net it and take the picture. I managed to work the fish upstream a bit to where Zach had left the net on the bank, caught the fish in the net, took a terrible photo but did not lose the fish the net or drop my phone in the water.

After that we moved up to the dam area. There we caught a few, probably 7 or 8 total each. At the "honey hole" as we were getting ready to go Zach told me to cast right next to the new depth marker, which he said had somehow changed the fishing in that spot. What Zach didn't know and what I found with my cast was a very fine loop of wire right on top of the depth measuring stick. At least my fly is there to help identify the wire for future fishermen. 

The temperature was in the 90s and the trail down and up to the dam was extremely rugged and steep. It was taxing to say the least.

All that was left to do for the day was to make another trip to the fly shop and have dinner at my favorite Montana Ale Works.

Sunday July 9-

We took it pretty relaxed today. We had to drop Richie's Chinook at the repair shop (and somehow between the Hampton Inn and the Super 8 he also got a flat tire) and then took a look at another Chinook in the lot along with 2 or 3 models of R-Pods which are these light weight towable campers that Rob Welch has.

Our first stop on the road was in Livingston to get some lunch for later, to look at the quaint western town which was pretty much buttoned up on this Sunday morning, and to visit Dan Bailey's fly shop for some local advice on where to try to fish.

We had a map and some directions which were a little confusing to me and set off for the Boulder River outside of Big Timber. We went upstream on some gravel roads (not "off road" because I promised National Car Rental I would not do that) along the Boulder, East Boulder, West Boulder, and Elk Creek. The property owners there have all the stream access locked up. Eventually we got up into the National Forest and found a totally vacant campsite right on the river. The water was "gin clear" here, and COLD. Rich caught a couple and I caught a beautiful 10 inch brown trout, but an oncoming storm forced us to leave there early.

Next stop was the corny Fort convenience  store in Big Timber. It is a classic Montana road side store with enough weapons to support the D Day landing, a combination of fly supplies, boat supplies, spin fishing supplies, food and drink, and cheesy gifts like wall plaques that say "Grill Sargeant" and "If it's not one thing, it's your mother".

We pushed on to Columbus, Absarokee, and then the ranch. Luckily Rich and I got there just ahead of the other guys and claimed the stream side tents. I look forward every year to the cool nights in the open air with the river as white noise to give me some of the best sleeping ever.

The group this year consisted of Richie, me, Gray, Mike Contino, Gordon, Dick Banks (glad to say Dick is back after missing a year on medical leave), and two new fishermen- Mike C's son in law Jordan, and the Cali guys' friend Mark- neither of whom have fished before.

At the ranch there was Mike H, his son Kevin, and then the guides were Mike Mullet, Andy (new to us, but a top 25 caster from Red Lodge), Rod, and Matt.

This is a salmon fly on my pants hanging outside the tent:

Monday, July 9-

I fished with Dick and Andy. We started upriver near Nye and floated all the way back to the lodge. This section was very high and very fast- I would guess significant stretches of class 2 and 3 rapids.  Mike said it was flowing about 3200 CFA's and falling and rising on alternate days. There was still a lot of snow way up in the Bear Tooth range. This is the section where I found the pistol on the rocky beach fishing with Mike H a couple of years ago, but that site was covered with water.

The fishing was slow then hot for a bit right after lunch then cold. When there was a little cloud cover fishing picked up. A short thunder storm came on at the very end.

Andy's dog Berkeley along for the ride every day:

Tuesday- Mike C and me fishing with Mike Mullet even higher up river from Buffalo Jump to Moraine. There was periodic rain. The fish, while fewer in number so far, seem to be bigger than in years past. About 8 for me, many more than that for Mike.

Wednesday- Richie and I fished together with Matt as our guide. We did the Nye to camp float again. This is the day that got my right arm sore from cross throwing to the right bank and my hand sore from catching fish. We each caught about 15 high quality fish- in addition to browns and rainbows I caught 2 cut bows. The successful fly we have used the last two days is the chubby, pink on the bottom with Mike M and tan on the bottom with Matt. 

Thursday- Gordon and me with Mike H. Same float. The river was noticeably down. The fish were smaller but much more plentiful. I would guess we each caught 20 or so. Mike likes to use the bullet headed squalla bug, so I was fishing that while Gordon was hunting with a very lethal white streamer then hand colored by Mike with a sharpie. Missed a lot of fish. 

At one spot there was a pool at the end of a riffle which we approached from shore. You could see about 10 or 12 very large rainbows working in the pool. Mike added a beaded prince nymph to my set up and I very quickly caught 3 of them. That spooked those remaining enough that they did not respond to Gordon's streamer. (On the way thru the same spot Friday we wanted to do the same thing with Gray but the rancher approached us. There was some discussion about the high water mark and we conceded.)

I am slow but finally figured out that a brown really attacks the dry fly while the rainbow is more likely to have a slow take.The rainbow seems more likely to jump after being hooked.

Rich and Dick fished with Mike M this day:

Gordon brought his drone along and gave everyone drone envy:

Friday- I fished with Mike and with Gray on the same stretch. It alternated slow fishing then hot a couple of times. Lots and lots of misses. In all we each caught about 10 but as with every day the scenery was great, the white water riding was great, the sleeping in the tent by the stream was great, the camaraderie was great, the food was great, and we also caught a lot of fish. And 90% on dry fly and no whitefish!!

Friday night Richie and I drove back to Bozeman so he could attend to his RV. We got a complimentary room at Hilton Garden because they bumped me from the Hampton Inn. On the ride as Rich was explaining to me again all about his being sued and his pending arbitration, the other guy sent in a settlement offer. If that holds, no suit, no arbitration, a huge relief for Rich who had been advocating that for a long time, but unfortunately it has cost Rich a ton in legal bills.

Early flight home to Va Beach via Chicago. On time.

Birds- Swainson's Hawk in Bozeman; cedar waxwing on Willow; red wing blackbird; western meadowlark; black billed magpie; yellow warbler; gold finch; eastern kingbird; Bald eagle majestically flying along the stream on Thursday and then a pair in a tree watching the world on Friday; wild turkey (a pair of moms near the illegal trout pool); merganser; night hawk; killdeer; white pelican; Great Blue Heron; osprey in a nest along the road; sand hill crane = 17 species plus robins and Canada geese.

 

 

Clark Fork 70 miles from Missoula: Sept. 16- 21, 2018


Guys- Jay, Gordon, Doug, and Tom

Lodge- 2 bedroom downstairs with 2 singles each and a bath, one double up some steep stairs with the bath downstairs (need to be agile) (we put the C-Pap guy up there); wrap around porch where we ate dinner; great fire pit; splendid view of the river with an occasional bald eagle in a tree directly out front. Great food  from Mike as usual- Mac and cheese with Morelle mushrooms; venison; antelope for tasting. Cool brown trout looking dishes and cups from BH&G.

Mike and I agree 5 is the ideal number so someone gets to fish single each day.

Guides- Sam, Jeff, and Max; all super, personable, not grumpy and tolerant of my flawed technique; they work well as a team. Sam- slow, methodical, targeted fish stalker; Jeff- competent, friendly, willing to experiment; Max- excitable, always joshing, but a great fish finder.

River- in our 5 days we did three runs on the Clark Fork, one run twice and the one run on the Bitterroot. It was an bigger effort but a change of scenery was good. One run had one set of brisk rapids but not a drop of water taken on. You could also go to the Blackfoot but it would be an even longer day than the Bitterroot. The Bitterroot has fewer fishing areas and some long runs of paddling between the fishing spots, but a good chance at casting to dry fly sipping fish. You don’t want to be the third of three boats going thru. I hear higher up the Bitterroot is smaller and more technical. BTW, Clark Fork runs into the Columbia.

Fish- rainbow, cutthroat, whitefish, squawfish (bottom sucker like), and rarely a brown. Tom caught our only one.

Fishing- all from the boat, no wading, no reason for boots. We used hopper droppers, dry flies solo, naked nymphs, nymphs with bobbers. The best was spotting sipping trout in a feed line and trying to get them to eat. We used chubbies, hoppers, pheasant tail nymphs, ants, midge clusters. 4, 5, or 6 weight rods are fine. River fish are good fighters. Tenkara was new to the guides but worked like a charm the two days I used it.

Weather- 30s-40s in the morning to 60s in the afternoon. Colder than I expected or was hoping for, but tolerable. One drizzle one morning, rest of the time- no cloud.

Numbers- I had about 10 the first day, about 25 the second day on Tenkara, 20 the third day on Tenkara, 5 the fourth day at the Bitterroot, and 10-12 yesterday- all on dry ant or midge cluster= Wonderful. Many whitefish naked nymphing the first Tenkara day; mix of rainbows and west slope cutthroat most days. Dry fly sippers the last day.

Wildlife- this area is having a huge plague of yellow jackets!! I didn’t get stung but had to watch every bite at lunch.

2019

Stillwater July 15-20

July 15- beautiful sunny mid 70s day in the morning. Last week the water level was about 3000 but because of big storms it zoomed up to 4200. So today we fished higher up the river, starting at Castle Rock and getting out at the Lodge. The group this year is Richie, DIck Banks, Mark Schultfuss, and me. Gray who usually is part of this group is laid up from a back operation and Mike Contino is in Europe.

I used Mike H’s six weight large arbor rod. Fished with Dick today with Mike as guide.

I think I caught about 10, a mix of rainbows and browns, mostly rainbows.

In the afternoon a storm came up that slowed things down a lot and dropped the temp.

Last night we all had to stay in the bunkhouse because of a tornado warning, but tonight I am in the tent.

July 16- it rained a good bit of the night. I learned it can get colder in the tent than outside.

The day started off beautifully with temps in the 70s and clear skies. The water is high and about 55 degrees. We floated from the lodge to Johnson Bridge.

Today I fished with Richie with Tony, a new guide for me. Matt from prior years is Tony’s best friend, now has 2 children, has moved to Kalispell and sells real estate. Ron from old times here for some reason isn’t guiding for Mike any more.

Mike gave us all Stillwater buffs today.

It was a slow day on the dry fly. I caught 2 and Rich caught 3 in the morning. We switched to nymphs and had a good afternoon, each ending up with about ten or so fish. After one pm the rain came hard and when lightning started about 3 we got off the river.

I headed for the dryer and some hot chocolate from Richie’s RV.

July 17- a day with no rain.

I fished with Dick and with Andy (and his dog Berkeley) as guide. We went back to start at Castle Rock. The river seemed a little lower. In all I had about a 10-12 fish day with a mix again of rainbows, browns and whitefish.

July 18- another day without rain!!

I fished with Mark and with Tony as a guide. We had a really slow morning- I only had 2 whitefish. We tried dry flies with no luck and then went to the dark side. After lunch we stayed with nymphing and I had a very good afternoon except the count was 10 whitefish and 2 or 3 rainbows. Neither Tony nor I could figure out why no trout.

July 19- third day without rain, at least while we were fishing

I fished solo with Mike H from Castle Rock down to the lodge today. Beautiful clear sky, water a little cool at first. The river was rocking and rolling. We hit a few boulders that gave my core quite a shock.

We had a great morning using only the squalla dry fly and had 15 by lunch. After lunch it ran slow for about an hour and then got going strong again. I ended the day with about 25-30 fish, all trout, with one cutthroat in the mix of browns and rainbows, and I finished up with a nice brown on the last cast right at the takeout. It couldn’t have been better, unless you worry about the 10 or 15 strikes I missed.

 

 

Clark Fork of the Columbia River September 2019

This trip was with Jay, Tom R., and Bill S., all from Winchester along with me.

Mike met us at the Missoula airport and drove us the 70 or so miles to his cabin. It was a clear warm day with the temperatures up into the 80s. The yellow jackets were out in force on the porch before dinner.

Each day we fished the weather was in transition between summer and fall. It got a little colder and a little more cloudy each day with drizzle or rain on 3 or 4 of the days. The last day we fished it started off at 37.

Fishing was not as good as last year this time. The cloud should have brought on the hatches but did not. The water, at 3300 cfs, was at a good level but the fish were not feeding actively.

The first day I caught about 5, the next 6 or 7, the next 3, then 10 or 12, then 5. There were a couple of very nice cutthroats or rainbows in the mix each day, and I only caught 1 brown and 1 whitefish the whole week.

The camaraderie and the stories made up for the relative lack of fish. Tony (from July at Stillwater) and Mike were the guides and Kevin was on hand to take care of all the support. The food as usual was excellent.

Two new bird species- black cheeked chat and a dipper!

July 2020-

 

 Richie, Rob W, Rick H, Barry  L and I plus 4 of Richie’s California friends were supposed to be fishing week before last in Montana. On about June 30, as Covid cases were trending up especially out west, I wrote the group and the outfitter that I had to cancel- I was going to be flying United and could see myself boarding a plane in Denver with a bunch of Yahoos from Texas or Arizona. United has been more lax than Delta on Covid stuff- its policy at the time was, if you check in and don’t like the looks of your flight, you can cancel and rebook. I was pretty sure the guy next to me on the plane would be wearing a MAGA face mask as his eyeshades for the early flight. Right after I cancelled Barry and the California guys did the same (one guy must have been typing his cancellation note at the exact same time I was). Rich, Rob and Rick went and had a great time but Rich just sent me an email saying if flying conditions were the same next year he wouldn’t go.

July 10-17, 2021 Stillwater River Outpost

 

 

I haven’t been doing much fishing this year- sidetracked by other things. So this trip was very timely, and also special because I got Gordon, Graham, and Michael on board along with Jay, Tom, and Bill S from Winchester. I invited Doug Clarke early on but did not hear from him. Then a few weeks before the trip Mike H told me Doug was in the mix too.

 

Gordon, Graham and I came out a day early to try to find someplace different to fish on our own. We were lucky and Mike let us spend the extra night at the ranch. Saturday night we went to Absarokee for dinner but the line was too long at one place, another place was closed, and so we went to the Taste of Home on the corner at the light. I caught a lot of flak from some folks transitioning from the 5 Spot Bar to the Chrome Bar about my parallel parking job, but they were too far gone to do any better.

We tried Fishtail Creek, the Rosebud River and a couple of stops on the upper Stillwater above the Outpost without much luck.

It was blazing hot along the Stillwater and the water levels were falling fast so our choices of floats with Mike were few. We had a rotation of guides beyond the core of Mike and now Kevin, his son. The others were Mike Mowat who took some of the guys on three successive days up to his family private water close to the Stillwater Platinum mine, Chad, Seth, Kirk, and Mark. Tony was also on the property with some clients, Rick and Melissa, a husband and wife from Delaware, who booked him for the week.

 

 

I was in charge of the fishing pairings which was complicated because of guides, floats, and mixing the anglers. While there were good and slow days, everyone got their fair share of fish. Michael and Graham, who are two least experienced, did very well.

 

As for me, I caught about 10, 15, 20, 5, and then 18. I would say about 30% were whitefish and about 40-50 % on the nymph. Tenkara was banned due to low water and the difficulty of managing the boats.

 

July 10-16, 2022 Stillwater

The group this year- Winchester 3 some, RPG, Mike S and me. Biggest factor was the Yellowstone and Stillwater flood a few weeks ago. Houses out, bridges gone, landings closed.  Water was still running high and fast, very little bug life seen except hoppers, all the Yellowstone fishermen came over to Stillwater. We even tried the Boulder one day to get away from them but they were there too. So.....fishing wasn't great but we had a great time together. Group really fit well. Two others were there a couple of days (Rick and Melissa?) and the wife must have read a book on how to get conversations started. One night there was a great "name that tune" challenge going.

 

Note the famous last words name of this beer.

 

September 17-23, 2023, Clark Fork near Missoula MT- The group was me, Bill S., Rock, and Ned Powell. Jay was on injured reserve.When we arrived the outside temperature and the water temperature was pretty warm. We had a couple of slow days, but each day did get slightly better. Catching a mix of rainbows and cutthroats. On Wednesday of this week I caught a nice brown trout. The guide said out of our whole group for the week we would probably catch one brown trout, and this one was really that one. Thursday looked like rain all day but it held off, and with the cooler temperatures fishing picked up again. Today I added a couple of cutthroat to the Tenkara list. One of our guys caught a kind of fish I did not know-  pike minnow or a squawfish. Definitely not minnow size.

 

On the last day it was pretty uncomfortable in the rain all morning. It stayed cloudy but stopped raining at lunch. The river came to life with a Boetis hatch and for a while we were catching a fish on almost every cast. It was unique in my fishing experiences in MT. 

 

July 14-20, 2024 Stillwater

 

The group was Jay, Bill S, TR, Mike S and me. RPG dropped out late. Guides were Tony, Chad and Keith. We also saw Doug in passing with some of his clients one day.

 

One angler went upriver to Moraine or Castle Rock to fish with Tony each day. It was very rocky but the fishing was good. Up top was my best morning but it abruptly cut off after lunch. The other floated from the lodge to Absarokee. That means we worked that section pretty hard but fishing held up. Each day the river dropped about 4 or 5 inches.

 

Saw a golden eagle. On the last night two hen turkeys and two broods of 4 babies roosted in a tree near the firepit.

Sunrise:

 

 

As usual food and company were excellent.  

 

Stillwater group- September 2025- at the Clark Fork Outpost= Jay, Rock, Stiebel, Mike Schewel, Gordon, Jason McCloud, Barry Leader, and me.

 

Monday-cloudy, a little drizzle all day. Mike’s house to Cascade. Browns, cutthroats, rainbows. Some guys had good days, some slow. I fished with Rock and Keith as guide. Fairly constant action all day, missed a bunch. Maybe 12 total for me. Needed my rain pants for warmth.

Tuesday- fished solo with Mike H St. Regis to Mike’s house. All Tenkara. 19 fish, nothing bigger than 12 inches. Cold morning with cloud on the mountain across from the house. Cleared later and warmish.

 

Wednesday- fished with Barry and Keith again as guide down to Cascade. Cold and clear (48-75). Tenkara, slow but got hot at the end- maybe 12 fish- added squawfish to the Tk species list.

 

Thursday- cold morning (47) then very hot in the afternoon, maybe 80. Fished with Mike Schewel and Brandon as guide. Slow, slow fishing but it got better in the afternoon. I caught an 18 inch cutthroat on Tk- almost lost him when he got scared by the horn from a passing train. The run was from Cascade to Paradise, where the Flathead comes in. Could have caught 100 small mouth but we got to the confluence too late.

 

Friday- fish with Gordon . Crisp and cool (45) then very warm in the afternoon. We fished St Regis to Mike’s. I caught a couple of nice ones early then stalled out. I stayed with the Tk all day while Gordon switched to streamers and had a fantastic day. Highlights included a double header squawfish catch and at the end when I was telescoping down my rod to put it away I found I had a fish on. I started and ended the day with a beautiful brown trout.

 

Dinner conversations have been very entertaining- Tiki bars and culture, Old Testament, David Uriah and Bathsheba, Hittite women, sewage treatment, plus lots of fishing stories about bass, carp. A mix of Dad type jokes and a couple of semi racy ones. No current events or politics. Last night we added  various kinds of disgusting sounding herring dishes, Vatican annulments and churlish behavior. We also had a discussion around the ugliest fish. Mike H nominated something called an Irish Lord which is very ugly and reflects the English social classification system in a fish. There’s also the sea robin but I think the winner is the toad fish. The last night’s dinner conversation was more elevated since we had Mike’s wife Pam playing her violin for us.

 

I had the first line of a great novel or Jay’s memoir come to me as I was waking up Monday morning- "That night, I dreamt of Hittite women". Mike S turned it into a short poem- "Last night I dreamt of Hittite women/ Sinuous in their clinging tights/ Bathsheba and Gal Gadot/ Better bait than hellgrammites".

 

Memories and hearing for the older 6 going away a bit, lots of repetition of stories from prior trips and from days earlier in the week this trip.

New bird species Red Crossbill. Finch looking and sized, gather at the entrance to the highway here, crossed bills adept at prying seeds out of pine cones. Red or reddish splotched breast. Legend- a bird was present at the crucifixion, tried to pry the nails from Christ’s arms and legs, breast got spattered with his blood and bills got permanently crossed.

Saturday September 20- trip home through Chicago. We left Barry in the Missoula airport having met his daughter Rachel and her bf.  Jay met a judge friend from Virginia and they told judge stories for a while. The best one involved a disputed will where the deathbed will was challenged by a brother who heard from the dead man in a dream that he really did not intend the will as written and witnessed. The brother was “channeling” the intentions of the dead man. It came to a jury trial but the will was upheld. There was a lot said about how this case took place close to West Virginia with the implication that almost anything goes in WV. Rock and Bill S were on the plane with Jay, me, Gordon and Jason but then they went on to Dulles. Mike S caught the next plane through Denver  to Richmond.

Landed in Richmond 15 minutes early. My missing parking ticket with my parking place number noted on it fell out of the back of the car when I opened it.