The Montana Road Trip Continues: Small Stream Day in Montana

After three hectic days speed-floating Rock Creek and a couple days catching way more fish than god intended on Georgetown Lake, [name redacted] and I were ready for something a bit more… genteel.

Or pristine. That sounds suitably elitist.

Acting on a tip from a biologist friend, [name redacted] and I headed for a creek reputed to hold Westslope Cutthroats that might – just might – be a little bigger than the water would suggest.

I like tips like that.

They suggest good fish, but are couched in terms that embrace the small stream reality, which is pretty scenery, challenging casting, and (typically) smaller trout.

These blooms looked like little pink elephant heads.

It’s not as if big trout are required, but I’m still human, and all things being even, I’ll fish the stream with the bigger trout (rumored bigger trout), especially if it’s not trashed, overrun with fishermen, or flows through a superfund site.

In this case, [name redacted]’s tip proved accurate.

Within 20 minutes, he’d landed a cutthroat in the 15”-16” range (that’s a good range). By the time we finished, we’d landed several in the 11”-13” range, and popped another approaching the first fish in size.

An average picture of an above-average 12″ trout

Plus lots of little ones. Really, really pretty little ones.

And to do it, we were forced to throw dry flies on a jewel-like, largely unspoiled, uncrowded stream.

(Cry for me, Undergrounders.)

Fly selection wasn’t critical, but fly placement was. Everything from a Golden Stone to a Beetle Bug caught trout, but only if the fly was carefully placed in the slower water near the bank.

The creek was still swollen with runoff, and the trout hadn’t yet filled the mid-stream slots.

Fishing a trout stream from a patch of wildflowers? It was a hard, hard day.

No matter; accurate casting was needed, but frankly – after a couple days on the “heave it for distance” lake, accuracy was fun. Damned fun, especially when you’re holding something sweet in your hand – in this case an 8′ 5wt Phillipson Peerless.

It’s a rod [name redacted] described as being nothing more than “pure fly rod – no bells, whistles, hinges, technology, or stupidity.”

I took that as a compliment, and like most Phillipsons, the rod did its job beautifully.

Meanwhile, [name redacted] – who owns plenty of really nice fly rods – latched onto my 8.5′ 4wt Diamondglass, fishing it the next three stream days (he said it was a great rod, and in a bitter, cynical fashion I told him “of course it’s a great rod – it was discontinued late last year”).

How do we know it’s a Cutthroat?

Spending a day on a small stream – especially a productive small stream – does things for your mental state that lakes and fast-moving drift trips simply can’t.

The weather was warm and sunny and breezy, and I felt like I could lay down in the tall grass and wait for the day to start over and fish it again.

Naturally, I didn’t do exactly that, but I did fish another small stream. That report’s coming soon to an Underground near you.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler