fly fishing days 5 & 6

with my time in montana winding down i decided to put in a few days of "water therapy" to see me through til the next visit. all of the rivers were blown out so i decided to go to a certain "undisclosed" lake i have fished several times in the past. after driving an "undisclosed" amount of time i arrived at the lake only to see that it was muddy. the amount of runoff coming into the lake had make it so murky that the visibility was only about a foot and a half. i was a little angry but decided to give it a shot anyways, knowing the lakes reputation for putting out some decent fish. i tubed for an hour without getting a strike and was heading to shore about ready to give up when i finally got some interest on my line. the fish was gone before i could set the hook, and i decided my stay might not be in vain. my past exerience in this lake has proved about one fish in hand for every two hours of fishing. this may not seem like much but when you catch one...oh baby. with one hit in an hour i felt pretty good about myself.

i stayed out in the tube and headed for inlet which has historically been a good spot. within 15 minutes i had a 19" rainbow in the net. i felt good about my decision at this point and kept fishing. anther five minutes of fishing and a 20" rainbow had found its way to my net! with two fish in hand i retired to the pickup for a nap til the evening bite. after resting up i once again hit the water. after an unfruitful hour and half of paddling around i decided to take a run through the same inlet where i had caught the two fish previously. i was distracted and watching a truck pull a camper down the road. i was thinking to myself "wow they are really driving fast" when i felt a sharp tug on the line and diverted my attention back to the task at hand just as a good sized trout left the water. i then realized the two (the tug and the flying fish) were connected and that one was causing the other. after a good fight and 7 more leaps out of the water i got to shore and got out of my tube to land the fish. i waded out to my knees and netted the trout, and tried to get back to shore. i forgot i had my fins on and fell flat on my face in the shallows. the fish stayed in the net as i stumbled up the shore. i then tried to take several pictures with my self timer: turn on timer, set down camera on float tube, run and grab fish, smile, set down fish, wash hands, check picture, and repeat til i got a few decent pics. for the record the fish was a brown trout, right at 24 inches.

i decided to call it a night and climbed into the ol' 'yota for a nights rest. my eagerly anticipated morning of fishing saturday was anticlimatic. not a single bite in two hours. i called it good and drove back to bozeman!

brown take 1

brown take 2

19" rainbow