September's Slate Drakes

Railroading in the Barree Gorge

Time to return to our roots here at WRWT. Once again, despite persistent low water levels across the central part of the state as we head down into fall, the ambient air temperature have at least remained in the comfort zone for cold water creatures and the trout seemed to have survived yet another challenging summer. In fact this past Thursday night there was even some light scattered frost across Pennsylvania's central highlands. While I wasn't particularly excited about the low water trouting, the prospect of fishing large dry flies to trout rising to size #10 Slate Drakes was enough to motivate me to fill up the gas tank, pack up my gear, reconfigure my fly box with essential eastern patterns and set the cruise control for 75 MPH as I made my way across Route 78 and then up 322 where I would then cut across the Big Valley and Stone Valley to reach one of my favorite fall fisheries; The Little Juniata River. Yeppers, the water was low alright. But worse yet, there wasn't a rising fish in sight when I pulled into the trailhead parking lot around 1100 hrs. this past Friday morning.

Little Juniata River

Overnight lows had been in the low 40's and perhaps the Isonychia activity would be a little slow getting started today. Determined to make the most of a seemingly bad scenario, I assembled my gear and made my way up river to a spot where I could safely cross to the other side. While negotiating the center channel on my tip toes to avoid topping my chest waders I then spied two rises, one above me and one below me. A little encouraging I guess but two riseforms does not a hatch make so I bent on a #12 parachute Adams and started off prospecting the water like a seasoned '49er. My first few casts were fruitless -I figured it was going to be a long day. My attention span started to drift back to more fruitful time spent on the Missouri & Flathead Rivers this summer past. Oops, dang I just missed a nice rise to my fly while I was day dreaming. That figures, must have been a fluke. Two more casts and now my dancing rod tip was tight to my first fish of the day as a scrappy foot long Little Juniata River brown trout tried to dive under a mid-stream boulder. Did I just see a couple of splashy rises upstream in that riffle while I was playing this fish? Must have been but now I was so busy hooking and playing fish that it took me an hour to cover the 60-70 yards up to said riffle at the head of the pool. The browns were definitely looking up and all of a sudden the river turned on big time. Water temperature at noon was 58 degrees and the flow was around 90 CFS.

It was now close to 1300 hrs and fall Isonychia duns filled the air above the river as the ambient air temps warmed up considerably. Even a blind man could find actively rising fish now. I'd had some pretty good days on the river and streams around Pennsylvania but I've never experienced fast & furious fall fishing like this. The riffles, runs and tail outs, anywhere there was a little bit of structure or current held either a rising fish or one willing to come to a properly presented fly. And with the low clear water I could see them coming from 2-3 feet away before they nailed my fly. The splashy rises while blind fishing the riffles with a #12 dry fly was the most exciting fishing I've had all year back here in Pennsylvania. On and on it went as I worked my way past one railroad trestle after another until the sun dropped behind Tussey Mountain. The only reason I had to change flies was to tie on a fresh one. Yeah, it was that good!

Rothrock State Forest

At one point, after releasing yet another nice brown trout, I was approached by a well known central Pennsylvania fishing guide and the following exchange took place:

Famous Guide: I've been watching you catch fish all afternoon, you must be one of those Pro Staffers that I've heard so much about lately.
WR: Yes sir, guilty as charged. I reckon I've been moving a few fish alright.
Famous Guide: Do you mind if I ask what you are using?
WR: Parachute Adams, size #12.
Famous Guide: Damn, I'm working real hard Czech nymphing and only have a couple of fish to show for my efforts.
WR: Here ya go, try a few of these (handing him a few parachutes) in the riffles and current seams.
Famous Guide: Say, how does one become a Pro Staffer anyway?
WR: (laughter) One doesn't simply "become" a Pro Staffer the way one becomes a boy scout (and we've all seen how that turns out in the "Bob"). They are either blessed with the right stuff by the creator or they're not. Then they undergo a rigorous process of natural selection by Mother Nature. Simple as that.
Famous Guide: Figured as much. Well a man can dream can't he?
WR: I reckon. Hope those flies turn your luck around.
Famous Guide: I surely hope so too. I just can't seem to figure this river out today.
WR: Yep. She sure can be harsh mistress.

Little Juniata River Brown Trout

I caught lots of these.

I was fairly well exhausted at the end of a looooong day of wading & fish catching as I drove up the Spruce Creek Valley past Rock Springs and onto the evenings lodging at the Feathered Hook Inn in Coburn, aka Forks, Pa.

"I've been warped by the rain, driven by the snow
I'm drunk and dirty don't ya know, and I'm still, willin'
Out on the road late at night, seen my pretty Alice in every head light
Alice, Dallas Alice"

-Willin', by Lowell George

Man's Best Friend

Cricket, the fly fishing beagle, makes her debut on WRWT. One of the best behaved and most loyal dogs I've ever had the pleasure to fish with in my life. She doesn't argue with you, doesn't talk back to you and doesn't give you a hard time either. Well maybe she does to her master, Agrontrutta (Matt) but when it comes to chasing groundhogs she all "ears". Cricket says it's a dog-eat-dog world out there.

Elk Creek Cafe & Aleworks

The Come here's vs. the Been Here's in Millheim? My hats off to the new folks in town. I finally got around to sampling the food and beer with fellow Pro Staffer Glen G and I was instantly transported back to Russell Chatham's Livingston Bar & Grill in Deadrock, Montana. I'm even pounding down a growler of their Great Blue Heron Pale Ale as I pound the keys on this keyboard right now. Do yourself a favor and swing by the Elk Creek Cafe the next time your fishing the Forks and grab a burger, a steak, a growler or two and I promise you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Millheim Mural

A close up of the new mural that decorates the side of the Elk Creek Cafe. This eye catching piece was designed by Millheim native and Penn State senior, Elody Glekis and executed in a paint by numbers style with a little help from her friends this past summer. The mural can be seen from the intersection of Routes 45 & 445 and celebrates the natural and cultural heritage of Millheim, aka Home of the Mills.

The Feathered Hook Inn

The Elk Creek Cafe doesn't exactly have a monopoly on new murals around Penn's Valley. Looks like Jonas Price, the talented, ever helpful and always entertaining owner & operator of the Feathered Hook Inn and Fly Shop has been busy with the barn this summer too.

Penn's Valley Sunset
On the last best day of summer, 2008.

Pray for rain, we need it bad.

Odds and Sods From The Last Best Place

Yeah, I know. Everybody's getting a little tired of all the Montana photo spam. I promise this will be the last post (for now) on tramping around in the Land of Shining Mountains and then we'll move on back to some great fall fishing here in good old Pennsylvania. Here are smore recent pix that didn't quite make the first cut in the series, but I didn't wanna send 'em to the trash can either so I'm throwing a few up here just to be a bandwidth hog...

Mallards Rest - Yellowstone River
Either my timing was bad or maybe my eyes aren't quite what they used to be but I didn't see any self respecting mallards within 20 miles of this place. Prolly all flew off to the Duck Creek Y over by West. Maybe they should rename this spot Outfitter's Rest instead?

Missouri River - Wolf Creek

If you think the Little Juniata River can be intimidating in it's size during periods of high flows like those typically found back home in the spring, then get a load of this river during normal late summer flows (4,400 CFS). Earlier in the season they were pushing 8,000 to 10,000 CFS out of Holter Dam and anglers were still catching some nice fish.

South Fork Flathead River
This is just downstream of Murphy Flats. Named for packer/outfitter Joe Murphy who operated out of Ovando, Montana starting way back in 1911, Murphy Flats can be found on the west side of the river between the confluences of the White River and Big Salmon Creek. Mr. Murphy would pack in dudes over the Hahn Creek Pass on a two day trek to reach the flats near the White River. This was back even before the construction of the Hungry Horse Reservoir in the late 1940's.

Missouri River - Craig, Montana

Hands down the best, as well as the most fascinating, trout river I've ever fished in my life. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to fellow Pro Staffer Agrontrutta and our Headhunter's guides Mark Raisler and Mike Kuhnert for turning me on to it and showing me how to fish it properly and effectively.

Shadows and Light Around Polebridge, Montana
Looking east at storm clouds over the Livingston Range from the Quarter Circle MC Ranch just south of Round Prairie.

Hruska FAS - Big Spring Creek
Downstream from Lewistown, Montana. New Years Day Peak in the Judith Mountains can be seen in the background.

Brewery Flats - Lewistown, Montana
Upstream from town and downstream of the Big Springs Hatchery on the headwaters, in the recently restored section of creek.

Boulder Pass Trail - Glacier National Park

Bear/cougar bait along Kintla Lake during a soggy, drizzly type day. Please don't try this at home. I'm a trained professional and I get paid extremely well to do this kind of nonsense. Never ever ever hike solo in grizzly country. If you don't believe me, pick up and read a copy of Jack Olsen's book The Night of the Grizzlies just to see what can happen. Go ahead, I double dare you.

The Old Sutton Place - Craig, Montana
Unparalleled lodging in the tiny Trout Town of Craig after 7 days on the trail in the Bob Marshall Wilderness was a welcome respite for all the Pro Staffers. I'm use to the best.

Missouri River Near Sheep Creek

North of the little fishing village of Craig and south of the town of Cascade, between the mouth of the Dearborn River and the Pelican Point FAS, the Missouri River flows through a short little canyon with some delectable water and even a few dramatic S-turns like this one. I didn't fish this stretch but the next time I return to the Mighty Mo (read next year) I'm gonna learn a lot more about this section of river. Yes I already know the mid-day lighting sucked here so you don't have to point that one out to me.

Floating the South Fork Flathead River - Bob Marshall Wilderness

Floating & Fishing in the Bob on a beautiful summer day in Montana. Shortly after these guys floated around the next bend, a wolverine hopped into their raft and all hell broke loose. We never saw those guys again. You don't mess around when it comes to wolverines.

Big Spring Creek - Lewistown, Montana

Burnt Trees Near Kintla Lake in Glacier National Park
Fire in these northern forests is like rain to a rainforest. This particular stand burned back in 2001 during the Parke Peak fire.

New Growth Around Lone Pine Praire - Glacier National Park

This area was completely burnt over in the Red Bench Fire of 1988. You can even still make out some burnt snags and stumps in the foreground and background of the above photo. Only 20 years later and the next generation of spruce and fir trees are already 10' to 16' tall. Those red flowers in the middle ground are Indian Paintbrush. The Flathead Indians did a lot of painting around here.

US 89 Near Ringling, Montana

Don't let all this open country around Ringling fool you. It was like a circus around here.

Bob Marshall Poster

More Fish - More Beer

Here at WRWT we are always on the lookout for new (or at least new to us) fly fishing blogs that stand apart from, and often above, all the rest. We don't find many that aren't simply currently working the middle currents or claiming to be underground. I recently stumbled across Matt Dunn's new Fishbeer blog carving out some new literary ground out there in the god forsaken blogsphere. Matt's a Pennsylvania boy at heart who's temporarily stuck in the troutless heartland of Indiana. It appears that Matt also really, really, really enjoys beer -good beer too! Re-tooled, renamed and relentlessly engaging, it sort of marches to a different beat compared to your average fly fishing blog. And we here at WRWT like that kind of thing. And besides, anyone who mentions Charles Bukowski and Jim Harrison in the same place is alright by us.

You probably won't find all the latest RSS feeds from Sports Afield, Field & Sport, or the outdoors section of newspapers from around the country, nor will you find endlessly boring podcasts with psuedo fly fishing celebrity wanna-bees. What you will find is compelling and enjoyable writing accented with some rootin' tootin' good photos from his new backyard, frequent trips back to good ol' Pee-Aye and other fly fishing rest stops/beer halls on the road less traveled.

Sometimes it's better to float down the river through the tricky side channels rather than out in "mid-current". It's a rougher ride but a hell of a lot more interesting. Keep up the good work, Matt.

Click on over to Matt's Fishbeer site right here.

The Heartland

Welcome Cowboy Poets

Smoldering, after rain all day, the sun
sets fire to saffron yellow logs
the barn hunkers on. Coffee Creek
cuts a swath we hop across,
green to more green,
and whitetail deer, sudden
as stump mushrooms and rust red
with summer hair, browse
brisket deep-dash of paprika
on this timothy green. We unravel
worms from roots we spade
to the surprise of light. Our fingers
chill pink, and riffles
cater our bait to trout,
to that hearty tug we hunger for
as love: boy and girl in mint
Montana green, willow
Indian stringer of rainbow
swinging in cadence
as we sail the hayfield home.

The Color of Trout, by Paul Zarzyski

Who said we didn't know anything 'bout roughstock poetry? We're culture vultures over here at WRWT.

Double Rainbow - Lewistown, Montana

A little over 100 miles east of Great Falls, Montana is a little spring creek that is the crown jewel of Lewistown. Born from snowmelt off the Big Snowy and Judith Mountains, and flowing at a constant rate of 130 CFS with a constant temperature of 52F, it's source is the Madison Limestone Formation and the third largest spring in the world. It's a blue ribbon trout stream by anyones standard. Everyone has heard of it, so how come nobody fishes it?

Big Spring Creek - F.A.S. - Lewistown, Montana

Public access is excellent with no less than 6 official Montana FAS' scattered both above and below town. And it's obvious the locals are very proud of their little spring creek too. The access sites are impeccably maintained and I never saw a single piece of streamside litter during my entire stay there. Come to think of it, I never saw another fisherperson either even though I did see another truck parked at an FAS once.

Upper Big Spring Creek Valley

From it's source, 9 miles southwest of Lewistown at the Big Spring Hatchery in the foothills of the Big Snowies, it meanders 26 miles through a geometric patchwork of farms, fields and towns to it's confluence with the Judith River northwest of town.

Brewery Flats - Lewistown, Montana

Upstream from town the creek resembles a typical spring creek both in character and sport. Other than trico spinners, which the fish completely ignored, hatches of aquatic insects were essentially non-existent while I was there during the August doldrums and at first I was dumbfounded as to how to take fish from these fertile flows. Prospecting the water with a small parachute Adams or elk hair caddis produced squat, tiny bead head nymphs in the riffles -Nada. I didn't have a clue. Obviously I needed to read my copy of the Chief's literary tour-de-force Caddis & a Bead Head again as soon as I get it back from Craig Mathews and Mike Lawson, and that couldn't happen fast enough for me since I only had 2 1/2 days to spend in this little slice of paradise found.

Wild Big Spring Rainbow

In the meantime my luck started to pick up a little once I tied on a parachute hopper and started probing the faster riffles, runs, drop-offs and current seams. Big Spring Creek is predominantly a wild rainbow stream but it also has it's fair share of German brown trout too. Up to 3,000 pounds of trout live in each mile of this productive stream on the edge of the prairie.

Big Spring Creek - Lewistown, Montana

Good spawning substrate upstream of town keeps the stream well supplied with cagey, hard fighting rainbows and browns, but the constant year around temperature profile seems to limit aquatic insect diversity as it does on so many true spring creeks. Here you'll find your typical spring creek staples of midges, baetis, pale morning duns, trico's & caddis.

Brewery Flats #2

In the not to distant past this section of the creek was home to a railroad switching yard, a coal mine, oil refinery and a brewery. The creek was channelized to run straight alongside Upper Spring Creek Road to make room for all this industry. After the various industries closed up shop in the mid 1980's, and with strong local support, the Brewery Flats Conservation Committee, along with a little help from their friends to the tune of over $365,000 in grants performed a feasibility study in 1995 and then hired Inter-Fluve, Inc. of Bozeman in 1998 to restore the natural meanders & vegetation to the 23 acre site. The creek is now replete with undercut banks and S-turns in these upper reaches of the creek just downstream of the hatchery.

Big Spring Creek - Downstream of Lewistown

But it's the water below town that I fell in love with and the character of the water down here is simply phenomenal in a way like I've never seen before. Classic text book type stuff. An excellent riffle/pool ratio, S-turns one right after another for miles on end, deep lunker pools of 6-8 feet on the outside of every bend with immaculate pea sized gravel on the inside, undercut banks, woody debris, weedbeds, unmanicured riparian vegetation, cattail marshes, willow thickets, etc. Those are the Judith Mountains in the background of the above photo.

Big Spring Brown Trout

The big browns eluded me on this trip, but I know they're there sulking in those unbelievably deep bend pools. I'm already planning my return trip to take another crack at 'em during a viable hatch but first I need to get some advice from Matt & the Chief who are the resident big brown trout experts on the staff.

Hruska - Lewistown, Montana

August is hopper-tunity time on the lower end of Big Spring Creek. I wouldn't exactly call the fishing easy during my brief visit, and I'm not big on counting coup, but I would estimate that I landed between 10-12 fish (mostly rainbows with a few browns), ranging in size from 10" to 15", by pitching Schroeder's parachute hoppers during each of my first two days on the creek. For a relatively small creek this stream sure pushes a lot of water for late summer. Assiniboine and Blackfoot Indians once camped & hunted along this stream. Unlike the Shoshone, I don't believe they were fish eaters.

Big Spring Creek - Lewistown, Montana

There was a nice heavy fall of trico spinners in the morning on the water below town. I saw only a single fish rise to those little white sonofa#&*^%@*#$% and it was in a nearly impossible location to pitch a good cast. I was lucky enough to J-hook a slack line cast right in there on my first attempt but but it never rose to my fly and I never saw the fish again after that.

Round River

Never in my life have I seen so many S-turns on a stream before. Here, 1/2 mile as the crow flies would translate into 1 1/2 miles of linear stream course. Not only did these S-turns carve out some great habitat but it sure made walking from pool to pool a lot easier, not to mention walking back to the truck, as it was just a short jog across each finger of dry land in between bends.

Big Spring Creek

What would a blue ribbon trout stream be without lots of in-stream woody debris to carve out some high quality brown trout habitat? That's one problem Big Spring Creek doesn't need to worry about. The shallow water in the foreground drops off precipitously to 4'-5' as it nears the fallen tree on the far bank.

Lewistown Courthouse
Classic architecture in Montana's last best town.

Parting shot: The Nuclear Heartland

Outside of Great Falls, Montana.

The Augusta performance at 2, we'd place again,
then sneak off to our favorite Dearborn spot.
We'd take some chips and beer and cheese,
skinny dip, dry off in the breeze,
build a fire, fry the trout we caught...
...beneath Montana's blue roan skies
and a bucking horse moon

-Bucking Horse Moon, by Paul Zarzyski