2024 Fish Pic Thread

[Rasputin]

Yesterday I had the day off, so I went fishing. I prayed about where to go, and then when I got my answer, I looked at it on the satellite imagery of the area. I noticed that even closer than "the big trout catching place" was the "lower" (main) confluence of the Bitterroot and the Clark Fork, which I'd always been curious about. I decided I'd go there instead. It was a decision which lead to much hiking, little fishing, fatigue and great frustration. I did not have a great day; though I did catch three small whitefish, I had a bee in my bonnet, and I took it out on myself. I have dark moods which are profound and painful, tend to escalate to self hating tirades with much cursing, and yesterday's was a doozy, but eventually I calmed down, and went back to the honey hole (which had earlier produced the whitefish). There was no action, so I swapped rigs a few times, and as the light was fading, I got a hard strike.

I set the hook effectively, and it felt rather like it had snagged on the bottom, until the line started moving around, it was a very big fish, and I excitedly attempted to wrest his mass from the bottom of the river. After absorbing a couple short runs, I began stripping in line, and got my net ready. Then the fish, annoyed at being lifted off of the river bottom, began shaking his head violently, and he was off. "OH NOOOOOO!" was all that came out of me, the sense of loss was intense, but apparently I'd used up all of my cursing for the day. Demoralized, I saw that the hook had been bent to ineffectiveness; I felt completely defeated, exhausted, and emotionally not a way one wants to ever feel.

After work today, I went back to make things right. I caught a couple small whitefish, lost a slightly bigger one that launched out if the water after coming off the hook, and did next to no cursing; I was content enough drifting my nymph's without response. Again, returning to the honey hole just after sunset, I worked through a few rigs with no luck, until I put on a worminator with a Duracell trailer. In the same spot that I hooked up yesterday, the bubble dipped and I hooked into a nice trout fish. It wasn't nearly as strong a fish as the one from last night, but after respectable tugging from said fish, I was happily able to land it, and felt redeemed from the sad state of the previous day. What a difference a day makes.

[Rasputin]

I decided to give my usual waters a rest, and drove up to Milltown State Park, where the Blackfoot dumps into the Clark Fork. Before Milltown was a thought, this confluence was known by the indigenous people as "The place of big bull trout". The really good looking water was on the other side of the river, and I didn't think I could wade across safely, so instead I crossed the Blackfoot and went upstream a quarter mile or so until I found some slower softer water. I hooked a fish and lost it after a few exciting seconds, and then nothing.

I decided I wasn't feeling it there, and as I left, I noticed that there was indeed a way of crossing to the other side, as another fly fisher was fishing the really good looking water on the other side, so I now understand that crossing over further downstream is possible.

I decided to drive to another place downstream about fifteen miles, the place of moar bigger whitefish (across the river from "the big fish catching place"), where, after losing a whitefish, I rather quickly snagged a whitefish in the tail. Interestingly, this is the second time I've fished there and snag hooked a fish in the tail, though last time it was a mere western silvery minnow. Anyhoo, I was already happier with my locale than the previous area.

Less than a stone's throw upstream, I hooked and landed a svelte 17" rainbow which made the day a happy one:




Later on I caught a couple moar whitefish, including this one that I expertly snag hooked above the eye:





It was another CAVU day on the river, and an enjoyable one as well.

[The Reverend Floater]

Big bow on the local water today on a nymph



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[Rasputin]

Wow, nice fish!

[The Reverend Floater]

Wow, nice fish!

I pretty much soiled myself. That's unusual on the Big Wood, our town river.

Another fun part of the story... I'm not an organized person which makes the very nature of fly fishing difficult for me. A few minutes prior to that fish, I was rerigging and looking for my little foam box of girdles that I brought. Panic hit as I recalled balancing it on my bag while tying on some tippet. I looked around, knee deep in the water and then saw the tin floating UP stream from me, caught in a very small eddy. That sort of shit doesn't happen to me very often. I grabbed it, tied on a tan one and BAM...23" rainbow!



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[Rasputin]

I liked the story as much as the pic, I've lost many flies by getting distracted while swapping out rigs, but gradually this has lessened as I've developed "chairlift awareness", moving very deliberately so that I don't absent-mindedly drop something. That your box was caught in a eddy made me smile, it's nice when our mistakes don't cost us more than the momentary fright that we did something foolish.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

I pretty much soiled myself. That's unusual on the Big Wood, our town river.

Another fun part of the story... I'm not an organized person which makes the very nature of fly fishing difficult for me. A few minutes prior to that fish, I was rerigging and looking for my little foam box of girdles that I brought. Panic hit as I recalled balancing it on my bag while tying on some tippet. I looked around, knee deep in the water and then saw the tin floating UP stream from me, caught in a very small eddy. That sort of shit doesn't happen to me very often. I grabbed it, tied on a tan one and BAM...23" rainbow!

That's cool.

For me, when one thing goes badly I tend to spiral into disfunction until I sit down for a minute and reset.

And nice fish.

[swimmy]

Been on a bender...

[Rasputin]

Damn you're tidy, swimmy!

I got off work early today and headed for the usual place. The honey hole seems to only yield whitefish in the afternoons, I caught two small ones, then headed down to the confluence, intending to return around sunset when I've caught a number of big fish.

The confluence quickly produced moar whitefish, but not any really bigger ones. I caught seven of them all told, including one which I expertly snag hooked in the tail, for maximum fighting power.

I often talk to the fish, and the river, and God and everything while I fish, and I was doing so today, as I was fishing a really good looking piece of water where wide and shallow parts of the Bitterroot pinch together a bit and create a central current with back eddys on each side. I have fished it often, but have only ever caught a small rainbow there. Today I fished the softwater to the seam with no results, but then I thought, since the whitefish were on the bite, and it was really warm today, that maybe, they could be in the trough just above where two current streams collide. As I was thinking that, I was saying out loud how it seems to me ridiculous that I only ever caught but one small rainbow in there, and not even one bite aside.

First cast into the midst got a hard strike, and then I saw a giant shape streak down current and start yanking on the line so heavy, I kinda felt scared. As I tried to get him into the soft water between us, but after twenty seconds or so, the 4X tippets Maxima Utragreen failed. I was gut punched, and that fish had stole my rabbit's foot (hare's ear)! I couldn't tell what kind of of fish it was for sure, but it looked like a giant whitefish, though it fought more like a rainbow. I bet it holds in a bucket at the bottom of the trough, I'm definitely going to target that again.

I went back to the honey hole, which produced one strike which I missed badly. I took today's version of Snowbowl and Point Six in the river's background, and put another day to rest.

[neckdeep]

Warm winter weirdness. The big blizzard that shut down targhee blew 4 foot deep drifts over the water but there's barely any shelf ice underneath. No snap; just suddenly you're on a car sized floating marshmallow.


Fishing was meh. Not much ice out magic to be had in a winter without lasting ice.

[Rasputin]

The big take away from last night's after work session, was a fellow fisherman who said he'd just caught his biggest ever trout on a March Brown dry fly. All I managed last night was one whitefish, four fish coming off the hook, and a sunset pic.

[The Reverend Floater]

That's cool.

For me, when one thing goes badly I tend to spiral into disfunction until I sit down for a minute and reset.

And nice fish.

Exactly. I'm like textbook spiral guy.

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[The Reverend Floater]

I liked the story as much as the pic, I've lost many flies by getting distracted while swapping out rigs, but gradually this has lessened as I've developed "chairlift awareness", moving very deliberately so that I don't absent-mindedly drop something. That your box was caught in a eddy made me smile, it's nice when our mistakes don't cost us more than the momentary fright that we did something foolish.

Yeah, I had a serious moment of "something" helping me out because normally that would be the beginning of frustration and subsequent bad fishing.

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[Rasputin]

Well you guys are making me feel less chagrined by my frequent references to streamside meltdowns.


Today I went to "the big fish catching place", and in spite of much casting, the big fish remained coy. This was the only fish I managed there.





So, after hooking and losing a whitefish there, and feeling scorned by the resident big fishes, I headed upstream to the "big hurkin' stonefly nymph losing place" where I also know there are big fish, like the one that took my big hurkin' stonefly nymph. It wasn't too long before my indicator told me that my brand spanking new pink worminator had been a good investment, and I managed to land the type of troutfish I had made the hike for, YAY for me!

[plugboots]

I put Red, White, and Blue backing on one of my new reels. Yes, Red, White and Blue is capitalized. If yours isn’t like this, why do you hate America?