2023 Fish-Pic-O-Rama

A 400ft high wall of st johns wort. Photos don't do it justice.
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A hole that has never seen a boat. Thank God there's still a few left.
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Loaded with these, if you can stomach green water dredging. Purists need not apply. Throw dries in here all damn day and you will get a few dinks.
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Of course, a good fishin' hole needs some good guardians. This hole is just filthy with vipers. One kiss from my little friends and your limb will rot off so think twice before you come in here. I've told them to bite the shit out of anyone they don't know.
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Posting in this epic thread
The hole known as the Aquarium
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Drifting a hare’s ear behind a stonefly nymph
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Then walked 15 minutes down to here
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And hung my rig on the bottom

jpcm for the win. Awesome.

Getting geared up for my trip next week.

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fishing this aquatic jungle has been productive in the past ....
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not today

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The right side of the tracks.

No fish pic since I missed the only piglet that hit big foam. Walter was not impressed.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...305b200d80.jpg

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Been a lot of blue tarp days around here lately.


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landed a bucket load of super-fun mini-bass
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i'm back on the board!

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I feel like I needed a counterpoint to Swimmy's insanely organized fly tying bench. My pack was getting a little outta control...

Before and after. I'm a slob.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...73a39886ea.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9be416e4ab.jpg

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by lifelinksplit

I feel like I needed a counterpoint to Swimmy's insanely organized fly tying bench. My pack was getting a little outta control...

Before and after. I'm a slob.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...73a39886ea.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9be416e4ab.jpg

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...https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e11c254dfa.gif

Thread's getting out of control. See if I can get things back on track here...

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Yesterday I got up early, went to the river, fished upstream from the boat ramp, and caught no troutfish, only two small pike minnows (the bigger one was only seven inches) saved me from the profound disconsolation of catching nothing, as had been the case my previous outing lat Thursday.

Today I went downstream and fished the confluence (where I got skunked on Thursday). There were plenty of fish rising and sipping something from the meniscus, I started out with a PMD crippler, but got no takers until I turned my back on the confluence, and threw across the last stretch of the Clark Fork. It was a small rainbow.


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The crippler wasn't knocking them dead, so I swapped it for my go-to emerger, a CDC baetis, and quickly caught a couple more smalls on the Clark Fork side. I then turned toward the confluence with confidence in my rig (the emerger was trailing a tiny chubby I found once, hanging off a log). Shortly after I started casting it, I got a strong take, and managed to set the hook without pulling it outta his mouth, it felt like a heavy fish. After the initial set, and getting to feel the strength of it, it took off on a run, and the chubby came back with a broken hook.


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Needless to say, I was not happy with that outcome. I proceeded to tie on a brand new tan chubby, and another of the same emerger pattern. This took me a while, I'm slow and clumsy, and this is often a helpful thing, in that, it gives the area I'm fishing a chance to rest for a bit. I cast out my new rig, and again got a hard take. The hook set hard, and I was treated to a fight with another very strong fish, which I played carefully since I was using 5x tippets for the emerger. Everything was going well, and I was getting him close when suddenly he pulled hard, and was off, the hook came back half straightened out. I thank God for answering my prayers of late, as I've asked for help to curse less, and to not let my temper run away with me; this certainly would have lead to a profound meltdown, and perhaps a broken flyrod, last fall. I was still really disappointed, however, as it stood, I'd caught four fish, and though they were small, at least they were trout.

The rising stalled out as noon arrived, so I put on a rainbow warrior nymph in place of the emerger, and after much trying, caught the smallest trout of the day. Since the fishing had slowed, and the Hoot Owl restriction was approaching anyway, I started fishing my way up the Clark Fork toward the boat ramp. When i reached "the churn" (see post #364 for a pic), I began working each of the streamlets emptying into the drop-off. The second one got a fish to come up, and devour my tan chubby. The hook did not break, and though it did get bent outta shape a bit, it held. I landed my biggest rainbow so far, a thick 17"er. What a pretty fish!


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Nice 'bow!

What's the forest fire smoke situation in the Missoula area now?

Hoping to head back to the home country in a week or two...cheers!

We had rain over the weekend and the air was good today, though it seems that there is some smoke in the air this evening, but not bad. Live tracking for air quality can be found here.

Slow morning; I was late getting to the river, cloudy skys for much of the time, and fish were rising, but for the most part, ignored what I was throwing. I caught a couple, the one below, and a much smaller one.

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Switched it up and took the dog out for some trolling and swimming.

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sturgeon pickles

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Originally Posted by MarsB

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big ole brown on a chubby? Noice! Wild that your browns don't have red spots with halos like ours here on the western slope. Or at least this one does not.

Yep, size 6 chubby! Some do, some don't. There's a fair bit of diversity in our brown population.

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Today I got up at 4 am, and after pedaling my bike to the access point, was on the river by 6:30am. I wanted to try throwing a streamer before broad daylight, which yielded one strike but it was a halfhearted one.


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I don't think I'll be doing that again, at least until dawn comes much later; the fish really weren't rising much until well after sun up. I caught a total of four fish, three under 6" and this guy:


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Man am I tired.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rasputin

Today I got up at 4 am, and was on the river by 6:30am. I wanted to try throwing a streamer before broad daylight, which yielded one strike but it was a halfhearted one.


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I don't think I'll be doing that again, at least until dawn comes much later; the fish really weren't rising until well after sun up. I caught a total of four fish, three under 6" and this guy:


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Man am I tired.

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4am is *uncivilized*...

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Originally Posted by skaredshtles

4am is *uncivilized*...

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I don't know about "uncivilized" but it IS disorienting, and somewhat painful. Today I didn't feel like getting up to go fishing, and "slept in" until 7:30am.

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Originally Posted by Rasputin

I don't know about "uncivilized" but it IS disorienting,

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i.e. uncivilized

:D