The Epical 2025 Fishing Yarns and Photo Thread

[Rasputin]

The skies were cloudy all day, and the water never got warmer that 65 degrees. NOAAs forecast discussion called the weather unusual, and I made the most of it, starting fishing around 7:30 am, and finishing up a bit after 8 pm. I fished a couple different rivers, and a couple different access points. My back aches from casting, and my feet are sore from wading and walking on rocks, but I caught a bunch of fish, and will now bomb the thread with pics of the best of them.

[Rasputin]

Got up early and still got on the river kinda late, but I caught a few, including a fat 18 incher.

[John_B]

Solo salmon fishing doesn't make for the best fish pics but it does make for some good sunrises! Now if I could just catch one with the right amount of fins!

[lifelinksplit]

Nice fish. I really need to start taking more actual fish pics. Took the dogs for a hike to a nice alpine lake with pretty healthy cutts averaging 14in. Nice views of the Pintlers through the old burn.

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[Rasputin]

I've been trying to adjust myself to getting up early to fish when the water is cooler, but it isn't working as well as I would like. There is only about eight hours of dark a night, and that means I need to get to sleep soon after sunset to get an OK night's sleep, and when I wake up at 6am, when ideally I would be out on the river drifting dries, I am groggy and slow to get ready. This means I usually am unable to get out there much before 8am, and have the feeling that I missed the best part of the day.

However, the God of fly fishing is good to me, and will send me a fish when I most need it, as an answer to the crescendo of my outpouring of angst at my angling inadequacy.

Most recently I have been nursing sore toes on my left foot when I spend hours slopping on the rocks in my wading boots (there was an exceptional bloom of what I call troll's hair algae this spring, and it has made the wading particularly challenging at times). They were really bothering me by the end of yesterday's outing, so in spite of popping awake at six this morning, I chose to not go out, and hopefully after also taking Saturday off as well (while I don't know that God is against fishing on His Sabbath, I try to apply the seventh day to seeking other souls, so in congregating, combined partials can lead to a whole), with that rest, my toes will not be so sore in my boots. Last fall when frequent fishing lead to the same problem, it only ceased when I went a week without wearing shoes.

[John_B]

Got one!

[Rasputin]

Grats! Mmmm, salmon!

[plugboots]

Went from big browns, sipping size 20s to tiny cutthroats that’ll eat anything.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Yesterday's outing was blissfully cloudy and at times raining, sometimes heavily. It started out slowly, only a couple fish in the first four hours, but eventually I managed to hook up and break off two nice fish!

Well the God of fly fishing (and creator of all things) heard my cries of despair at losing said fish and sent me a long skinny fish, before another taker which again broke off in a down current surge. The day ended with the aforementioned rain and some more nice fish, as well as a small cutthroat that swallowed a Pat's so deeply, that I couldn't extract it even with the long nosed forceps I found an hour earlier; I ended up cutting it off as the regs require when the hook won't come out. The big fish of the day was so profoundly hooked in the corner of her mouth that it was difficult to remove (and yes the barb was crimped).

First fish took a pink worm dropper.



The long skinny fish had talon marks, since there were three marks, it must have been an eagle, as osprey have two sets of two opposing talons.



The large lady had some scale damage from something, it was worse on her right side.



This beauty hit hard and hooked himself when I was about to pick up my line to cast again, I love accidental catches. I'd rather be lucky than good, though both would be nice.



It's been a largely cloudy day, and I have been putting off fishing making a strawberry-rhubarb-apple crisp with dried cranberries and raisins. The water above Missoula is still only 64 degrees, so I'm going to suit up and wet a line, I'll be back later to spin a yarn, and post a pic or two if I'm blessed with fish or moved by beauty.

[Rasputin]

<p>
Not the most productive outing today, but I caught a nice cuttbow (below) and a fat cutthroat, which I didn&#39;t take a picture of because he had a messed up jaw, and the line got caught on it, and he also tried to swallow the micro chubby I was throwing, anyway, I wanted to get him back in the water more than I wanted a picture. <img alt="" src="upload your picture" /></p>