You Can't Go Beachcombing...

A couple friends and I fished upper Rock Creek yesterday. It was crowded. Washington, Idaho, and Montana plates dotted access points up and down Rock Creek Road. Seeing how busy it was on Rock Creek Road, I am scared to think what it was like on the Bitterroot yesterday. Skwalas were out, as were March Browns, Gray Drakes, and Midges. It was a solid day of fishing considering the amount of water that we had to pass up because of the throngs of out-of-staters lining the banks. Anyways, the title of this video comes from a statement that was made by Bucko about old men beachcombing at nude beaches in Hawaii. As always, watch in HD on vimeo.

You Can't Go Beachcombing... from Yukon Goes Fishing on Vimeo.

Another Day on the Rock

I went back up to fish upper Rock Creek yesterday. The morning fishing was spectacular. Of the ten fish I caught - ten of the fish were caught between 10 AM and 1 PM. That certainly does not mean the fish were not feeding from 1 PM to 4 PM. I hooked into several fish during the afternoon hours, but I was unable to reel them in. Additionally, I could not figure out the right combination to lure the feeding fish into taking my dry flies, nymphs, or streamers with much conviction. There were plenty of hits and misses. There were several highlights from the day and one massive low point. When pulling in an eight inch whitefish towards the bank, a massive fish flashed at it three or four times. I can only guess that it was a rock creek bull trout. It was exhilarating and confusing all at once. A part of my fishing mind was thinking, "don't lose the fish", the rest of my mind was thinking "let the beast take it." I saved the tiny whitey from doom, while hooting and hollering loud enough for neighboring anglers to take notice. At the end of the day, I was headed back to some water that I had successfully fished in the morning. While walking through willows and thick underbrush, my line caught on a branch. I stumbled shortly after it caught on the branch. Together, the stumble and the snag bent the upper piece of my rod until it shattered at the ferrule. So, without a useful rod, I hung my head and sulked back to my car. Cursing myself for getting greedy. On the bright side, I took some amazing video. Watch it in HD on vimeo. (Music: Kev Brown "Another Random Joint")


Another Day On The Rock from Ivan Orsic on Vimeo.

Fishing Rock Creek on Me Birthday

I was lucky enough to receive a flip hd video camera and a waterproof case for said camera for my birthday. I promptly headed up to upper Rock Creek to fish with my friend Brian and his dog Wilma. While Rock Creek is still flowing high, as a result of spring runoff and the recent rains we experienced in western Montana, it was clear. We found some fishable water along the banks and in side channels. I caught 11 fish including two westslope cutthroat, two cutbows, one brown trout, and six whitefish on golden stone and green drake nymphs, streamers, and on golden stone and caddis dries. Brian also eclipsed the ten fish mark for the day. A sunny day on the rock. Enjoy the video. Watch the video on youtube to see the HD version. The underwater trout release shots were a little disappointing this time 'round, but I'll get them next time. (Music: Kings Go Forth "Now We're Gone")

End of the semester...more fishing...less blogging

With the spring semester coming to a close a week and a half ago, I decided to use my free time to fish and blogging about fishing took a backseat. Since my last post, I have fished the Blackfoot twice (with mixed results), upper Rock Creek and the west fork of Rock Creek, and Brown's Lake. With the discharge of Rock Creek on the rise, my first trip took me to the Blackfoot with a Red Sox fan and his trusty dog. On our way up to the Johnsrud section of the Blackfoot, we shared stories of frustration regarding this fabled river. I had fished it a couple times with absolutely no luck. Not a fish. Not a nibble. Not a nothing. It seemed as though the Blackfoot had displayed a similar reluctance to produce fish for my friend. We threw everything into the river and caught three tiny rainbows between the two of us. Indeed, after a day of fishing the Blackfoot, I had a whopping six inches of rainbow trout to show for it. Even though it was my first trout from the Blackfoot, I neglected to take a picture of the monster. We returned to Missoula defeated, as I think we both expected.

the mighty mighty blackfoot

A couple weekends later, the tortured Red Sox fan, his friend, the same trusty dog, and I made a weekend trip up to upper Rock Creek. The first day was spent exploring the west fork of Rock Creek and upper Rock Creek. The west fork produced a single nibble and no fish. On upper Rock Creek, we camped out near several diversion dams and associated downstream pools. With a wooly and a san juan rig, the white David Ortiz pulled several upper Rock Creek westslope cuttie slabs (16 to 18 inches). I was unsuccessful. The next morning, we made our way down to Gillies Bridge and walked upstream from there. I caught three whitefish, a cutbow/westslope cuttie, and two brown trout. Youkilis (sans the goatee) caught a couple whitefish. Oh yeah, it snowed and it was May. In addition, during our time at the cabin, we completed a 100 piece puzzle of the United States and kindly left it completed for the next inhabitants. Clearly, we are gentleman and should be lauded for saving those poor souls a solid 15 minutes of their life. Nobel Peace prize please?

cutbow in the ghost net

brown trout release

upper rock creek brown

east fork of rock creek

ponderosa pine on upper rock creek

100-piece puzzle of the US of A. Enjoy.

The following weekend, Team Cocktails, a co-rec softball team I happen to play for, took a weekend camping trip up on the blackfoot at Thibodeau Campground. I fished the majority of the day on Saturday. While the river was up, it was not filled with suspended sediment and several hatches occurred throughout the day. I finally saw success on the Blackfoot. I took 11 cutbows (averaging around 11") on streamers and dries, one 20" whitefish on a caddis pupa, and a 22" sucker on a caddis pupa. I also discovered that my waders may have developed a leak in the neoprene bootie portion. Hopefully, I have successfully patched the leak or the waders may make a trip back to Orvis land because it is too soon for these new waders to be leaking.

blackfoot at thibodeau campground

morning fog at thibodeau

morning fog over the blackfoot

22" sucker

20'' whitefish

blackfoot cutbow

The visit to Brown's Lake occurred after the end of the semester and deserves a separate post. Post to follow shortly.

3 cutbows, 1 rainbow, 1 brown trout, 5 whitefish and bunch of dogs

Last Monday, I went up to upper Rock Creek with four friends and four dogs. It was the fly-fishing, "Bumpus Family" style. Enjoy the video with help from my friend Laura on the camera.


fly fishing and the bumpus dogs from Ivan Orsic on Vimeo.

23 and unmatching the hatch

I made my way back up to Upper Rock Creek again this week. I was rewarded handsomely with 23 fish: 14 cutbow, five cutthroat, one brown trout, and three whitefish. The first three hours of the day were spent nymphing - that accounted for 10 of the 23 fish. Most of the fish caught while nymphing were between 10'' and 13''. I caught them on black bead head midge nymphs, griffith's gnats fished subsurface, and double bead head black stonefly nymphs. Once one o'clock rolled around, the surface activity had picked up enough steam that I ended up fishing the surface for the rest of the day. I started out fishing a skwala dry with a griffith's gnat off of the back end with some success. But, after a couple of refusals (fish looking at the fly, but refusing to take the fly), I switched my tactics. With black stoneflies hatching in mass, midges lining the surface, and a couple of stray skwalas on the banks, I unmatched the hatch and fished a fat green drake mayfly dry. I took my three largest fish of the day on the green drake. Besides the fishing, nothing exciting happened. No moose, no dead bald eagles, no bears - all in all, a day a worried parent or girlfriend would be pleased with. Enjoy the pictures and the video. Side note: I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow a friend's waterproof camera, so enjoy the underwater shots.


Upper Rock Creek - 4.12 from Ivan Orsic on Vimeo.

 16'' Westslope Cutthroat/Cutbow

15'' Cuttie/Cutbow

Cutbow Release

14'' Brown Trout

Cutbow Release

Cuttie in the ghost net

Upper Rock Creek cutbow

12'' Cuttie

Gillies Bridge Cuttie

American Dipper

American Dipper

Cutbow Reflection

Cutbow in the Ghost net

American Kestrel

Cabin 4 Rent?

6 fish, 2 moose, a herd of elk, and a dead bald eagle

As promised, there is a short story associated with the pictures of a dead bald eagle that have been circling the interwebs. After fishing Upper Rock Creek on Saturday, my friend and I started to head back to the truck. As we wandered back downstream, our path strayed from the creek with the presence of two moose stream-side. Heading away from the stream, we ducked down into a seasonally active side channel. Coming up on the other side of the side channel and onto the floodplain, I noticed a large brown shape lying on the ground about 10 feet away from us. We went over to inspect the shape and indeed it was a deceased bald eagle.

The magnificent bird was positioned as you see it in the pictures above, on its back, head turned to the left, wings holding stiff to the side. After closer examination, it's eyes were missing and the head appeared to be empty. That being said, I didn't get too close to peer in to it's skull. Based on the once over I gave the bird, there were no obvious signs that the bird had been killed (no gaping wounds). The portion of the river where the bird was found appeared to be colder than the downstream reaches. The floodplain was still frozen and patches of ice and snow still lined the banks of the river. Based on the presence of snow and the frozen ground, this portion of the river could be losing water to groundwater. When rivers lose water to groundwater, surface water temps are often much colder during the winter and hotter during summer. As such, my friend and I theorized that the eagle may have been dead for quite some time. Maybe it froze over winter and its plumage was maintained without significant damage. Those are just theories. I reported the "incident" to the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks at the urging of some classmates. It is in their hands now.

The fishing was decent that day. I caught six. Two cutthroat, three whitefish, and a brown trout. I did catch a football sized 17-18'' lady cutthroat. She was so impregnated with eggs, I could barely wrap my hand around one side of her. If one were to point their middle finger and thumb in opposing directions and their hands were as large/small as mine, that would be a reasonable estimate for the half of the girth of this fish. As I went to pose for a picture with the soon-to-be mama cuttie, her will to pro-create drove her to resist my wishes to record her existence and she escaped my grasp and returned to her lair underneath an overhanging willow. Enjoy the rest of the pictures.

Upper Rock Creek Brown Trout

Upper Rock Creek - 4.10

Elk Grazing at dusk - Upper Rock Creek

A Moose - I swear

5 and the Hero Pose

Upper Rock Creek for the second time this week. This time I went with a friend of mine from grad school. I have learned a lot from this friend, he has helped me buy a rod, line, reel, etc. When we arrived at Gilles Bridge, it was cold and the weather was erratic. Variable sun, cloud cover, and a combination of snow and hail - lets call it snail or hailow - made for interesting conditions. The fishing started slow as all the normally productive sections of river appeared to be fishless. So, we made our way upstream to unexplored waters. After a couple more failures, my friend and I found success. Nymphing with black stoneflies and midge nymphs, both of us lost a fish before catching a fish. After catching my first fish, I posed for my first hero shots of the year. A hero shot is the classic angler with the fish photo. Being new to fly-fishing, I have had enough issues landing and releasing the fish. So, my past attempts at hero shots have been lackluster. Most of my hero shots consist of the fish, usually small, being fumbled about. Never dropped, per se, but fumbled...and always obscured. The fish never gets the exposure it deserves. Mostly Ivan hand.

Here I am fumbling a brook trout, the first fluvial trout I caught, from Rock Creek near Red Lodge, MT from summer 2009.

Here I am fumbling, hunching over, and obscuring a Flathead Lake Rainbow.

Note: that when I finally have posed for the hero shot, I am hunching over the fish. Poor form. If you read the 13 tips for a good hero shot, I have violated many rules. Including number five:  

Get in position. You want to look comfortable when you are holding the fish, so try to avoid awkward positions (such as standing hunched-over trying to hold the fish and look at the camera). The easiest position is to take a knee in about six to eight inches of water.

So, when my chance to take a hero shot came about on upper rock creek, I could only see improvement. Under the guidance of my friend, my first hero shots of the year turned out better than any of my past attempts. One more than the other.

Here I am with a 14-15'' cutthroat/cutbow from upper Rock Creek.

I probably should have removed the hat and my fingers are still looming a bit large, but, a great improvement.

After completing a good hero shot pose, I promptly stepped on a weed bed in about 8 inches of water, slipped onto my back, rolled onto my stomach, and fell into said 8 inches of water. My first fall into a MT river, after four seasons of field work and one season of fishing. I probably shouldn't have been chewing that gum. Too many things to do at once.

Oh yeah, and I caught 5 (3 cutthroat, 1 brown, and 1 cutbow) - lost 8 (including a couple large cutthroats - 18 to 19''). My friend caught  7 (including a large 18'' cutthroat) and lost 5.

24 and a moose

Yesterday, was a great day of fishing. Nymphing in the morning - dry flies in the afternoon. 24 feesh - 4 cutties, 2 brown trout, 15 cutbows, and 3 mountain whitefish. That being said, the day could have taken a turn for the worse (or is it worst) before I had a chance to fish at all. After driving the hour and a half from Missoula to upper Rock Creek, I was excited to get out on the stream. Prior to entering the river I had done a once over to check out any potential dangers. The coast seemed to be clear. So, with the composure of a seven-year old at a toy store, I bounded into the river, rod in hand. I made it halfway across the river when I saw a lady bullwinkle about 20 yards away staring straight through me. Standing in a patch of riparian veg, the lady moose was frozen still. I, too, was frozen...for about a second. Once I realized what I was staring at, I quickly waded backwards towards my car and the safety of the opposite bank. On the opposite bank, I most likely blessed the world with a couple profanities and promptly whipped out my camera to take a couple pictures of the majestic lady moose. She seemed to pose for a bit, lost interest and then got back to breakfast. Having heard many stories of moose and their aggressive behavior towards intruders, I am thankful that my moose encounter was bland. Luckily the moose was 1) a lady and 2) was not with child. Either one of those options may have changed the story a little bit. After my encounter, I fished upstream of the moose for about a hour, keeping a watchful eye on the cow. I caught two whitefish on a size 10 black stonefly nymph and a san juan worm. I moved upstream and caught a couple cutbows, a cutthroat, and a whitefish on the stonefly nymph. With water temps rising into the early afternoon, I saw a great deal of surface activity. I originally put on a midge dry (griffith's gnat to be exact - which is an extremely small fly). Not being able to see the fly and its location on the surface, I put on a skwala stonefly dry on with a griffith's gnat trailing the skwala by about 8 inches. This worked quite well as I was able to cast, in rhythm to rising trout. The majority of the fish I caught were cutbows, but I was lucky enough to catch a 15 to 16'' cutthroat. While everything seemed to go well, there was one slip-up. I lost the incredible hulk of fish. Most likely a brown, the monster took a size 22 griffith's gnat and fought an amazing fight, only to slip off as it sat in the main current. Otherwise, it was a fantastic day. Enjoy the pictures and video from my great day on upper rock creek.


rock creek 3-29 from Ivan Orsic on Vimeo.

Lady Moose on upper Rock Creek

Cuttie - upper Rock Creek

 Be Free Fish

Cuttie Flash

15.5''-16'' Westslope Cutthroat