As prompted by OBN, here it is - my favorite outdoor place: The Big Hole River. For the past week or so, I have been going to bed reading about the the Mother's Day Caddis hatch in Greg Thomas' "Fly Fisher's Bible of Montana", reading chapter 11 in McGuane's "The Longest Silence", and watching my own videos of the mighty river. A fantastic brown trout fishery, it also is holds to rainbows, cutthroat, brook, and grayling. Prolific hatches, rising trout, hungry browns, and the "only western river with viable fluvial grayling populations in the lower 48". Here are some pictures.
Big Hole at the Salmon Fly access
rainbows rising to tricos in late August on the Big Hole
Also, after a day on the river, who doesn't want to wind down at quality watering holes like the Melrose Bar & Cafe with a High Life or Moscow Mule (which might be 1500 feet from Salmon Fly Access). Right next door to the bar is George Goody's Montana Fly Company, a ridiculously solid fly shop.
I went casting on the Bitterroot just outside of town and down near Florence Bridge, this past saturday. Tried to catch fish, but i suspect (and secretly hope) that the cold weather and incoming cold front slowed the fish down. I saw a handful of rises, a little more than a handful of midges, one muskrat, a pooping dog, a couple homeless people's humble abodes, a deer with what appeared to be a huge gunshot hole around it's jaw, four bald eagles, three herons, and one dead four-point whitetail mid-channel.
I also realized that I have enough pinhole leaks in my waders to warrant a wash and patch session in the very near future. I could have filled a water bottle with the near freezing water in my waders and absorbed by my sock. No fish to net and as a result, there was very little useable video footage.
So, I revisited an old video from I made in late June 2010 titled "another day on the rock". It is exactly what the title suggests, a day of fly fishing on upper Rock Creek. I wanted to remix the video to a new song with a new look at the footage. I tried my hand at a little "stop-motion." I did my best to align the clips with the hi-hat in Guru's "Lifesaver" from the Jazzmatazz Volume II album.
If I am being honest with myself, the video has it's moments (both good and bad). This method highlights some details that might be lost in normal video including the fact that (at least in June 2010) I started backcast too early. Also highlighted by the stop-motion is a pale-morning dun in flight around 1:26. Do not adjust your computers - most of this video is supposed to be choppy. Tell me what you think. Should I use this technique for any of this year's upcoming videos? Or should I drop it as quickly as David Akers missed two important field goals this sunday?
I think we can all agree, as fisherman, we want to catch more fish, catch bigger fish, catch different species, and most importantly fish more. With the winter doldrums kicking in and negative to mid-single digit temperatures blanketing the Missoula valley this week, I have cabin fever bad. While the snow has been fantastic here in western Montana, my funds are in such a condition that two expensive outdoor hobbies would be one too many expensive outdoor hobbies. So, I am stuck inside with dreams of spring, summer and fall flows, insect hatches, and hungry trout - planning the beginning of my upcoming fishing season. Here are my dreams and goals of 2011:
1. Finish my thesis.
So I can get a good job, make a difference in the world, not be a starving student, but a starving scientist, and do more awesome things both professionally and recreationally.
Amendment: Plus my parents (including the pater) would like it to be so.
2. catch a fish in every month of the year (bonus points for trout)
I enjoyed the pursuit of this goal last year and I think it is a goal that will always be a challenge to complete for a variety of reasons - mostly as a result of weather and temperature.
3. Catch a 20" cutthroat, 24" rainbow, and 24" brown trout
While I enjoy catching smaller fish, the thrill and skill it takes to fool and bring in a larger and more seasoned trout is something that I find myself increasingly intrigued by. I didn't reach all of these three subgoals last year. I would like to this year.
4. Catch 3 or more trout over 20" in a day of fishing
Got dangerously close to this goal twice this past season. Again, I like big fish. Optimally, I would like to catch a lot of them. So, repeating this goal this year only makes sense.
5. Catch a 20"+ brown trout out of the (name redacted) ponds
I don't want to let the secret out about this body of water until I successfully tame one of it's beasts. I caught a 18" brown trout out of it this year. There are bigger fish in there. Much bigger. And I would like to catch them.
A friend of mine did so last year. I was and am still jealous of his catch. I want to catch one. It is a goal.
7. Go fishing in Wyoming
The same friend that I refer to in goal 5, swears by Wyoming and the trout that live there. And, like other friends that have fished there, he will gladly take me there, but he won't give me specific details, unless I go with. I would name more specific waters, but he won't tell me. Tales of giant browns, bows, and cutties intrigue me. "I want to go to there."
8. Fish for bullies and cutties on the South Fork of the Flathead
I like bull trout. I like large bull trout. I want to catch large (25"+) bull trout. You can on the South Fork. Again, "I want to go to there"
9. Catch a fish on a mouse pattern
See goal 9.
10. Go night fishing, do more night fishing, and catch fish while night fishing.
Everytime I have gone into Montana Fly Company in Melrose, MT to buy streamers, George (the owner) has said, "Going after the big ones, huh?". During one of those visits, George regaled us with a story about night fishing on the Big Hole, saying something to the effect of "Yeah, I go out there (during the night time) hook big fish and let them take my flies." George Kesel of Kesel's Four Rivers tells a similar story about night fishing on the Beaverhead. The biggest fish he has caught in the past 10 years was on the Beaverhead in the middle of the night during one of his midnight bathroom breaks. I have heard that fishing under the moon is the best time to fish for large, piscivorous brown trout. Some people take these monsters on mouse patterns others on streamers. Either way, I can't think of a better place to do it than the Big Hole.
11. Catch fish on the following waters (with some left over or repeats from last year): the Missouri River, Elk River (in BC), Lochsa River, Selway River, Big Hole River, Beaverhead River, Madison River, Hebgen Lake, Skalkaho Creek, Fish Creek, Rock Creek, South Fork of Flathead River, Flint Creek, Lamar River, Firehole River, Poindexter Slough, Ruby River, Yellowstone River, Bitterroot River, Blackfoot River, Clark Fork River, and Slough Creek.
I think this is self-explanatory.
12. Make more videos. Make better videos. Make videos with less shaky elements. Make it on to Moldy Chum and the like.
Pipe dream - capture enough quality footage to submit a respectable, but most likely, the (pardon my french) shittiest fish porn at the 2012 F3T.
UPDATE:
13. Catch fish on sub-surface/"nymphed?" grasshoppers
I want to throw the hopper-hopper rig. I have read of it's success. Plus, who doesn't love foam.
14. catch a northern pike on the fly
big, mean, and they like eating streamers. funny coincidence, i like throwing streamers.
I couldn't figure out why the video "december trout" had received so many hits (relative to my other videos) in the past. I was browsing Le Mouching, a french fly fishing site, and happened upon my video, complete with the following description:
L’hiver au Montana… les matins où le soleil perçant les nuages vous ébloui, bercés par les cahots, excités par l’idée d’aller à la pêche, étrange mélange de sensations, l’odeur du café dans les mugs, le froids extérieur qui contrasta avec la chaleur de la voiture. L’hiver, pour tous ceux qui sont frustrés car la pêche et fermée et à qui il ne reste que les réservoirs et l’attente de l’ouverture en Mars, ce film est pour vous.
which apparently translates to:
Wintertime in Montana…mornings where the sun through the clouds make you blink, when rocked by the road curves, excited by the idea to go fishing, mixed feelings, the smell of coffee in the mugs, the cold outside contrasting with the warmth of the car. Wintertime, for all the frustrated anglers who have to go to reservoirs or wait untill open season in March, this film is for you.
I also found the trout of 2010 video on fishpornfix.com. I am blowing up like some random cable access show's big guest.
The dreams and goals of 2010 gave me a nice framework to shape the path of my second year on the fly. Obviously some goals were more important than others. I am proudest that I was able to catch a fish in every month. I can assure you, that will be a goal in 2011. I have been lucky enough to fish a great deal of Montana's remarkable trout waters this year. I didn't hit all of the water that I listed in the beginning of the year, but I was able to hit a good deal of them. I made trips to the Big Hole, the Yellowstone, the Madison, and the Beaverhead. I fished Rock Creek, Georgetown Lake, Brown's Lake, Fish Creek, the Bitterroot, the Blackfoot, Poindexter Slough, and the Clark Fork. I made a trip to Yellowstone NP and fished the Soda Butte, Pebble Creek, and the Gibbon (admittedly the visible presence of more than a few Grizzlies changed my plans to fish the Lamar and Slough Creek). I caught brookies, cutthroats (westslopes and yellowstones), rainbows, cutbows, browns and bulls (also some whitefish and suckers). It has been a great year of fly fishing.
I have enjoyed making videos with my flip HD camera of some of my trips out on the water. Howeva (read like Stephen A Smith), I want to improve upon my videos. I would love to make a movie like Eastern Rises or some quality fish porn like RABeattie puts out, I understand that they have superior equipment and they don't get to fish while they make those videos. I like making fishing videos, but not that much. So, I won't be taking a trip out to the Beaverhead only to take video. While I don't have the resources to go out and acquire a canon 7d, I can still improve my videos. When my trout of 2010 video was posted on moldy chum earlier this month, I was....excited, to say the least. I knew that the moldy chummers would light me up if they didn't like it. Some of them did and some of them did not. Rodney Hsu of Fishing with Rod fame said:
"Excellent video! The underwater release shots are really well done."
Then I got some of the following:
"That got boring fast."
"That has to be the least steady hand I have ever seen."
and my personal favorite
"I now feel like I should be treated for Parkinson's syndrome"
While I appreciate Rodney's support, I also see some elements of truth to what the critics had to say. My videos have a tendency to be shaky. Not Parkinson's shaky, but too much coffee shaky. Part of that is a function of me taking video of my own releases. Part of that is a function of the weight, or lack thereof, of the flip camera, which lends itself to an unsteady shot. But, with a little effort and some concentration, I can improve. So, in 2011, I am looking to improve my camera skills. I want to frame my subjects better, keep a steadier hand, capture more actual fishing shots, and of course catch more and larger fish.
For my three to five regular readers and those of you at OBN, I want you to help me make better fly fishing videos. By telling me why you don't like them and by voting on which one doesn't smell and/or look TURRABLE like the bathrooms at McCormick Park in the middle of the summer. My four favorite videos are located below. All 11 or 12 of the videos can be seen in the right sidebar. Please vote, and if you select other, leave a comment. If you have any suggestions or constructive criticism, leave a comment. Happy holidays and see you in 2011 with a new list of dreams and goals - which I can guarantee will involve the Mighty Mighty Mo (with a stop in at Headhunters) and a trip to the South Fork of the Flathead.
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