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

4 Westslope Cutties, 1 Brown Trout, 1 Cutbow, 4 Mountain Whitefish, and 1 Largescale Sucker

And boom goes the dynamite. Upper Rock Creek treated me well today. While the temperature flirted with the lower 40s and snow fell intermittently, I enjoyed great success on Upper Rock Creek. Nymphing with size 8 and size 10 black stonefly nymphs and a red bead-head san juan worm, I landed a personal best 11 fish today. The diversity of species was impressive - westslope cutthroat, brown trout, cutbow (or a cutthroat - rainbow hybrid), mountain whitefish, and (most surprising of all) a largescale sucker. It was the day of fishing I have been waiting for this winter. The action started fast and continued throughout the day. As always, it was just fun to be outside on the river. But, catching 11 fish made the 1.5 hour drive up to Upper Rock Creek a little easier. Enjoy the pictures. With this post, I think my blog has finally transitioned from a casting blog to a fishing blog.

SIDE NOTE: I talked to a fellow angler - he said he caught about 35 (of which 12 were trout). So, I have some work to do.

westslope cutthroat flashing its cut - rock creek 3.13

 westslope cutthroat closeup - rock creek 3.13

first trout of 2010 - cuttie - rock creek 3.13

brown trout - rock creek 3.13

Rock Creek cutbow/cuttie?

westslope cutthroat - rock creek 3.13

mountain whitefish - rock creek 3.13

I was confused when I pulled this into my net. Put up quite the fight.

Upper Rock Creek near Gilles

Shunning a hatch to go fishless on the Clark Fork and the Blackfoot

After a busy week of school, I was able to sneak away a wet my line in the Clark Fork and the Blackfoot rivers. With temperatures forecasted to rise into the mid 50s by the afternoon, I abandoned the Bitterroot and a potential hatch in order to seek the angling solitude I had grown accustomed to during the winter months. From the many area fishing reports, it seemed as though the skwala hatch was about to start. With pleasant, sunny weather with temperatures reaching the mid 50s, I was positive that my days of having the river to myself were over. After stopping by a local fly shop, it became apparent that the Bitterroot was going to be crowded...like "fourth busiest fishing day on the Bitterroot" crowded. "No thank you" my internal narrator noted. So, I explored my other options. The Clark Fork near Turah and the lower Blackfoot towards the end of day. I spent most of the day - from around 10am to 3pm nymphing downstream of the Turah access. I hadn't fished this stretch of water before. Not knowing what baseline conditions were like, I made irrational and uniformed opinions about its current conditions. Honestly, it seemed quite turbid. I was unable to visually confirm channel topography from the bank and wading was made more difficult as undulations of the bed were only detected when the water seemed to get closer to flowing over the tops of my waders. But, with reported "budget cuts" at the USGS, I couldn't confirm my suspicions about the suspended sediment load in the Clark Fork at Turah. Alas, they no longer publish the "real-time" suspended sediment data on the web for the Clark Fork. Based on the gage data, the river was slightly higher than its normal baseflow. I know...I know. I am laying the groundwork for excuse village. But, I must. I can't be this bad. Black Stoneflies, Blue-Wing Olives and Midges, as expected in these winter months, were hatching sporadically. I fished the sub-surface with small pheasant tails, copper johns and midge emergers. And I fished them poorly apparently. Another goose-egg for young Yukon. Waiting for the Blackfoot to creep towards 40 F, I drove over to the Marco Flat fishing access. Again I fished the subsurface. And again I failed miserably. All in all it was a good day. Did I mention the 15-20 minutes I spent watching a pair of American Dippers on the Clark Fork? I suppose I didn't. Enjoy the pictures and the videos from my day on the CF and BF Rs.

Clark Fork at Turah

The Blackfoot at Marco Flats

too much for the trusty canon to focus on - it chose ice - i wanted dipper


Casting on the Blackfoot from Ivan Orsic on Vimeo.


Singing Dipper on the Clark Fork from Ivan Orsic on Vimeo.