2023 Fish-Pic-O-Rama

[Rasputin]

Holy crap swimmy! Thar's just redonkulous.

My day was not so fishy, but I found my multi-tool within thirty seconds of arriving at the point. The water had cleared up a bunch, but it didn't help me catch any fish.

At one point I looked up the Bitterroot, and saw something in the water. At first I thought it was some driftwood, then I was sure it was an animal. Maybe a dog? Nope. It was swimming across the river, and coming closer by the second, it was definitely bigger than a dog, maybe an elk? By the time I saw it was a bear it was getting closer than I wanted to be, but too far for good pics.

When it got on land I saw that it had a significant hump over the shoulders, but my shutter was a second too slow, and it was into the bushes. maybe it was a juvenile grizzly. I'd seen the hindquarters of a bear the same color across the Clark Fork part of the confluence before, probably the same one, light brown with a darker head.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Sweet fish, swimmy.

Went fishing today on a stretch of river that has had issues because of a recent fire. Heard it was fishing better after extended, heavy runoff. Decided to go dry-fly-or-bust today. Still saw no rises, but caught a few little ones on a small caddis pattern, then got a refusal from a solid fish. Tried a PMD (they were hatching on and off again), a beetle and an ant before moving on. Nothing in the next couple looking good spots, so I tied the caddis back on and caught a few more, still small. Then it started pouring. Little bit of hail too. Switched to a streamer and caught a couple more along the bank. These were slightly bigger fish, but not notably so.

I was sloppy fishing the dries today. I think I've picked up some weird habits from lobbing around so much tungsten. Casting was mostly ok but my line control was all out of wack. Hoping to get out in the evening some next week and work out the kinks.

Staring to see grasshoppers around the banks.

[Talisman]

Nice work and great picture!

Stuck a pig first thing this morning on the dry. Just a perfect trout.

[plugboots]

Stuck a pig first thing this morning on the dry. Just a perfect trout.





After a week of sticking with the big dry, feel like I've earned that fish. Got a few more days left and now I'm playing with house money.

IDK, perfect? It’s got a little line scar on its lip. [emoji846]

[tgapp]

Wow Swimmy what a beautiful fish. Well done!!

Went out with SFB and explored some new (to me) water. Very different than what I'm used to, but an absolute blast still the same.

SFB spotted this monster cruising down river and put the fly right in front of it's face, and 25 minutes later we managed to get it into the net. Holy fucking shit.

I got my first cat fish on the fly. I didn't mean to get a cat fish but I was pounding the banks and apparently one liked what it saw and ate it. Super cool fish, great fight, stoked to see something different.

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[romeo tango]

.
pike move into the shallow flood zones when
Lake Roosevelt hits full pool ....

no hook-ups but i did spot several carp
in the 20 pound range
tgapp and SFB have inspired me

.

[swimmy]

Back on the water again at first light. I love early morning starts and we even had a nice sky.



Saw a lot more of these today



Bite was pretty good on top up until about 8:30 but then slowed considerably.



Another great day on the water but I'm beat and gonna try and have mellow day tomorrow.

[Rasputin]

Well that is just a burly beauty of a 'bow.

Bite was pretty good on top up until about 8:30 but then slowed considerably.

[Rasputin]

https://missoula.craigslist.org/spo/...635678949.html

Group buy?

[swimmy]

No hogs but catching a fish on a day like today is a bonus.

[Underoos]

Guys, I found the salmonflies They are south. Lots of them.

[swimmy]

Great fish!

Went for a walk this morning. Lots of bugs on the banks. Bite was great right up until the sun got on the water.

[Rasputin]

Guys, I found the salmonflies They are south. Lots of them.

Yeah, and it looks like that fish ate half of them, what a fat pig!

Oh, and swimmy with another big one, I am shocked, shocked I say!

[Rasputin]

I went out to the point again, and when I got there, there was already another fisher there:




I hooked and lost a rainbow (I know because he jumped outta the water) about a half an hour after I got there, but after too long without any bites, I decided to go to cross the Clark Fork, and nearly filled my waders, but made it with soggy feet. I got some bites swinging a pheasant tail but hooked nothing on it. Then I decided to tie on a dry fly for fun, a yellow stimulator, and eventually caught a small cutty which slipped outta my hand before I could take a pic, later I hooked a small rainbow through the top of his head, on a green mosquitoesque fly.



The last fish of the day broke my previous record......






.....for smallest fish on rod and reel!

[The Reverend Floater]

Great couple of days on the SF Snake. We would start on hopper/rubber legs early move to straight salmon flies/walkers, then catch the green Drake mayhem in the afternoon. Lots of very healthy fish wrangled, not a ton of pics unfortunately.



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[swimmy]

Smallest fish for the win!

About to go wheels up here at fish camp and end 10 days of big bugs. Lots of fun and always hate when it comes to an end.

Had to get in one last sesh this morning and try to end it on a high note.



Damn I love this game.

[Rasputin]

Dang swimmy, is there only one size fish in that river? My condolences on the end of your fishing trip.

[tgapp]

Hard to compete with swimmy posting up piggies but the local after-work water keeps getting better and better. While the fish are small, they're eating dries and keeping me on my toes.

I saw the bigger of these two (a real toad at all of 10") rising naturally so I stopped to tie on a little BWO on the back of my hopper. Perfect cast, and I watched him come up and sip my fly. Felt good. Really good.

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[plugboots]

I will clip off 2 nymphs, split shot, indicator, cut back the fluoro, and retie on a couple chunks of nylon if I see an 8”er sipping small bugs.
I get it.

[BobMc]

Did the river/Boblandia thing for the fourth. Headed out Friday and came back today. Got up Saturday morn and cooked one of my favorite easy breakfasts, smashed cinnamon rolls.



Met the Lumpy crew down by the river and we set up a splash and giggle float. Cross thread drift, wife of 27 years loves to float down the river.



Giggles were had, splashing was done, even got the youngest some more time on the sticks.



We went back to Boblandia and smashed some burgers, as usual we had way too much, this was what the dogs had.



The splash and giggle float didn’t serve up any fish. The next day Lumpy and I floated in my boat, we were a bit more serious about fishing. Giggles were still high on the list but splashing was low.

We pushed off and whitey joined the show about fifty yards downstream.



Sallies were coming off the water so we went with an all dry presentation, a cricket with a Sally behind it. Things started picking up, we were getting eats.



I caught my first fish from my new boat, threw a perfect cast to a big rock midstream, he ate the cricket.



We caught a number of them, all on dries.



Floating tires one out.





Driving back to camp I noticed the glint of cellophane at the roadside campsite. Turned around and scored a bundle and a half of firewood. The convenience store off 80 (Cruel Jacks) was charging $10 a bundle!



Drove down and drove across Swinging Bridge, wife hadn’t seen it.



Ate lunch at Flaming Gorge Resort, I ordered a club and I’m not even a member. Went back to camp and watched an impressive moonrise.



Made smores using reeses and rolos, highly recommended.



Take your family camping, it’ll be fun…

[The Reverend Floater]

^And that's what is all about.

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[swimmy]

Dang swimmy, is there only one size fish in that river?

Salmon flies tend to bring a larger class of fish to the surface. Similar to streamer fishing, it is more quality than a qty.

Hard to compete with swimmy posting up piggies but the local after-work water keeps getting better and better.

No competition. Fishing stoke comes in all shapes and sizes.

^And that's what is all about.

Yeah, I really dig the family stuff.

[jpcm]

Great to see this thread firing!! I love the stoke. Big, small,carp, camping….keep it going!

We spent the long weekend camped out of cell service, running whitewater, and throwing big dries to the trouts. I just love this time of year. Really hard to go back to work today.




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[L8APX]

Doing tarpon things

[Lumpy]

Couple of weeks ago a friend and I were chased off the Bighorn by flows above 6k out of Boysen so we punted and moved SW a couple hours. Found high water, but trout pushed up on the edges who were eating streamers at will!