Montana October 2012

Time for my annual trip to Montana in October in hopes of a strong Baetis hatch on the Missouri, well that did not happen the first two days, normal Pesudo's- those little devils! On the Missouri the fish will take a bigger imitation if you present it well on the first float, they did. I fished with Arti Newman from Sunbury who now lives in Craig, MT "Trout Town USA", we used a drift boat and really could not get in position to work the pods of rising fish, still did well. Had reservations on two spring creeks, took off for Bozeman. A good friend of mine from FL and I tried Milesnick's Benhardt Spring Creek (3 miles of heaven) in Belgrade, MT, 406-388-7001 but the first day we had winds of 45 MPH not good for casting or for that matter getting out of a portapotty! We took off South and fished Three Dollar Bridge and Slide in area of the Madison and did very well- still not the Missouri.rainbows. We tried Milesnick's the next day arriving with Mary saying "You two are certainly determined" go ahead and try it and come back and pay if it's ok. We did well but with the winds at only 30 MPH we could not stand it more that an hour, we'll be back in the future. Wed. I had reservations for Nelson's Spring Creek, Paradise Valley, MT 406-222-6560, arrived at 9:00 AM,walked the entire 1.5 miles of the stream and took a few browns before a truly wonderful Pesudo hatch took place, the entire stream was alive with rising trout from 10 to 20+", just what we wanted! We noticed when signing the guest book no one was there since mid Sept., we had steady rising trout till 5:00 PM, truly heaven. Give either of these spring creeks a try at least once in your life, the video below is from Nelson's.

  Back to the Missouri, fished 2 more days in the drift boat and could not get any steady rising fish due to the winds gusts, this was the week for WIND! Took fish but I really do not like indicator or streamer fishing from a boat. Saturday came and I was determined to wade fish the old way. Drove to one of my favorite spots and just watched the river, saw fish working the tail out off a gravel bar, they never broke the surface but were eating. Used the same rig that has worked well the last 20 years in the fall, a #16 soft hackle wet, biot body, fur collar and med dun soft hackle. They ate it but I had a heck of a time keeping them on, hook ups only lasted 15-30 seconds, finally I had a break off and tied another one on using 4X, same crap happened but this time I looked at my hook- the gap had opened. Did not take long to determine that Tiemco 2487's we not the answer, quickly knotted on a 2457 #16 and landed 16 big rainbows, still had the typical MO break offs, at take and run and break off. A truly wonderful morning, gos to show you if some thing worked before don't be stupid do it again till the fish tell you otherwise. The picture is of one of the 16 that morning, 20+" , heavy with no marks in her mouth.