Bald-faced fish stories

"... I caught 96 brookies in 45 minutes," said the red-bearded liar sitting adjacent to me at the tire shop. The shop employee and I, who had been engaged in a pleasant fly fishing exchange, gave each other a quick glance of "sure ya did, pal".
Exaggeration is commonplace in recalling fish tales, but let's not treat our fellow anglers as stupid. That's one fish every 28.125 seconds, including cast, rise, hook set, battle, landing and release.
Hundred-fish days, while possible, are often questioned and rarely occur. Hundred-fish hours, are bald-faced lies.

Heavy hearts

My friend Brady and his wife Caroline, also my friend, floated and fished the Yellowstone today. A former co-worker of mine and former and current coworker of Brady's body was found the other day after being reported missing a few days earlier. The cause is what you suspect. Everyone who knew the guy is sad about it. I'm grieving. We threw hoppers with heavy hearts.

Rising brown

In between buying a house, fixing it, and a broken down back, I haven't been able to fish as much lately as I usually do. But here are a couple things I can share: the photo is a brown trout taking a caddis (I think) on Baker Creek in Montana. The video is gulpers on Hebgen - enough said (sorry the video's shaky). Enjoy!

Grievin' over leavin'

So I made a prudent decision there's a good chance I'll regret in the long run. I foolishly left my riverside paradise and bought a townhouse in the concrete jungle. While I may no longer be "throwing my rent money away", I also no longer cavort with the caddis families and mayfly fleets that frolicked outside my window. I have had a couple of callibaetis and some tiny mayfly stop by my new place (which helped), but it's small consolation. I am dealing with loss; honest-to-goodness grief. The grief will cease, but my doubt may never. Damn the "American dream" - I had something greater.
Editor's note: While this was written with a touch of sarcasm, there's some truth in it...

The search for a fishable evening caddis hatch

I fished the upper Ruby yesterday with the intention of staying until dark to finally fish an evening caddis hatch on clear, moving water. Well, the water was clear, but the skies weren't and I was washed away by about 6 p.m. Alas, I had many options on the drive back to Belgrade. So I stopped at the lower Ruby near the dam - no caddis. Even further down the Ruby at Alder Bridge - caddis, clear water and risers - but the water was running so high that I could not get underneath a bridge to the rising fish (and I wasn't about to try anything funny with those notorious four-wheelin' Ruby River landowners keeping watch). Then there's the upper Madison - but I decided to forgo it in favor of the lower as time was running short and I knew right where to go on the lower. Or did I. There was a good hatch (bright, white caddis) and clear water, but, as has been the case there lately, no rising fish. I did catch a good brown drake hatch, but again, thefish didn't care. I'm gonna try again tonight somewhere around Livingston. Here's hoping...

It looked like a World War II movie...

...as the salmonflies kept coming and coming and coming as far as the eye could see, like a fleet of B17s. I had no idea that salmonflies hatched in numbers like that.
This was Friday on the Big Hole. The river was rippin', but there was enough visibility. Our oarsman was white-knuckled and alert all day, and he did a great job keeping us afloat.
Fishing was good, not great. Make that our fishing was good, not great. We had enough rises, but we couldn't get hooks into some of them.
But it was an awesome day, just seeing that kind of hatch. I hope to hit it again next year.

Great hatch on the Big Hole

We caught a great hatch on the Big Hole Saturday - the only problem was it was mosquitoes. There were a few baetis and PMDs out, but for the most part, the hatch was mosquitoes - the worst I've experienced in Montana. We did see a couple of salmonflies, but I'm guessing the hatch is about over (sarcasm). It definitlely won't be any good this Friday, so please, don't anyone go on Friday.
Clarity was good - strong tea color but very fishable. Fish weren't very active, which might be because of the recent flow fluctuation.