DocSpotty
07-20-2009, 04:56 AM
So we left Kansas and flew to my parents house on Flathead Lake in Montana…..where the entire Wight clan was present. I only fished a few days while there…..the water levels were very high on all the rivers making wading an extreme sport. Normally the water is mid shin deep where my brother-in-law Chris is wading:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Highwater.jpg
With the water so high the fishing was poor by the usual standards….except for the Missouri. Chris and I did some fishing on the Swan River but caught only a small number of modest rainbows:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/LowerSwanBows.jpg
We did the usual 4th of July fireworkathon where I attempt to blow off any or all of my appendages…..fortunately I only succeeded in burning a hole in my palm. To have a decent day fishing we had to pack up and head 3 hours away to the Missouri River….went over with my brother-in-law, my brother and his two sons . We arrived about 8 am and went through the ritual “gearing up” process:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/GearingupMissouri.jpg
We park the cars right next to a rancher’s cattle herd. These “friendly” little guys are range bulls…..they retain all their male anatomical parts…..and hence are quite unpredictable:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/RangeBulls.jpg
It is always wise to give them a wide berth. Well we hopped in the river and as everyone else fished out in the deeper water I turned around and cast almost to shore in this little seam behind a dead tree. Immediately I was fast onto a large fish in the 18” deep water. After an entertaining few minutes chasing him in and out of the tree:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/FightingBrown.jpg
I came out with a very nice brown of about 22”:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/FirstBrown.jpg
This was my nephew Joes’ first time doing hardcore trouting so I took him around the backside of the island we were fishing to get him away from his father (my brother)…..who thinks he knows a lot more about the fishing than he does…hehe. After a few minutes of instruction Joe was good to go and lassoed this nice rainbow almost immediately:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/JoesFirstBow.jpg
I never get tired of seeing the extreme satisfaction of a newbie making their own catches without any help. Joe was nice enough to allow me a few after that:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MissouriBow-1.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MissouriBoww.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MissouriBrownRel.jpg
By the time we got back around to the rest of the crew they were already getting in on the action:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/ChrisBow.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/JeffBow.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/DennisBow.jpg
My nephew Jeff….recently graduated as Dr. Jeff…..caught a very nice brown also:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/JeffBrown.jpg
We headed back to the car to fish another area….the water was really swift going back and I had to get in the wake of my brothers’ crew…..Larry, Moe and Curly…..to keep from being washed away:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/3stooges.jpg
The boys had each kept one to take home for dinner:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/3stoogesfish.jpg
From there we drove around the Wolf Creek Bridge to fish the other side of the river. It took us a little while but we soon found another good concentration of trout which gave everyone opportunities to catch more:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/DennisBrownRel.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MissBowRel.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/JoeBow.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/UniqueColorBow.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/JeffBrownRel.jpg
For the first time in many years the weather was nice and only about 70 degrees so we weren’t dying of heat prostration like we normally are. There was a nice brown by my brother before we called it a day:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/DennisBrown.jpg
There was one last rainbow for me:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/BowinWater.jpg
Then we jumped in the vehicle and headed back to Flathead Lake.
A few days later, my brother-in-law and I, took our annual pilgrimage to fish the upper Swan River. The water was still high and the fishing was pretty darn tough. I spent the whole day chucking a ¼ oz Panther Martin spinner. Chris mentioned on the drive to the river he had never caught a mountain whitefish…..so yes, we caught several of them:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MountainWhitefish.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/SalPrCatch.jpg
I did manage a couple of nice bows…..this being the purtiest:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/SalPr18inBow.jpg
But even though it wasn't easy fishing I managed to not only catch the Grand Slam there....rainbow trout, westslope cutthroat, brook trout and bull trout....but achieved the Super Slam by adding a hybrid bull trout X brook trout.....yeah.
When we got back to the car Bambi’s mother was waiting for us….the locals must feed her as she was not exactly shy:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Whitetaildoe.jpg
Wading in that heavy current beat me absolutely to death…..I have never been so sore as I was the next morning. It felt as if someone had been caneing my feet as torture….I must be getting reallllllllly old. That pretty much summed up the fish catching part of vacation. The last evening we were eating on the deck when this osprey flew up into the trees right over the house and posed for us….beautiful bird:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/OspreyProfile.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/OspreyStare.jpg
Remember: procrastinators: leaders of tomorrow…..ha.
Brian
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Highwater.jpg
With the water so high the fishing was poor by the usual standards….except for the Missouri. Chris and I did some fishing on the Swan River but caught only a small number of modest rainbows:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/LowerSwanBows.jpg
We did the usual 4th of July fireworkathon where I attempt to blow off any or all of my appendages…..fortunately I only succeeded in burning a hole in my palm. To have a decent day fishing we had to pack up and head 3 hours away to the Missouri River….went over with my brother-in-law, my brother and his two sons . We arrived about 8 am and went through the ritual “gearing up” process:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/GearingupMissouri.jpg
We park the cars right next to a rancher’s cattle herd. These “friendly” little guys are range bulls…..they retain all their male anatomical parts…..and hence are quite unpredictable:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/RangeBulls.jpg
It is always wise to give them a wide berth. Well we hopped in the river and as everyone else fished out in the deeper water I turned around and cast almost to shore in this little seam behind a dead tree. Immediately I was fast onto a large fish in the 18” deep water. After an entertaining few minutes chasing him in and out of the tree:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/FightingBrown.jpg
I came out with a very nice brown of about 22”:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/FirstBrown.jpg
This was my nephew Joes’ first time doing hardcore trouting so I took him around the backside of the island we were fishing to get him away from his father (my brother)…..who thinks he knows a lot more about the fishing than he does…hehe. After a few minutes of instruction Joe was good to go and lassoed this nice rainbow almost immediately:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/JoesFirstBow.jpg
I never get tired of seeing the extreme satisfaction of a newbie making their own catches without any help. Joe was nice enough to allow me a few after that:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MissouriBow-1.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MissouriBoww.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MissouriBrownRel.jpg
By the time we got back around to the rest of the crew they were already getting in on the action:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/ChrisBow.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/JeffBow.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/DennisBow.jpg
My nephew Jeff….recently graduated as Dr. Jeff…..caught a very nice brown also:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/JeffBrown.jpg
We headed back to the car to fish another area….the water was really swift going back and I had to get in the wake of my brothers’ crew…..Larry, Moe and Curly…..to keep from being washed away:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/3stooges.jpg
The boys had each kept one to take home for dinner:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/3stoogesfish.jpg
From there we drove around the Wolf Creek Bridge to fish the other side of the river. It took us a little while but we soon found another good concentration of trout which gave everyone opportunities to catch more:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/DennisBrownRel.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MissBowRel.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/JoeBow.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/UniqueColorBow.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/JeffBrownRel.jpg
For the first time in many years the weather was nice and only about 70 degrees so we weren’t dying of heat prostration like we normally are. There was a nice brown by my brother before we called it a day:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/DennisBrown.jpg
There was one last rainbow for me:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/BowinWater.jpg
Then we jumped in the vehicle and headed back to Flathead Lake.
A few days later, my brother-in-law and I, took our annual pilgrimage to fish the upper Swan River. The water was still high and the fishing was pretty darn tough. I spent the whole day chucking a ¼ oz Panther Martin spinner. Chris mentioned on the drive to the river he had never caught a mountain whitefish…..so yes, we caught several of them:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MountainWhitefish.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/SalPrCatch.jpg
I did manage a couple of nice bows…..this being the purtiest:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/SalPr18inBow.jpg
But even though it wasn't easy fishing I managed to not only catch the Grand Slam there....rainbow trout, westslope cutthroat, brook trout and bull trout....but achieved the Super Slam by adding a hybrid bull trout X brook trout.....yeah.
When we got back to the car Bambi’s mother was waiting for us….the locals must feed her as she was not exactly shy:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Whitetaildoe.jpg
Wading in that heavy current beat me absolutely to death…..I have never been so sore as I was the next morning. It felt as if someone had been caneing my feet as torture….I must be getting reallllllllly old. That pretty much summed up the fish catching part of vacation. The last evening we were eating on the deck when this osprey flew up into the trees right over the house and posed for us….beautiful bird:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/OspreyProfile.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/OspreyStare.jpg
Remember: procrastinators: leaders of tomorrow…..ha.
Brian