Yesterday I had a math quiz and a biology exam screwing up my fishing schedule. I was eager to get out on the river after I was finished "aceing" both of my test. I haven't been to the Blackfoot river since late fall and I was curious to see how it was fishing and what the conditions were up there. My buddy Dave was done with classes as well and he had been asking me to take him out on the river for awhile. When I walked into his room and said "lets go fishing" his eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store. We headed up I-90 to Bonner, Montana and followed the river up a ways to a good access I knew from the fall. I was surprised when we got to the access and there was about 16 inches of snow on the road. I parked the car, helped Dave rig up his rod and headed down to the river to chuck some streamers and show Dave a thing or two. As we made our way down to the river I noticed that the water was high and merky. We got to the rivers edge and there was 6 foot ice shelves on both sides! I had never seen anything like it before.
Despite the extreme conditions Dave and I started fishing from the ice shelves and it was difficult to get the fly down to the fish. I climbed down a cracked ice shelf and got in the water to fish a few runs but didn't hook up with anything.
Dave Nymphing
Ice Shelves
Stripin' streamers
Dave and I decided to walk up the river more to do some exploring. I was looking at the water while walking up, I looked down to my feet and I was about 2 feet away from a deer skeleton. Dave quickly pointed out 2 dead coyotes another 10 feet infront of me. It looked like some critter had a good meal. I quickly snapped some pics and got out of there before the critter came back.
We fished a little more but didn't end up catching anything today. We decided to head back to campus and get some food. When we got back to the car and I help dave with his casting while working on some casting myself.
Dave Navigating the Ice shelves
Its all about the Presentation
Blackfoot Beauty
My friends Alec, Cody and Garret also got out on the water today. They hit the Clarkfork River and had just about the same results as Dave and I. High Merky water and no fish. Im gonna head out tomorrow to chase some browns and maybe pike on the Bitterroot River. Hopefully I will land some fish.
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