Sell Out

When my friend Josh casually mentioned that AZ's Black River was profiled in the current issue (Apr/May) of Fly Fisherman magazine I was really, really hoping he was kidding. Josh resides in Montana and has never fished the Black, but he's heard me talk about it a time or three. He thought I might be interested in seeing the article. I went down to the local newsstand and picked up a copy...sure enough the cover was emblazoned with the words, "Black River". The magazine devoted 6 pages to this - until now - relatively unknown fishery in AZ's White Mountains. A fellow by the name of Cameron Chambers from Helena, MT wrote the piece.

It's a well written and accurate article...too accurate. Mr. Chambers didn't hold back in his telling of the river's greatness. Throughout the piece he really talks up the river's brown trout fishery and with this line he broke my heart: "as the river transitions between warm and coldwater fisheries, it has the effect of steroids on the brown trout". That wasn't really necessary. By the time I'd finished reading the article I was left with a feeling akin to finding out that your girl is seeing someone else.

The Black River is a rather non-technical fishery, getting to it is really the most difficult aspect of fishing it. Its remoteness may be its saving grace, but Mr. Chambers has just issued a Black River invitation to about 100,000 anglers. Even if only 1% of Fly Fisherman readers have an interest in checking the place out, that is still a lot of people for this river to absorb over the course of a couple of seasons (I believe that the attention a fishery receives from such an article is significant over 1-3 years, but negligible long term). This isn't a large river, flowing at perhaps 100-200 cfs most of the season and with only a few major access points...it could feel crowded in a hurry.

It may seem hypocritical of me to be bothered by this article, considering that I have an AZ fly fishing guidebook in print. My book details the Black River, there's no denying that, but I anguished over its inclusion in the book and I was careful not to over-hype it. Regardless, if all 14 people who have bought AND read my book were to suddenly descend upon the Black River on the same summer weekend, it would have little impact.

I've long feared that someone would eventually sell out and write up the Black River for SW Fly Fishing. Mr. Chambers, you've taken it to another level...I hope they paid you well, sir.

Skwala!

As a kid I enjoyed finding bugs and chucking them onto the surface of our backyard pond. Watching the pond's koi slowly rise and slurp a big moth, grasshopper or ant never ceased to amaze me. Not much has changed now that I've grown up, there's something satisfying about watching fish rise to dry flies, particularly large dry flies. In Montana we're pretty fortunate that we don't have to wait until the June salmonfly extravaganza to fish big dries. March brings another member of the stonefly family to the surface...the skwala.

Over the past two weeks I've been hearing reports of fair to good skwala action on the Bitterroot River near Missoula. Most of the reports indicated there is a small, but widening, window of surface activity every afternoon.

I was itching to get over there and as luck would have it, Scott Anderson - a Missoula area guide - invited us over to fish with him. We hit the river on Sunday morning with beautiful, sunny weather and some serious optimism. The Bitterroot skwala hatch attracts a bit of a crowd, anglers from across the nation flock to the river in March and April to fish this early stonefly hatch. For that reason we fished high on the river, above everyone else. With the exception of one raft launching behind us, we never saw another boat all day!

The fishing started off a little slow in the morning, we stubbornly fished dry flies through a futile hour or so. Eventually we conceded and quickly found success after switching over to nymphs. Karen boated the first fish of the day, a beautiful westslope cutthroat. The action gradually increased as the day warmed, and we continued to pick up quite a few fish on nymphs through the lunch hour. Sometime between 1pm and 2pm things changed in a hurry, bugs were out on the water and the fish were looking up. For the rest of the day we fished nothing but big skwala and nemoura stonefly dries, getting takes in nearly every stretch of good winter holding water. Even as the weather turned nasty late in the day we were catching fish on top. At one point Karen and I were doubled up with nice cutts. Most of the fishing was blind, but we did have a few opportunities to cast to heads. Scott took big fish honors of the day with an 18" cutt, but between the three of us we caught several chunky cutts in the 15-16" range.

Scott's knowledge of the river was impressive. I'm a decent stick and Karen definitely has some skills, but without our guide's knowledge of the water our day wouldn't have been nearly as successful. Scott guides for Five Valleys Flyfishing (outfitter lic. # 12094), give them a shout if you're looking for a guide in the Missoula region.

Sometimes It All Comes Together

Some people seem to have luck on their side when it comes to fishing. My friend Matt is one such person. Now that's not to say that he isn't a skilled angler, for he is, but he just seems to have a little extra river karma going for him. He's caught some very nice fish in my presence over the past year, none more so than the rainbow he landed on the Missouri River last week.

Unfortunately we didn't have a tape measure along, but there is no doubt that it was somewhere in the 23-25" range. As impressive as its length was, the girth of this fish is what really set it apart, it was massive!

I've really enjoyed fishing this stretch of the Missouri over the past month or so, but the fishing pressure is starting to pick up with the nice weather and influx of spawning rainbows. There are quite a few gear fisherman targeting fish on redds, not exactly my style, but it comes with the territory I suppose.

In other news, I fished Big Spring Creek on Thursday afternoon following a morning business meeting in Lewistown. While the creek looked great to me, the locals were complaining about it being off color from low elevation snow melt. There was 3-4' of visibility, which turned out to be plenty. I fished above town and caught good numbers of rainbows, and an occasional brown, up to 14". Most fish were taken on a shop vac/pheasant tail variation, but a couple fell for a small partridge and pink soft hackle. I also saw my first blue winged olives of the year...there weren't many and the trout weren't really looking for them, but it was great to see - spring is definitely in the air.

The weekend found me in Kalispell for the Great Rockies Show and although I brought my fishing gear, it wasn't until the drive home on Sunday afternoon that I had a chance to fish. The young lady that accompanied me - and who was essentially my guide for the afternoon - put me onto some great looking water along the upper Blackfoot. Karen was even gracious enough to leave her rod behind so that I could fish more, what more could a guy ask for? But it was to no avail, the water was cold and the fish were a bit lethargic. I did have one take in the last run we fished, but I must have been distracted...my hook set was poor and the trout slipped off. Even so, I can't remember a better couple of hours spent on the water in quite a while. It all came together on this day with beautiful weather and great company on the river.

Verde River, Arizona

Last April I embarked on a five day, 42 mile, wilderness canoe trip of central Arizona's Verde River (Childs to Horseshoe). This was a trip that I'd long dreamed of taking. Despite having called Arizona home for over 25 years, it wasn't until I moved away to Montana that this trip came to fruition. While there was some great paddling, hiking and camaraderie, this trip was all about wilderness fly fishing on a unique, desert freestone river.

Southwest Fly Fishing magazine gave me the opportunity to share this adventure in their current, March/April, issue. If you're not already a subscriber to this publication, you can find the current issue on major newsstands throughout the southwest. A digital version of the magazine is available at: www.matchthehatch.com

Land of the Giants

I can't seem to stay away. The allure of big, river trout and virtually no fishing pressure had me enduring another chilly day on the Missouri River this week. Granted, our weather has been very warm for this time of year in Montana, but it's still cold enough to keep most anglers indoors.

We justified the week day trip to ourselves by scheduling a couple of business appointments in Helena in the morning, before devoting the afternoon to "field work". We accessed the river from Hauser Dam this time, rather than by making the longer drive to Beaver Creek. Upon our arrival, trout were rising in the slack water to a prolific midge hatch. However it didn't take long to realize that all of the rising fish were quite small (10-14").

Throughout the afternoon I stuck with a weighted, double nymph set-up. A scud and zebra midge were consistent producers for me, each fly accounted for a few rainbows. My biggest fish of the day - a beautifully colored, 18" male rainbow - took the beadhead midge. My friend Matt took big fish honors on this day with a solid 20" rainbow that took a pregnant scud pattern.

As good as the fishing has been for us here this winter, we know we've barely scratched the surface of what this location is capable of producing. Reports have been surfacing of some big fish moving up out of Holter Reservoir in recent days. I hope to have another first hand report from Land of the Giants next week. Of course there are already reports of skwala stonefly hatches occurring on the Bitterroot River this week...decisions, decisions.