Fishing the Bitterroot, Hamilton, Montana

Our time up North was drawing to a close, we still had one thing to do, and that was to visit our daughter Jen and her husband Eric. Of course, the main purpose was to see them, but we had also never fished on the Bitterroot. It’s one of the classic Western streams that contains native Cutthroat, introduced Browns, and even some rainbows. No fishing trip would be complete without going to the local fly shop and buying flies, both dry and wet. The owner was very knowledgeable and talked us into spending about one hundred dollars, he also told us that if it was a clear sunny day and the fish wouldn’t be biting. Walking out of the shop we enjoyed the warmth of the bright sun.

A hatch was occurring of tiny, and I mean tiny mayflies so besides various nymphs, wet flies that sink, I purchased some size 22 and 24 dries that matched the hatch. The Bitterroot runs from south to north so we drove to a public access point to the north and if the first spot didn’t work would drive south fishing other access points if needed, At the first stop Jen and Eric walked upstream while Renita and I started at the bridge. I was throwing a streamer, which resembles a minnow, and Renita tied on a size 14 purple haze, (which he also said worked and it’s a fly we use a lot in Wyoming). Neither of us had any takers, or even lookers so we walked upstream. I waded out to a small island and saw two fish taking something off the top. Changing flies, I put on a dry purple haze and on the second cast a fish rose and took my dry! I was so excited I pulled the fly out of its mouth and missed it. After numerous casts, I switched to a tiny size 24 mayfly but still no luck.

We walked further upstream and at a sunken tree I spotted probably the biggest cutthroat I have ever seen. Casting my fly, the trout simply swam into a mass of roots, all I could see was its tail. It never looked at my fly! I should have taken a picture with my phone as I didn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of catching it. Even if it had taken my offering, it would have simply swam into the roots and broken my leader. Meanwhile Renita headed to another spot and tried again without any success. Jen and Eric met us and I told them about the huge trout. They never saw the fish as it had moved deeper into its lair. We decided to move to another access point, without any luck. To add to our misery there were quite a few fish taking very small flies, which we couldn’t see. I switched to a size 24 dry, but it didn’t matter, The sun was still shining brightly, (note the excuse from the fly shop owner)! A bald eagle flew overhead deciding we were no threat to its food source, (do you like the way I change the subject)? Jen hadn’t caught any fish either and talked about spotting a school of large fish feeding on the bottom. They were probably Mountain whitefish, a tasty white meat fish, but they wouldn’t bite on our offerings. As we prepared to leave, the sun was still shining brightly! Renita and I both kept casting until Jen told us we had to go, as we had reservations at our favorite steakhouse. It wasn’t the first time we had been skunked. We will be back! Clear skies