Aquatic Invasive Species Workshop in western Montana Sat, July 9 - Missoula Outdoor Recreation | Examiner.com

Aquatic Invasive Species Workshop in western Montana Sat, July 9 - Missoula Outdoor Recreation | Examiner.com

Get the lead out. Use a Green Anchor on your raft or drift boat - Missoula Outdoor Recreation | Examiner.com

Get the lead out. Use a Green Anchor on your raft or drift boat - Missoula Outdoor Recreation | Examiner.com

Fly Fishing the west fork of the Bitterroot River in July

Rodney Boehm came here from Texas for a wedding. We fished with a few people from the wedding party and had a great time. The weather was good for both the wedding and fishing.

When fishing, especially if the water is somewhat high, the guide works hard to get people into fish and photography takes a back seat. We did get one photo and here it is. Rodney is holding one of his nice west fork of the Bitterroot trout. Congratulations.

Thanks for fishing with Wapiti Waters.

Petree and Mike back in Montana to fly fish

Mike wade fishing the west fork of the Bitterroot River

I am not sure if Mike has fished in Montana but Petree fished with us in the late '90's. Since then, her younger brother, Peter, has fished with us and become a great friend. Petree came up to visit Peter as he has recently moved to the Bozeman area. She and Mike fished the west fork of the Bitterroot River with Jack. It was a beautiful day and good fishing. Our water levels are starting to level off and actually step down a bit. One thing for sure, after the huge winter snowpack, we will have plenty of water in the rivers all summer and into fall.

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June 17 and 19 with fellow Trout Unlimited members from Michigan, the Miller's

Pam with her brown trout from the Big Hole River

Schrems West Michigan Trout Unlimited - Wapiti Waters donated a fly fishing trip for their annual auction this spring. John and Pam Miller got the trip and fished with Jack in mid-June. With high water in most of the state, Jack was able to fish them on the upper Big Hole River. They were troopers as the weather was still cool, but they caught trout!
John and Pam are avid outdoors people and Jack had a lot in common with them. He really enjoyed meeting and fishing with them. Thanks for supporting Trout Unlimited and for coming to Montana. We hope they return soon.

See more photos in the slideshow below.

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June 13, middle Bitterroot River photos

Photos from June 13 in the middle Bitterroot River. The CFS at the Florence, Montana gage was about 13,000 cubic feet per second and 11.73 feet in depth. There is 351 percent snow-water equivalent in the Bitterroot Mountains at the time of these photos. That is a LOT of snow yet to come down.

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Bitterroot River is coming up - runoff has begun

These photos are from Tuesday, May 17 at 5:00 pm. The Bitterroot dropped from 11,300 cfs to 10,300 cfs overnight (measured 7:00 am May 18) but day temps are predicted to be 68 degrees and scattered rain. We will see what that does to the levels.

There is room at Victor Crossing for more flow, but how much more? See Wapiti Waters Stream flow links to access USGS data for stream flows in our western Montana rivers.

Fly Fishing the Bitterroot with Greg and Bill - a trip for Bitterroot Trout Unlimited

One of Greg's trout

Bitterroot Trout Unlimited (BRTU) is a very active TU Chapter. Many people contribute time, money and goods to help BRTU do its work. Jack always offers a trip for the annual banquet auction and this was the trip for this year. The great thing about this trip is that Greg bid on and got the trip. Greg offers his own time, goods and money for TU, Greg and Jack both serve on the board. It made for a wonderful day. To top it off, Greg invited his friend, Bill to ride along...and everyone caught fish.

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Cool spring fishing on the Bitterroot River

Nick holding Elinor's beautiful trout

This trip was in the middle of April but I am getting caught up with some posts. As you can see, the weather is very cool. People are bundled up, but there have been hatches and the water levels have been good. If you dress right, the fishing is great.

In these photos are Rachel and Elinor. Rachel sent some of the photos in the slideshow, thank you!

And I think this was Elinor's first fly fishing experience. As you can see, she did well. So did others, it was a good few days on the Bitterroot.

See below for a slideshow.

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Fishing the Bitterroot in early April with Doc Bolton

Doc was at his Montana home on the Bitterroot for a few weeks in April. Of course he was fishing with friends, on his own and with Jack. I guess Jack is also a friend - but a friend that fishes for a living. Sadly, Doc's and our good friend and favorite fishing buddy, Terry Nobles, isn't able to fish any more. At 90 years old, it just doesn't work for him now. But we visit him with photos and river stories.

Bitterroot April 9, 2011

Doc on the Bitterroot April 9, 2011

Doc and Terry in April 2009

Anyway, here are some photos of the Bitterroot and Doc. The first two are from this spring. The second two are from 2009 when Terry fished with Doc and Jack.

Terry with his brown trout on the day he was fishing with Doc. Jack is holding it for him.

Bitterroot River is "jumping" up in flows today

The Bitterroot River water flow near Darby has tripled in cubic feet per second (cfs). According to Jack, it is one of the fastest "bumps" up he has seen, which is why I say it has jumped up. The rain and warmer temperatures are bringing melted snow into the tributaries.

The Big Hole near Divide, Mont. has also come up from about 400 cfs two days ago to 647 cfs at the time of this writing.
The Clark Fork below Missoula has come up from a little over 3,000 cfs two days ago to 5,510 cfs.
Rock Creek near Clinton was at about 250 cfs two days ago and is now 535 cfs.
The Blackfoot River near Bonner was a little over 1,000 cfs two days ago and is now 2,830 cfs.

Jack and I will heading down to the Darby area later today and I will try to get some photos along the way. Needless to say, the fishing won't be happening.

Wapiti Waters Stream Flow Links - click this link for more stream-flow information and links to the USGS data sites.

Spring fishing on the lower Bitterroot with Jack

A trout I caught. Jack is holding the fish and I am, of course,
taking the photo. Freda, our Chessie, is looking on.

After fishing clients all week, Jack was excited enough to take me fishing on Sunday. It was REALLY cold in the morning when we launched. Then it drizzled. I rowed for Jack for awhile while we hunted for pike, but the day picked up about 1:00 pm when it cleared intermittently and warmed up. Then it happened; a beautiful mayfly hatch broke loose and so did the feeding trout (and whitefish!). I had one of my best "catching" days ever, even with my very rusty casting skills.

Here are some photos from that day. There are also eagles, geese, Belted Kingfishers, and of course lots of ducks on the river now, too. The first slideshow is from Jack's camera and is uploaded to our Picasa site. The second is from my camera and is uploaded to my SmugMug site - more photos of the river and birds.

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Photos from my Canon EOS7D