Fuckin Montana

Three of our CUMs made it out to MT to celebrate Independence day.

This was our tentative schedule, with sporadic feeding mixed in between.

Coffee. Beer. Fish. Beer. Fish. Sleep. Repeat 

 I could go on for pages about fish caught and lost, but frankly I is not the best writer.  We camped in a different location every night, and fished new water everyday.  I was told by a few locals, that when I return to the Midwest, not to tell anyone how great Montana is. Honoring that request, here are a few photos from the trip of a lifetime without any words of praise behind them.  Montana is a wild place. 

Memorial Day Northwoods

Our crew headed to the northwoods for Memorial Day to get out chub on, hard.  We hit both lakes and rivers. The water levels were high, and they may not have been the only ones. Our buddy who hadn't fished for musky very much ended up with two nice ugly pike on day one.  I've been trying to catch these things for years and have solo uno to show for it. We were able to see a few muskie spawning in the shallows, but they didn't care for my streamer. 

Just a nice quiet place in the northwoods.

The fish of 5 casts off the dock.

Sometimes you drink too much, sometimes you drink so much you pass out and fall out of your canoe .

Man make fire

 If you think smallies aren't pretty you are dead wrong

Driftless Spring

 We visited the driftless area mid April and early May, there were sparse hatches, but winter was still holding on.

 April dry fly trout seemed like a mini miracle after last winter

The fires of Mordor have reached the Driftless 

 After all those boring trout, finally a fish worth catching

 Camp Coffee

 Camp Breakfast

Driftless weekend round 2

Winter is still hanging on in the Driftless region with snow still packed on the north sides of the hills.  Fishing is slow with water temps around 40.  Air temps reached the 50s during the day but got down to the 20s at night, perfect conditions for drinking in the woods. 

Driftless Opener 2014

So I guess I angered Old Man Winter by saying winter was over, it is very much alive and kicking.  

Conditions for the opener were some of the worst I have ever fished.  The battle for keeping your hands warm was an impossible one. Even with 2 sets of hand-warmers my fingers just would not stay warm changing flies or adding tippet had me questioning my mental state.  

Our average BAC was more than 3 times our average number of fish caught this trip.  

but fish (very few) were caught

Freezing our asses off for a few small trout may not be for everyone, but it was worth it as fishing always is.

No chubs were caught.

I cannot wait to fish above freezing temperatures 

Winter's Cum and Gone

The worst of winter is over. I know it is supposed to keep snowing, but the end is near early season opener is less than 2 weeks away.

Microchub

They say it's not the size of the chub, but how you use it

Caught on a #22 black midge emerger- put up one hell of a fight