The BilletHead's most excellent adventure 2015

[BilletHead]

  Well we have another trip West under our belt. A plan had been hatched for this trip. We wanted to catch three fish for our bucket list and maybe a bonus catch too. All native, not planted and native to Montana. This is going to be photo heavy and in installments on this thread/post. Please bear with me as it will take some time as I am slow and low tec. A long drive and we covered 4500 miles to and from and around. We will start with the trip out and our first stop. Our farthest destination would be the Yaak Valley in North West Montana but we will make a fishing stop on the way to that spot. We left out at 3AM on July 30th. Made it to Rapid City South Dakota. Been Texting to Ness on and off as we were heading out and he was on his trip and on his way home. I think at one time we were not too far off in miles of each other. We had been ribbing each other about going by Sturgis and who would be getting a tattoo and we decided Mrs. BilletHead should get one. Well she did not but instead got herself branded of sorts. More on this later in another post .  So where in the heck has this OA member been? Ignore the dates on the photos as I messed with some of the timelines.

    So our first fishing stop was along the Yellowstone river in the Paradise Valley area. I am sure we might of passed Al Agnew somewhere out there. We could not get a camp spot at the KOA on a Friday Night so we trucked up the Mill Creek road for that night and got some fishing in. We caught some Yellowstone cutthroat there. Not on our list as we have been there done that before.

 Sadie doing what she does best,

 Some food photos will be added from time to time too. Braised deer stew and Garlic Parmesan mashed potatoes, bread and herb butter,

  More trip coming up,

BilletHead

[Mitch f]

Excellent Marty, looking forward to the installments. 

[BilletHead]

     We then headed for the Yaak Valley by way of the town of Yaak? Town would be a stretch it is a very small mercantile and two bars . The Yaak has three forks before becoming the Yaak itself and then dumps into the Kootenai River. We trucked to the East Fork for bucket list fish number one. The Columbia River Redband rainbow. This part of the country is what should be North West Rainforest. It is but this year really dry and I mean dry! The moss was dry and dying on the logs and ground. Real thick pines, spruce and what I think were hemlock. Pretty, dark and when it is sunny it is dark in the timber and on the stream. The stream itself was low with very little pocket water. The fish were there though. Beautiful pure native fish,

   Sadie again doing what she does best,

   Dinner for the night was Potato Chanterelle soup with some kind of cheesy onion herb bread,

  Next morning I checked the water temp and it was 54 degrees. Air temp 39 that morning but it was getting into the high eighties to low nineties during the day. Smoke was bad in the air due to all the fires in Montana and surrounding states.

  So with Fish number one checked off it was time for number two. Now we picked up and headed over to the West fork of the Yaak. By the way we were three miles from British Columbia at one time and that close to Idaho too. Number two fish was the West slope Cutthroat. For out 100% genetically pure fish we had to be above a set of lower falls. We found the upper falls and dropped in,

 Below the falls looked like this,

We did not catch in this hole but did directly below where the river started to move,

  Local fish food,

    Next a series of five pictures. I knew there had to be a fish behind this tree but how to get it out?

      Some of the trees and boulders we had to navigate.

    Well what goes down must get back out and we did make it out,

  We than found the lower West Fork falls and checked them out,

  We than got out of there and followed the main fork of the Yaak to it's falls and then down to Libby for the night.

   At Libby we found a good campground for a recharge and much needed shower! Food after the shower was fried wild turkey and cabbage wraps,

  I think we will try for the bonus fish next!

BilletHead

 

 

  

[rps]

Phil made his forum change just in time for your gorgeous pictures. Awesome!

[fishinwrench]

Super !  

[ness]

I'm loving this!  Keep it coming!

[Nighthawk]

You're living a dream, Marty! Russ

[BilletHead]

     Bonus fish species coming up!

So after a rest in Libby we contemplated what to do next. Headed back to the East wondering what to do. We got to Kalispell. Looked at a book I had got before the trip for maybe a place to head. I had read before about a creek North of here called Grave. Good report in the book but no mention about this bonus fish. So north we went looking for Grave. Something to mention about this fish. Only a couple of places that this fish can be targeted as it is a species of concern. Any guesses yet? This fish spends most of it's adult time in large rivers and lakes only making it's way to streams to spawn in late summer and fall. The juvenile fish are in streams and that is what we wanted. Only thing is it illegal to target the fish. What you say? Yes illegal but while targeting other species a by catch can happen so a release is what you do. As we turn off the highway to the stream this is what we see,

 Wow seeing this I immediately got goose bumps. So up the creek we go and find a road dropping down to the creek. There we find a picnic table, fire pit and camping spot surrounded by tall trees. We sit up camp with the creek out our back camper door. I grab a rod and hit the creek and on first cast catch a West Slope Cutt.

Turn over some rocks and find clinger mayfly nymphs,

  A view of the creek. Big boulders and a steep gradient.

    So back to the rig to get the Mrs. Ready. Off we go fishing. Soon our first bull is caught. These fish are crazy will not hardly calm down for a photo but finally got the shot.

Between the both of us we caught five. After the catch quickly back into the water safe and sound. Also caught numerous West slopes. All on dries. More Grave creek photos,

   After a day of navigating all these rocks this is what your legs look like. Mrs. BilleHead says you are not going to show my beat up legs!

Sadie doing her job!

Time to eat again! Jalapeno brats, peppers, Missouri home grown maters and more of that good bread,

    A note to say I thought this bonus fish would be the hardest to find. Not so maybe we were lucky? Next fish and stop I thought was harder, Next morning we headed South,

BilletHead

   

[BilletHead]

   Thanks for the responses guys. It means allot I get to share this with you all. Don't have many to share this with but nice to know you like seeing this. More coming soon,

BilletHead

[Ham]

I love Sadie. I'm loving the fish and scenery. Awesome eats to be sure.