First Montana trout of the year...

[Al Agnew]

Ah, the joys of owning a place that you leave for the winter!  Flew out day before yesterday, nearly missed our connecting flight in Salt Lake City because some doofus at the St. Louis airport messed up fueling the plane, and it had a 2000 pound imbalance in the fuel in the wings, so they had to drain it out of one wing and put it in the other, which made us 50 minutes late, with what should have been 1 hour 30 minute layover.  Ran through the airport, since the plane to Bozeman was two terminals over from the one where we landed.  Made it just before they shut the doors.  Got to the house, turned on water...forgot to put the filter on the water treatment system back on from winterizing the place.  Next thing we know...a lot of water on the basement floor.  Spent a couple hours cleaning it up.  Then discovered water heater wasn't working.  Then discovered the car we leave out there wouldn't start.  Shouldn't have been any problem, just jump it, right?  Nope.  Didn't work.  It's an old Prius, so the electrical system is a little wonky.  Couldn't take it to the local mechanic that we like, but had to get it towed to Bozeman.  

Of course, yesterday was Easter Sunday, so nobody was open to call to get the Prius or the water heater fixed.  Instead, since we had been forced to get up at 3:30 AM the night before to make the 7 AM flight that didn't leave until 8 AM, we spent a good part of the day napping.  By evening, we were missing having a hot shower.  So this morning we got up early and made the 40 minute drive to Chico Hot Springs, where we soaked in their big pool full of hot spring water, then took advantage of their hot showers!  Then made arrangements for the various things to get fixed, got the internet working after some problems, and by that time it was late afternoon.  It had been cloudy and windy most of the day, temperature in the 40s.  At one point it sleeted.  At another point, the wind blew like crazy with horizontal sheets of rain.  But just as we finished supper the wind died and the sun came out.  The river was calling!

I donned waders, grabbed a 5 wt. rod and my sling pack, and walked across the yard and down the bank to the water.  The river is flowing about double its usual flow for this time of year, and very murky, visibility only about 12-18 inches.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to catch anything, but it was worth a try.

I hiked across the island to the nice riffle on the main channel, with a beautiful dropoff and a nice eddy to the side.  But apparently, some moving ice over the winter had smoothed out the dropoff--at least it didn't seem to be there anymore.  It's usually the most likely spot to catch fish--last summer, it had been an abrupt, two foot drop out of shallow, very fast water, and always seemed to produce a nice rainbow.  I caught nothing where it should have been, so I eased downstream to drift nymphs along the current seam at the eddy.  It took a while, but finally I hooked a fish.  It was a beautiful rainbow.  Nice for the first fish!  I caught nothing else along the long current seam except a couple of whitefish.  By that time, the sun was low, but I thought I had time to go back to a pool on my side channel and try a streamer in the murky water and lower light.  Near the head of the little pool, I got a couple strikes but didn't hook up.  Then I caught my second trout, a pretty brown.  On the next cast I hooked a slightly bigger fish, either a rainbow or a cutthroat, but lost it,  I got a couple more bumps on the streamer at the tail of the pool right in front of the house before calling it quits.  

Not bad compensation for the homeowner problems!

(I was going to post pictures of the two trout off my phone, but as seems to be par for the course around here at this point, I can't get them off the phone.  The rainbow was about 17 inches, the brown about 16.)

[BLUEWATER]

Al,

In the terms of the Marine Corps that's the way to adapt and overcome.  Job  well done.  Fish on my friend.

[jdmidwest]

I'd skip the lottery tickets for a few days with that luck. 

[Mitch f]

At least you didn't fly United.....the friendly skies! ?