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Poor man's Trout Bum weekend


jscheetz

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Being stressed and overloaded with a project (I know that some of you who know me and know that I play music for a living are asking “Just how stressful can that be”??!!) :rolleyes: However, having a studio project eating into my river time, I decided I needed to escape. So I started the trip by arriving at Taney at 11am. Pretty good crowd already but managed to find some room below rebar. There were a lot of fish sipping midges or something off the surface so I tried repeatedly drifting a black zebra midge past them. No takers – nobody else was catching many either. I kept trying different things and finally hit on something they would hit on! A cream colored midge, size 18 or so – dead drifted with no indicator right into their feeding line. Bam! Time after time I got bit – caught 8 or so and lost that many. They would not hit the same setup drifted under an indicator. Great lesson to us all – most people tend to get to Taney, tie on a scud and midge, set their indicator up a few feet and then pound – and pound – and pound – and just keep fishing with the same thing even though they are not catching anything. I know – I have caught myself doing it before. You think “There are fish all over here – I just need to drift this past the right one”. But sometimes they are just finicky and need to see something different or presented in a different way.

Moved around a bit throughout the day – fishing wasn’t stellar like it sometimes is, but I did manage to catch quite a few fish. Took a break and ate about dark – then went back down for night fishing, and fished until 3am. Mostly below rebar and into the Big hole – but also did a bit up by chute 1. Fishing was about the same as during the day – not on fire, but kept catching some fish – caught them on a black sculpin pattern mostly, stripping it in a slow, pause method. No bigguns. Very foggy – and when I walked past the parking lot at 1:30am there were 12 cars there!! Nighttime is getting to be crowded too! Grabbed a few hours of sleep in the back of the truck and got up at 7 and went back to it. Fishing about the same – but many more people – lots of shufflers and “trout at your feet catchers” – by 10 I had caught another half dozen fish on a black midge but the people were coming in droves – I couldn’t find a place to wade back across the river without walking through someone’s fishing spot!!

My plan was to then drive over to Jolly Mill and Capps creek – but since I was going through Crane, and had never fished Crane creek I decided to stop. Was a great time! I know Crane isn't really a secret so telling you how cool it was won't cause traffic jams there - My friend in Montana wears a T-Shirt that says “Montana Sucks – now go home and tell your friends” – so we all like to have “our special places” with less people there. Having said all that – the fishing was great! I am not a big fan of poisonous slithering reptiles, and after a friend telling me stories of all the cottonmouths he saw at Crane, I wasn’t too excited about traipsing too much through the woods. I didn’t have to. I caught most of my fish right in town close to the park. I was using a size 16 elk hair caddis and just drifting it next too the overhanging banks. I caught 8 to 10 small 6 to 8 inch fish. They were brilliantly colored rivaling the finest saltwater aquarium occupants. Then I drifted my dry downstream and just as it was rounding a bend a fat 12 inch fish rose straight up from the hole it was resting in and sucked down my fly. It was one of those awesome takes that you remember forever; a dark shape slowly rising through the sunlight as it penetrates the top layer of water. A fish that size in a stream that small seems like a monster. I always tell my fishing buddy who only wants to catch big fish, that to catch the equivalent of a 12 inch fish from a 6 foot wide stream – he would have to catch a 17 foot long fish from his 100 foot wide river!!! Or some such math! Nevertheless, if you’re somebody like me, who although I love spending a day on the Yellowstone or Stillwater, I always have to sneak away to the high mountains for a few days of chasing little brookies in skinny high mountain streams, then Crane will probably float your boat. The several hours I was there, I was the only fisherman in sight.

Then it was on to the Jolly Mill. It is just such a beautiful place in the middle of nowhere that it is a fun time even if the fishing wasn’t great. I did see a local with about a 20 or 21inch bow on a stringer with half the fish dragging the ground (eeeeeeks) – and another couple of guys had 3 or 4 fish strung up right next to the mill, but I only managed to catch a couple of small fish. It really looks like a good place for fish if anyone would want to manage it properly as a fishery instead of just a meat shop. Looks like the eco system would support it, if the water is cold enough (didn’t check). I would recommend checking it out if you get a chance, take the kids and have a picnic; it’s a really unique and neat place. The nooks and crannies of God’s world never cease to amaze me with their beauty and uniqueness.

Well, back to strings instead of fly lines for the week. In August I get to go out Colorado to do some “proper” trout bumming – but for a quick fix of chasing fish fairly close to home, this weekend couldn’t be beat. Thanks for letting me share the trip with you. Life is good.

JS

"We are living in the midst of a Creation that is mostly mysterious - that even when visible, is never fully imaginable".

-Wendell Berry-

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'cheetz: What kind of music do you play? I don't recall if you ever said.

I would rather be fishin'.

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." Benjamin Franklin, 1759

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Yep... gotta know your genre, your axe(s), and your amp set up...

Inquiring minds MUST know!!!! :bingo:

Oh... By the way... good fishin' report...

TIGHT LINES, YA'LL

 

"There he stands, draped in more equipment than a telephone lineman, trying to outwit an organism with a brain no bigger than a breadcrumb, and getting licked in the process." - Paul O’Neil

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Well, thanks for reading!

As to my musical side - I can send you to a website that has more info than you asked for :wacko: This will give you music guys lots of stuff to peruse. www.jeffscheetz.com

GF - you can see, it's mostly guitar kinda stuff - of various blusey-rocky-fusiony- variety -

JS

"We are living in the midst of a Creation that is mostly mysterious - that even when visible, is never fully imaginable".

-Wendell Berry-

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JS that was a great report. Thanks for sharing. Checked out your website too. You are a really talented guy.

Greg

"My biggest worry is that my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it" - Koos Brandt

Greg Mitchell

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DEWD!!! Awesome! "Smoke On The Water" was one of the first licks I learned. Can't imagine 1,721 guitars clanging out that riff at once!! Wish now I could have made it 1,722...

So how many axes do you have hanging around your house? I was up to 6 before getting out of it. Now I'm a Tele guy myself... American standard... tattooed on my left shoulder no less... Tobacco sunburst with a rosewood fretboard. The only amp I have left is a Fender Pro 185. Had a DigiTech processor that was stolen. Don't play enough anymore to replace it...

Yeah... you need to play Springfield so some of us can check out your sound in person...

TIGHT LINES, YA'LL

 

"There he stands, draped in more equipment than a telephone lineman, trying to outwit an organism with a brain no bigger than a breadcrumb, and getting licked in the process." - Paul O’Neil

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