Builds An Accidental Frame Off.................. (25 Viewers)

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When I was watching this, I was like, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to keep up with my buddy, rkymtnflyfisher. Like yesterday, I could do the hike, passing all but the trail runners, but, after a couple aboriginal cutthroats, and I'm like, "okay, that is enough feeding mosquitoes for one day." Check it out: behind little tree, just outside the cleared vegetation of Mike's campfire ring, to the right of the big fir with the black trunk - @1:23:00.
 
The fishing was amazing, but the solitude was the real treat. I caught a few cutt bows around 18” and a million cuts from 10-13”. I made it out last Thursday before all the other fires kicked up. I managed to brave a storm of biblical proportions on Wednesday night in a hammock tent. Turns out there may be a God after all 😂
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This last shot… oh my lord
 
When I was watching this, I was like, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to keep up with my buddy, rkymtnflyfisher. Like yesterday, I could do the hike, passing all but the trail runners, but, after a couple aboriginal cutthroats, and I'm like, "okay, that is enough feeding mosquitoes for one day." Check it out: behind little tree, just outside the cleared vegetation of Mike's campfire ring, to the right of the big fir with the black trunk - @1:23:00.

I sure wish that dude didn't name drop every river in the region, the internet is killing this area with all the YouTube videos. I know they're no secret but sometimes letting people read between the lines is more beneficial to the fishery.

People need to stop hot-spotting rivers, get out and find the good fishing. It's not hard.
 
I sure wish that dude didn't name drop every river in the region, the internet is killing this area with all the YouTube videos. I know they're no secret but sometimes letting people read between the lines is more beneficial to the fishery.

People need to stop hot-spotting rivers, get out and find the good fishing. It's not hard.
My apologies. I'm okay sharing spots because there is no way that it will bring in 100 other anglers, so that there would actually be another fly fisherman working that creek, on the day that I choose to go. On the other hand, here, the dudes at the fly shop, talked so loud about their creek, that I heard about it both in-person shopping for feathers, and from the Attorney General via the front-page headline in the local paper. I'd imagine that Norman Maclean, Elliott Barker, and Edward Abbey are the last few to write, in an unfiltered way, about public land and maybe even federal employment, in a physically-published-media. USFS 1919 is off-the-hook. The fly shop once sold local books, now with the help their website, you get up-to-date reports on their list of waters.
 
Drove through the Bitterroot yesterday. Saw a 40 on a dealer lot- looked fair from a far. Saw a carcass on a trailer. No green one though…
Well damn.

$500 for that carcass.
 
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People need to stop hot-spotting rivers, get out and find the good fishing. It's not hard.

Things were radically different before "the Movie". I could cross private land just about anywhere in the state with just a knock on a front door. Often got a tour and sometimes a ride to the water. When I'm back now I only fish Tuesday thru Thursday if I can. I'll still get groups of "sportsmen" stepping in a fly line's length in front of me. Last fall I parked the truck in a spot with a hole in the fence where I'd been accessing a very popular creek for 3 decades. Coming out we got chewed out by the new (I guess) owner. The effing hole is still there so maybe it was my out of state plates. :meh:
 
Personally, the big issue is that there is smoke on the horizon. When I was a kid, I'd go fly fishing with my boss up in these glacial lakes, on public land, but we were most definitely trespassing thru private land to get there. Flagging tape and spray-painted dots on rocks defined the trail for those areas where we absolutely depended on GPS. The lakes were stocked with what we thought were Yellowstone cutthroats, but, a former pond in a tiny stream held brookies, cuttbows. Here, in the Arkansas River drainage, and depending on the source, they should have held either Yellowfin or Greenback cutthroats, before people did stocking. Pushing our luck, my fishing buddy even tried to stash his float tube up there so he wouldn't have to hike it in every weekend; it dissappeared immediately. One time we returned from the mountain to find our ride vandalized, flat tire, dead rat under the windshield wiper, something written in mud on the window, plus we were gettin rained on. Nervous and probably being watched, we quickly got the spare installed. Persistent and slow to learn, the next time we got permission from a local to park in his driveway, and we greeted him with a dozen fresh doughnuts for the spot, still crossing across private land, but, always respectfully kept the cattle gates closed behind us. Strange place, totally backwoods, and way creepier than my former Breaking Bad-set-neighborhood. From our perspective, we just saw residents hanging-out, waiting for fast-food and nature to take over, dogs barking always echoed in the overgrown canyon, cairion being heavily worked-on from the asphalt road by some scavenging bird. In '22 the area got roasted in a fire scar that claimed six-tenths-of-a-degree latitude; former residents lost all, and relief checks are still stalled. Closer to my residence, a 2003 fire claimed a trout-trail that has yet to be cleared, same for a fire in '11 and an event in '22 - debris falls are impossible to hike thru for any significant distance, and the parking is still closed. I've lied to the hikers about my activity when they saw my rod poking out of my backpack; now, I come clean, because I really don't want to try to fool smart people, and go totally clandestine, meaning all-out Tenkara. Btw, I was actually introduced to the reel-less method by a fellow Mudder on an informal trail-run, long before I saw it on the Tube. On a side-note, in '22, Colorado rediscovered a 'San Juan' subspecies of cutts. Oops, spilling the 411 on specific holes, but the opportunity might get squashed by a high-risk old-growth forestry project. I actually hate the way we practice forestry; not far, a community lost 1,400 structures during a June fire, most afternoons flooding or flood-watches ensues.
 
Well damn.

$500 for that carcass.
Does it come with the trailer? If a feller wanted to build a crawler, he could do worse. Of course that feller better not have other projects in the works,,,
 
Does it come with the trailer? If a feller wanted to build a crawler, he could do worse. Of course that feller better not have other projects in the works,,,
After I noticed the price on that plywood I reconsidered a few things.


In the end I figure I would be better off in the long run buying another fly rod, a 12 pack of PBR, and 3 Jerry cans of gasoline.
 
Interesting day around western Montana.
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OK, it has been a few days...any pics of the snowfall out there? From a tech standpoint, how many inches fell? Saw it was near Whitefish, is that close to you? You may be in for a good ski season!
 

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