November 2013
The Weather Held
Seldom is November weather in southwestern Montana stable enough to warrant a stopover at our place on the Madison Rive...thank God for carbon and "global warming." After a wonderful visit to my long time double gun guru and his engaging wife from his grade school days and tasting their varied selections of red wines paired with grain feed Prairie wild goose aka Normano, I was off to trout fish and chase blue grouse in the Gravelly Range.
A day of snowmobiling up to the Snow Crest area of the Gravelly produced good numbers of grouse that were actually working their way up mountain as the inversion set in. The young lab Tess handled riding the snow mobiles well whereas the old German wirehair being true to her gene pool did not adapt to the newness of this hunting style.
The game was moving down the mountain to find winter range and seemed not to have a care about the long months ahead
The game was moving down the mountain to find winter range and seemed not to have a care about the long months ahead
The weather was stable, besides I had shot enough birds in the last six weeks to last a lifetime so trout fishing would do and was I in for a nice surprise. I parked the rigs on Terra Firma plugged in the AC slept the first night like a baby in the pure mountain air only southwest Montana owns.
I was to focus on winter's streamers that is until I reached the Colonel Pool and watched as heads repeatably come up from the 45 degree water. The sky was loaded with Baetis and midge hatching and best of all not a soul to be seen. Once in a while a rifle crack by elk hunter up in the Maison range broke the serenity. The quiet was so complete I could focus on the water, bugs and knot tying some of my favorite things to do. My first cast was a a strong rainbow over 16 inches that was pissed he had been tricked. This was happening again and again all rainbows but were were the browns.
The browns were there but not in the pools. They were hidden alongside the main current below the boulder that created hydro vacuums. I reached down to their lair with a streamer and time after time these European trout struck hard. The days got better and better even the dogs enjoyed the action from shore. I was ready to spend the winter days here until the next front flew up the Targhee until my wife suggest it's best to travel on dry roads hauling the Jeep. She was right and I would head down to Ely visit my rancher friends who had encouraged me to hunt their lands for ELK in December.
I was to focus on winter's streamers that is until I reached the Colonel Pool and watched as heads repeatably come up from the 45 degree water. The sky was loaded with Baetis and midge hatching and best of all not a soul to be seen. Once in a while a rifle crack by elk hunter up in the Maison range broke the serenity. The quiet was so complete I could focus on the water, bugs and knot tying some of my favorite things to do. My first cast was a a strong rainbow over 16 inches that was pissed he had been tricked. This was happening again and again all rainbows but were were the browns.
The browns were there but not in the pools. They were hidden alongside the main current below the boulder that created hydro vacuums. I reached down to their lair with a streamer and time after time these European trout struck hard. The days got better and better even the dogs enjoyed the action from shore. I was ready to spend the winter days here until the next front flew up the Targhee until my wife suggest it's best to travel on dry roads hauling the Jeep. She was right and I would head down to Ely visit my rancher friends who had encouraged me to hunt their lands for ELK in December.
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