Hi guys, just got back from 3 weeks in the Rocky Mountains, fishing was excellent due to the big snowpack which the area received last winter, making for great river conditions everywhere.

Alberta was wonderful, my first visit there and my mate and I fished the little creeks which flow into the Crowsnest River. This is me up to me middle in Dutchman's Creek



where this beautiful little brookie lives



We drove back to Montana through Glacier National Park, where the scenery was amazing



We were so impressed that we stumped up 25 quid each for a helicopter ride over the Park next day and it was even better from the air



Down to Montana and hired a drift boat on the mighty Missouri near Craig where the big browns and rainbows fought so hard in the strong current. This picture



translated into this brownie, which succumbed to a tan Klink. I don't think they see many of those over there



Finished up on Rock Creek where the cutthroats were very obliging, but some nice whitefish in there too - here's Mark with a typical specimen



Stayed in a B&B there and woke up one morning to find this wee guy waiting for a lift



Lots more pics, but that's enough bandwith used up for now. It was an excellent trip and I can't wait to get back again soon

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Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once - Lee Wulff

Thanks for sharing that Shuck. Fantastic trip and outstanding scenery. Was the fishing busy with too many anglers? What was your most succesful method? Lots of questions I know, but it's a chance to pick your brains.

Johnny

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I won a £1,000,000 and spent most of it on prostitutes, drink,trout fishing, cars, cocaine, cigars and the rest I wasted...

Absolutely Fantastic.

Johnny, no probs about any questions, ask away We deliberately sought out the small creeks so saw very few other anglers, apart from on the Missouri where the 'aluminum hatch' was quite heavy up around Holter Dam, but we anchored and let 'em all drift off downstream so had it mostly to ourselves after 10.00 am. A few guys on Rock Creek but it's a long river so it was easy enough to head off elsewhere if it got 'crowded' (2 other anglers!)

Frankly, I used mostly hopper/dropper everywhere - a Stimmy and a bead-head PTN worked most places, sometimes Elk Hair Caddis or Hans' CDC & Elk replaced the Stimulator. The whitefish were very keen on the bead-heads On the 2 days on the Missouri, I used nymphs with tungsten heads in the mornings and any biggish (#8) hopper pattern in the afternoon - Dave's Hopper was the best. Only time we really had to 'match the hatch' was during the morning Trico spinner fall on the Missouri when the 'bows were particularly fussy. I used a #22 spent Trico (black floss body, 2 wisps of white Antron yarn wings tied spent and 3 fibres black hackle tail) Problem there was using 2lb tippet which led to a few break-offs.

HTH

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Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once - Lee Wulff

I too fished on Rock Creek 1st week in July, it was superb fishing, then moved over to Slough Creek and De Puys, also managed a float trip down the madison and caught plenty of fish on the dry, although the guide wanted us to fish with sculpins, we didn't go all that way to not fish the dry fly!
Some pictures can be seen on the front page of my website.
Glad you also had a great trip.
Cheers
Richard

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Richard Jackson
Fly fishing instruction and guiding in the heart of Devon
www.devonflyfisher.com

Shuck, nice report.....

we will be over fishing Rock Creek 1st/2nd week in September hopefully they won't have been hammered on the hoppers and will be still willing.

Last year I tried Czech nymphing and gave up in the end with Whitefish every cast (they are fun though).

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Vulgata (formerly fishgb - AKA Gary Bell) Dorchester, Dorset.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"

Can't see why the Montanans despise the whitefish so much, they are strong, free-taking and fight hard - Rocky Mountain Bonefish! Personally, I am eternally grateful to any fish which is considerate enough to take my fly

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Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once - Lee Wulff

Glad you could get to this side of the world Shuck Raider. I fish Dutch Creek regularly, as well as other streams in the Oldman drainage where you were. Your "brookie" is actually a cutthroat, black spots on the sides and the red throat slash is visible in your photos. They are hard fighting fish, especially if you get something over 12 inches or so. I've never been to the states fishing, since we have so much great water here in Alberta. If you ever get the chance to come over again, contact me for a chat or an outing on the water.

Thanks for that offer, hope to take you up on it next time. Apologies for the brookie/cutt confusion, must've posted the wrong pic

We did get quite a few brook trout although none in Alberta, mostly in the higher reaches of the creeks in Montana and the fish were smallish.

As well as Dutch, we fished Racehorse and the Livingstone on that drainage, plus Carbondale, Lynx and Lost Creeks up in the National Forest and part of the Castle drainage too. The Crowsnest River seemed very popular so we gave that a miss in favour of the less fished creeks.

You certainly live in a beautuful part of the world, we loved SW Alberta (apart from the wind, which howled for a week) The locals tell me it's always like that, so I guess you get used to it

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Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once - Lee Wulff

Stunning pictures Shuck Raider,

Thanks for sharing them!