I am pleased to report that we achieved the primary goal of Matt's trip: I now have the technical ability to update this blog without crashing the entire TU website! We hope.

As for the fishing, well, we weren't quite so successful. The conditions were classic for Montana in April. We saw rain, snow, sun, wind, clear water, dirty water, warm air, and cold air, all within a 36-hour period.

On our first trip out, we fished Depuy Spring Creek near Livingston, MT. For those of you who are not familiar with this private stream, access is by reservation only, and a limited number of anglers are allowed each day. I was a bit hesitant to kick off my summer travels and this blog on a “pay-to-play” fishery, but a substantial rain-on-snow event and the warmer temperatures have left most of the other local fisheries high and unfishable. Besides, Depuy is such a productive fishery that if the opportunity presents itself, you should definitely visit this creek. To quote Matt, purchasing your spot on Depuy is essentially "buying a hatch and rising fish."

Working the PhD Pool on Depuy's (April 23, 2006)

We left Bozeman that morning under cloudy skies and light precipitation. This weather boded well for a great hatch of blue-winged olives on the creek. Unfortunately, the spring showers were accompanied by strong winds. While the wind kept insect activity to a minimum, some fish were still looking up. We were able to consistently catch 12" and smaller browns on midge and blue-winged olive patterns throughout the day. The larger trout, however, must have been primarily feeding sub-surface and remained elusive. Overall, it was a fun way to kick off the '06 fishing season and a great break from the glow of the laptop screen.

To see more photos from our day on Depuy Spring Creek click HERE.

Two days later, we took another break and hiked 4+ miles into Beartrap Canyon, a rugged chasm carved by the lower Madison River, immediately downstream of Ennis Reservoir. The river roars between the steep canyon walls, making for scenic and exciting fishing conditions. Unfortunately, the average depth of the reservoir is quite shallow, and the lower Madison is plagued by high temperatures in the summer. The trout in Beartrap Canyon endure stressful conditions from June through September and the fishing is often slow (and sometimes even harmful to the fish) during these months. As a result, many out-of-area anglers who visit in the summer have never heard of, let alone fished, this section of the Madison. The Beartrap stretch can be quite productive in the spring and fall and is a popular fishery for local anglers. These anglers, their TU chapters, and other conservationists, have pushed for changes that might improve the summer temperature situation, but a solution has yet to be reached.

In addition to being a capable tech guy, Matt has a Master's in Fisheries Biology from Montana State University, and during his time in school he fished Beartrap frequently. Through experience, he discovered that the large (18"+) brown trout in the canyon tend to hold in slack pockets amongst the boiling rapids. To fish for these bruisers, it is best to dead drift a heavily weighted streamer, such as a woolly bugger, through the whitewater and into the pockets along the stream bottom and behind the large boulders. This is pocket water style fishing taken to the extreme (See Photo Gallery).

We hiked into Beartrap on the first nice day after 48 hours of rain, snow and high winds. It was a great to get out, and the sunshine was a welcome break after a long winter. Unfortunately, the fishing hadn't heated up quite like the weather. Strong winds had churned up the reservoir, causing the river to run off color. Despite water visibility of less than 10 inches, we fished the pockets hard for a couple hours. Our efforts failed to produce so much as a tap, but we sure had a nice afternoon in the beautiful canyon. Beartrap is a neat fishery and I hope to write about it again later in the season, hopefully when the fishing conditions are a little better.

For now, I've loaded the old truck and I’m leaving Montana for an entirely different fishing experience, the Ozark Mountains.....