The Yaak Valley is unlike any other place in Montana. Snuggled against Idaho and British Columbia, the Yaak has a Pacific Northwestern feel. Morning fog is common, although it often breaks into classic Montana blue sky.

The aptly named “old man’s beard” lichen hangs from the larch, fir, and spruce. Larch, also known as tamarack, is a deciduous conifer that loses its needles each fall. In the protection of the forest, enormous whitetail deer, many mountain lions, and even a few grizzlies live in relative peace and isolation from man.

I find the Yaak to be a magical place. And the term “magical” is not a word that a scientist like me banters about lightly. There are plenty of writers far more capable than me (i.e. Rick Bass) who wax philosophical about the Yaak, so if you are interested, I suggest you read their fine works. I’ll just say that the Yaak is one of those places that I might someday visit and never leave.

The Yaak is also home to the only native rainbow trout in the state. The Columbia River redband trout still inhabit a few headwater streams as they have for thousands upon thousands of years. In the larger rivers, introduced rainbows have diluted the genetics of the original stock, but these fine trout fisheries are still of great interest to the angler, of course.

The Kootenai River is home to the rainbows that probably take the award for the strongest, pound for pound, in the state. The Yaak River is a smaller system that holds feisty trout up to 18 inches. Smaller streams and lakes complete the list of options for the angler.

And the best part is that the Yaak often feels like a private playground. Float the Kootenai and you’ll only see one or two other boats the entire day. Fish the Yaak River or the headwaters and you’ll have the place to yourself.

My friends the Linehans operate a top-notch outfitting business in the Yaak. You may know Tim Linehan as the host of the Trout Unlimited TV show that aired for a few seasons around the turn of the century.

In addition to being the face of TU on TV, Tim is a fine guide and a tremendous human being. Tim and Joanne Linehan are two of the kindest folks I’ve ever met. They have been very generous to me personally over the years. And they do a ton for TU.

On this trip to the Yaak, I searched out a few Columbia River redband trout. While the larger trout in the Kootenai and the Yaak Rivers provide better sport, I wanted to see the native fish.

Tim directed me to Basin Creek. This tributary to the East Fork of the Yaak River is a TU project site. The Kootenai Valley TU chapter worked with the Forest Service to replace the road culverts that cross the creek, making them more fish friendly. Hybridization with non-native strains of rainbows and habitat loss have reduced pure redband populations to a few isolated creeks. The Basin Creek project is just one initiative taken on by the local TUers to protect the remaining stock of these beautiful trout.

Each well-placed cast drew a ferocious response from the redbands. These little guys are obviously hungry! In hand, the redbands show off their richly-colored sides and intricate black spot patterns. They swim off with zest, ready to attack the next poor caddisfly that lands upstream.

Take a look at my photos HERE to see a few of these neat fish.

I have a humorous (sort of) tale of life on the road for you. Every locale has certain creatures that residents would prefer to live without. Black widows, hobo spiders, rattlesnakes, Norwegian rats, and yippy lap dogs come to mind. In western Montana, pack rats are towards the top of the list.

While in the Yaak, I stayed in a rarely inhabited vacation cabin that the Linehans watch for a friend from out of state. Well, no one had been there in a few weeks, so Joanne went to check things out before I arrived and discovered a female pack rat and three big babies nesting in the propane grill on the back porch.

A pack rat looks like a hybrid between a regular city rat and a squirrel. I’m sure that those folks who keep chinchillas and the such would find them quite desirable as pets.

Unfortunately, they are rodents and they like to chew and poop, making them less than desirable neighbors and even worse roommates. Well, Joanne completed the unpleasant task of cleaning the nest out the grill, displacing the four pack rats.

Enter Luca’s pickup. When I arrived, one of the baby pack rats decided my truck would make a fine place to nest and start a family of her own. Overnight, she crawled up into the motor space and built a nest of lichen and dried grass behind my battery. I guess it didn’t fit quite right because she decided to chew through a few wires to attain the proper hominess.

Well, I didn’t discover this until the town of Libby, a 45 minute drive from the Yaak. It’s a good thing she didn’t build the nest on the engine… I’ve had steam come out from under the hood, but smoke is another story!

So when I popped the hood to check my oil in Libby, I was greeted with the sight of the nest, woven and shaped like a bird’s nest. Oh yeah, she had also stashed a mushroom under the alternator.

I cleaned it out and took the truck to the mechanic to get the wires fixed. When I told him why I was there, a look of horror came over his face. It was that look that manly men give when they know they have to do something, but they are really dreading it.

When this guy opened an auto garage, I don’t think he anticipated he’d spend so much time dealing with rodents.

“Is it still in the car?” he asked, “They usually stay with the vehicle.”

“No, I cleaned out the nest, besides, I drove from the Yaak.” I replied.

“It doesn’t matter” the mechanic looked pained, “they’ll just scurry up and down the vehicle the whole way here.”

Well the mechanic took a look and decided it was safe to allow my truck in his garage. He told me a story of impaling a rat with a screwdriver once when one ran out of a patron’s vehicle on the lift.

He fixed my wires and left me with half a dozen humorous pack rat stories and the ominous warning, “Once they pee in it, they’ll always come back.”

So I drove back up to the Yaak and parked as far from the cabin as I could without blocking a public right of way. I listened as my engine cooled down and heard some additional scratching noises. It seems the rat actually had stuck with the vehicle. She was tucked into the space between the frame and the body above the driver’s side front wheel well. I could see her in there with a flash light.

Well, it was time for action. I closed the propane grill (leaving the lid open prevented the rats from nesting there again) and opened my truck’s hood. I had stumbled across an interesting paradox in rat behavior: What happens if a pack rat urinates in both a grill and a Nissan pickup? I wondered if the mechanic, my expert in pack rat nesting habits, knew the answer.

I borrowed the Linehan’s Hav-a-Hart trap, which I set under the truck with a piece of tin foil, a new penny, and a Cheez-it cracker for bait. Why the tin foil and the penny? Pack rats are notorious for collecting shiny items.

That evening I watched the rat make a couple trips for nesting materials to and from my truck. She used the trap as a step ladder, causing me to lose a little faith in my methodology. For a few minutes I stood out there with my bow, hoping to shoot the little bugger, but I felt a little too much like Elmer Fudd to keep at it for long.

In the end, the trap worked and I caught the pack rat overnight. Now that my truck is safely located 500 miles away, I almost wish that I actually Had-a-Heart, but at the time, I wasn’t taking any chances.
I pictured releasing the rat somewhere out in the woods and then racing it back to my urine-laced truck, hoping to get out of there before the rat hopped back aboard.

So I drew the pack rat a bath in the Rubbermaid I use to disinfect my waders. I don’t know if pack rats can swim, because Hav-a-Harts sink, but next time I’m in Libby, I’ll ask the mechanic.

So here I was hoping to let folks know about how great the Yaak is and now I’m scaring them away with pack rat stories. I’ll close with this:

Even while I was drowning a rat, I was looking forward to my next trip to the Yaak. It is truly a unique fishing destination. Go fish the Kootenai, stay in one of the Linehans’ homey and pack rat-free rental cabins (not their friends’), and enjoy this amazing lost corner of Montana.

See photos of redband trout, pack rat trapping, and other classic Yaak Valley scenes by clicking HERE!