Montana Backcountry Camping & Fly Fishing Adventure: Part 2

 

Snake River Cutthroat Caught on El Jefe in Keyser Brown Lake, Montana

 

Waking up in a meadow right next to a crystal clear mountain lake, surrounded by mountains is something we should all experience as often as possible.  The sights and sounds of nature are all that surrounds you.  There is no alarm clock, no cell phone dinging, no tv within miles, no ability to access news.  The ground and my tent was covered in dew, but fortunately my new tent kept me dry.  The mornings were brisk, probably in the high 40s or low 50s.  The skies in the morning were crystal clear.  I would generally wake up around 6am, a few hours earlier than the rest of the crew.  This gave me my time to experience an amazing morning relaxing and experience the joys of being in a truly wild place like this with only the sounds of the stream around me.  I love the fact that trout truly don’t live in ugly places, but this place was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.  

 

Waking up in my tent next to Keyser Brown Lake, Montana

 

For me, there is a feeling of exhilaration when I think about the hungry trout stacking up in the stream running into the lake, which was around two hundred feet from my tent.  Since I left El Jefe set up, leaning on my tent overnight, I’ll I needed to do was grab my rod and sling pack, take a quick minute walk to the water, and make this morning even more epic than it started.  Three of the things I love about wild trout that you find WAY off the beaten path are that they are generally incredibly colorful, they are very eager to eat your fly, and fly selection becomes less important.  

 

Beautiful Dry Fly Eating Wild Brook Trout of Montana

 

We were fortunate to find wild brook trout as well as snake river cutthroat trout in the lake and stream.  They weren’t huge, but they were eager to eat a dry fly, small woolly bugger, or dropper.  For our dry flies, I started out fishing a parachute adams for my dry fly, which worked incredible.  We also fished a stimulator, which worked just as well.  We would generally be hooking up with a dry fly eating beauty within the first cast or two in this spot.  I taught the guys to look for the moving water entering the lake, and leaving the lake.  The fish generally stack up here looking for food.  I also taught them to slowly walk the lake looking for cruising fish.  This tactic worked well for us, as more of us were fishing and needed to spread out.  

 

Little Brook Trout Eating Dry Flies in Montana

 

After we worked a pool long enough with the dry flies, the fishing action would generally slow down a bit.  When this happened, I added a dropper to my dry fly.  It’s incredible to see the action heat up immediately when you add twelve to eighteen inches of 5X tippet to the bend of your dry fly hook, and a size 18 black zebra midge to the end.  This system caught us dozens and dozens of trout.  Problem solving is one of my favorite things about fly fishing, and its very rewarding to figure out a situation.  I thought the guys that when it appears the fish are no longer feeding, we make a slight adjustment and notice that they never stopped, they just stopped rising.  They continued eating their favorite food, midges, the entire time!

 

Where Rock Creek Enters Keyser Brown Lake, Montana

 

Our honey hole was the area where Rock Creek entered into Keyser Brown Lake.  This area was separated into two sides separated by some trees.  This tree separation was great because it produced two separate funnels for trout to stack up in while waiting for food to wash out of the stream into the lake.  The separation was also great because it gave us two different hot areas to spread out and entice trout.  

 

Colored Up Cutthroat Trout in Montana

 

For the first few days, we all fished Keyser Brown Lake, it was a big lake so there was plenty of room, and plenty of eager fish to entice.  The next day, we would take a day hike further up the mountain to another lake…if we could find it.  There was no trail to this lake, and you never know what you will find when you go bushwhacking and bouldering.  Stay tuned for our next post to hear about this epic adventure.  

 

Jeff Ditsworth, Owner of Pescador on the Fly, Enjoying Some Dry Fly Action in Montana

 

Until next time, tight lines my friends!

Jeff

 

Jeff Ditsworth, Owner of Pescador on the Fly, El Jefe, and a Snake River Cutthroat in The Beartooth Mountains, Montana