TRAVELINGWITHTOOLS

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks on Hebgen Lake, near West Yellowstone, chasing callibaetis-eating rainbows and browns. Today, on my last day on the lake, I found an honest to God “gulper”, a fish that’s eating bugs on a steady tempo… about one every three seconds. That allows you to predict where to place your fly, so that the fish might take it on the next gulp.

In all my previous visits, I’ve only found the right conditions a few times, with the fish gulping bugs that regularly. The last couple of visits, the fish were eating plenty of bugs off the top, but only two or three at a time, tops. Often, the trout will eat one bug and then not rise again for a minute or more. That makes it impossible to know where to place the fly, and getting one to eat is more of a crap-shoot.

A couple of days ago, I fooled a pretty good number of fish and got them into the net. I’ve had days were several fish ate my fly, but I either broke them off with too enthusiastic a hook set, or they dove into the weeds and unhooked themselves. The bigger browns are pretty skilled at that. Rainbows jump for the sky more often, and are easier to keep up near the surface, though I did have one spectacular brown that leapt like a tarpon, and shook the hook out in mid air.

Today, the gulper ate for maybe ten minutes while I was in range, and I made several presentations where my bug was inches from his nose when he ate something else. But I never connected, and eventually he got wise to my presence and split. I changed targets to another nose that appeared less regularly, and that one took my fly on the second cast. I was in a shallow area that wasn’t too weedy, and I let the rainbow tow me around a bit to tire it out, before reaching out with the net. It was almost to the boat when he made a last second head shake and broke the tippet… POP!

I’d tied six more flies last night and I was getting to the end of that batch. Recognizing that the end of this trip is nearing, I tied on one more and spun around looking for a new target. I immediately spotted a nose just a couple rod lengths away, and made a sort of side-arm cast to get the fly in front of it… and it ate it straight away! Woot!

As I was about to net this fish, I recognized it! A little more than a week prior, I had caught a rainbow that had a disfigured face, probably from having been manhandled by an angler with a barbed hook earlier in its life. I felt a little sad watching it as it rested in the net, first for its disfigurement, and second because it missed my fly when it tried to eat it, and it was hooked in the side of its face. It bled quite a lot from the wound, and I wasn’t certain if I had nicked its gills or not. It kicked away strongly though, as I released it with an apology.

So this latest fish, I recognized its ugly mug! Once in the net, this time hooked in the lip, I saw the recent scar in the side of its face from our last encounter. Damn, what are the odds? I apologized again as I watched it swim away.

It’s the second time I’ve caught the same fish twice on the South Fork arm of this lake. A few years ago I caught a cutthroat that had a distinctive scar on its flank, which I noticed while reviewing my photos, the same fish, a week apart!

This was a pretty good visit to Hebgen. I spent a week earlier in the summer, over off the Cherry Creek campground, but the callibaetis hadn’t really got going yet. The last two weeks of August saw a regular hatch every morning, and for the last week the fish were looking up to eat them well into the early afternoon. I’m plenty satisfied.

My planned work project for September has been postponed, so I’ve got a few more weeks to mess around out here in Montana until I have to head back to the shop. Happy Labor Day to all those who have to be back at work tomorrow! (Said the grasshopper, smugly, to the ant).