Middle Fork

I opted to go for another jaunt today. A short one. With gas prices the way they are, it is almost foolish not to take advantage of them and put a few extra miles on my tires before gas jumps back up.

I also brought my youngest niece, Erin along. We only brought one pole and she unfortunately didn't like my open bail left handed reel. Her luck and patience wasn't as good as my own.

A little rundown on this spot. It is a fairly accessible fishing location that is over fished most of the summer. Between the rafters, tourists, sport fisherman, and pleasure fishers, this section of the middle fork gets hit fairly hard. I never see people here in the fall though. So I figured I would give it a go. This will be probably be the last chance I get to fish open water though. I am primarily catch and release, and this time of year is more stressful on the fish. The water is cold, the food sources are down, and the fish are gearing into a more torpid state to survive the winter. The fishing was fairly good though. I only fished for about an hour and a half. The only problem was that I kept catching bull trout. I finally had to move to a different section of the river. Its illegal to fish for bull trout and I figured that I was probably pushing my luck by catching them. I didn't catch anything of note. Three bull trout, a lake trout and a couple of nice pan sized eight inch Yellowstone cutthroat trout. All went back. Can't keep a bull trout, cant eat a lake trout and cutthroat are my favorite fish to fish for...so I would rather catch them again some other day.

I need to break out the fly rod now though. Re-line it, change a broken eyelet, re-learn the knots and I will be in business. This spinning rod and lure fishing is starting to embarrass me.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures. As much as I hate photos of myself and of other people, I opted to post primarily just Erin's photos and the pictures she took of me with fish.

This photo does not do justice to the fall foliage, nor the larch needles changing colors. But over all, the picture speaks for itself.

Erin attempting to learn how to fish with a left handed real. Viva la lefties.

Bad shot of a scrawny Bull Trout. They are nothing but swimming mouths until they get to be a couple pounds in size and fill out. Don't you dare make fun of my hat. It was right around 40 degrees and dropping rapidly. It kept my cranium warm and my ears toasty. That is all that matters. My mother made that hat for my brother. I stole it fair and square from him about 20 yrs ago.
. Another Bull Trout. Little smaller, a lot skinnier
Erin on the Rocks
Cutthroat Trout. Small, but fun.
The tunnel. Trains and highway make this a less then ideal place. But it is still a nice place to go occasionally.