I hosted a group of anglers for our annual trip to Crane Meadow Lodge in Twin Bridges, MT last week. Nick Reding, Bob Harness, Bob Reynolds, Jim Ewoldt, Howard Curtis and Dick Callaway, all from St. Louis, MO, Mike Perez and Dennis Kinley, from IN and I all met up in Bozeman on Friday, 8/27. I have been planning, organizing and hosting groups of anglers to fishing destinations in Montana, Belize, Venezuela and the Bahamas since 1998 and this was our 9th year at Crane Meadow Lodge.
The weather was cool and wet, with lows in the high 30's to low 40's and highs in the 50's, for the first few days of our trip. Conditions improved towards the end of our trip as the sun peeked out a little and warmed the air to the low 60's. Due to high water on the Ruby and Jefferson Rivers this year, we mostly fished the Beaverhead and Big Hole rivers as well as a couple of spring creeks and had good action with brown and rainbow trout.
Mike Perez and I fished several days with guide, Dave King, and had a couple of great days on "the Beav". We skated Crane flies, stripped streamers and drifted nymphs and caught and released brown and rainbow trout to 23". We also fished a spring creek one afternoon and had some action with browns on streamers. Nick Reding, Bob Reynolds and Howard Curtis had good action on the Beaverhead dry fly fishing with PMD's. Howard and Dennis Kinley each fished a day with guide, Dave, and Mike Perez, skating Crane flies on the Beaverhead and also had good action.
Dennis Kinley, Jim Ewoldt, Bob Harness and Bob Reynolds all fished the Big Hole and had action with dry flies. Dick Callaway and I had steady action one day floating the lower end of Beaverhead Canyon with guide, Brandon. On the last day, in the last hour of the trip, while fishing with Mike Perez and guide, Dave King, I caught my personal best rainbow, a fat 26" fish estimated at more than 8-pounds. We had a couple of big fish take a swing at our streamers but didn't hook up. We could see several big fish feeding in a lane and I finally got one to eat a nymph. We watched the fish move on the fly and eat, very cool!
The scenery is awesome in southwest Montana this time of year. The weather can get cool at any time in late summer in Montana and this year many mountain peaks were covered with fresh snow. We saw lots of big whitetail deer, several moose and a black bear in addition to numerous eagles, hawks and waterfowl. If you are interested in a quality western trout fishing experience, you should check out Crane Meadow Lodge (www.cranemeadow.com) or contact me for more info.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
Snook Fin-Addict Guide Service, Inc.
FFF Certified Fly Casting Instructor
(941) 923-7799
E-mail snookfin@aol.com
www.flyfishingflorida.net and www.snookfin-addict.com
