On the way to BYU-I Part 2

There are no fish in Montana!  At least for me today.  South from Missoula, stopped at the E Fork Bitterroot off the highway.  Pretty water, about the size of the upper Logan river, we fished a couple nice runs, nary rise, I didn't see a fish.  Enough of that.  On to Trail Creek, a tributary of the Bighole.  Not too large a creek, cold, pretty flat and meandering, fished a few run, not a rise, didn't see anything in the water.  Stopped at the Bighole Battlefield, nice visitors center and movie, drove down to the N Fork Bighole, a flat, meandering stream, and tossed a fly in a couple holes, nothing.  With so much smoke from fires that you couldn't even see the mountains, that was enough, let's get out of Montana.

We drove south from Wisdom towards Dillon, but turned off and found our way by gravel roads across Bannock Pass, down into Idaho and the Lemhi Valley.  The gazetteer showed a dotted line down along the road that led down from the pass (intermittent stream), but I soon noticed a small amount of water.  After passing a large side canyon, I thought I saw a good bit of water through the willows.  I started driving down the left side of the road to get a better look and looked down into a tiny stream, but big enough.  I quickly stopped and walked down the bank to the hole beside the road.  Five fish later, I came up and got my waders on.  Sarah stayed and knitted, while I worked my way upstream and found lots of small rainbows that acted like they had never seen a fisherman before, rising slowing to the hopper and sucking it in.  Just about anyplace you could get a fly that should have fish, had at least one.  Did I mention the willows?  Yeah, it was tough fishing in places, but what a hoot and a pleasant, unplanned, surprise. 

Canyon Creek rainbow

Canyon Creek

On to Rexburg via Birch Creek and a several mile section of BLM land.  Driving south through the wide, dry valley, all of a sudden, there is the rather large stream flowing through the sagebrush.  The BLM has a campground and access spread along a couple miles of the stream.  This was my last planned stop.  The stream is fast flowing, clear, cold, and not a lot of deep holes.  In the first little run, I found about five little rainbows.  Sarah came out and we fished a couple sections for an hour or so, and found a good number of fish.  Sarah got the biggest one of the trip, about 12 or 13 inches, but no photo as it fell off before I could get the camera out.  If you are in the area, this merits a stop, just to fish such a pretty stream in such an unexpected location. 

Birch Creek rainbow

Sarah fishing Birch Creek

On to Rexburg and preparing to kiss Sarah goodbye.