Sunday, March 25, 2012

Trip Report: Down The Valley Swan

Today the wife and I traveled down the Swan with the intention of hiking to a waterfall a few miles by snowy trail into the Flathead Nat'l Forrest. We figured the trail would be closed and it was, so we stopped at a few spots and took photos of the mountains. The Swan Valley sits between the jagged Mission Mountains and the dramatic Swan Range which give life to the Swan River which flows through the valley. 
 I've heard that these ranges both have some great alpine lake fishing! It will only be a short matter of time before I find out for myself. When we checked the road to the trailhead we spotted some deer.
And some Elk! We turned around after 1 mile on the 3 mile road to the trailhead due to snow and rutting.
These roads were probably pretty treacherous a few weeks ago. After the drive I went to the Flathead River to try my luck with the fly. I hoped to see some early caddis but all I found were bwo's, midges, and small stoneflies. I saw a lot of fish rising so I tied on the caddis to test the cutthroats reputation of being easy prey. 

I caught around a dozen of these green backed little guys and a few bigger ones, but none of note. It was just nice to get out fishin' in some nice weather.

No comments:

Post a Comment