Trip Report: Montana v Wisconsin

This afternoon I got out for a short two hour outing. On my way down to the river I thought about the differences between trout fishing in Montana versus Wisconsin. So far I do not have as much experience in Montana but I have a pretty good idea of what it's all about. Rivers in Wisconsin vary from sand county brook trout steams to the brown trout filled spring creeks of the southwestern corner of the state. Wisconsin's native trout is actually a char, the brook trout. In Montana there are many spring creeks but the majority of the nationally renowned streams are freestone streams, fed by runoff and smaller creeks. Montana's native trout include the cutthroat and bull trout. Both states have rainbows, brookies, and browns in common. Wisconsin's trout streams, especially those of central Wisconsin, run through dense woods, making fly casting very difficult and often impossible. Stream substrate varies from quick sand like muck to sand to boulders. I have not yet found any sandy or muck bottomed streams here in Montana. After contemplating more differences I decided I missed the challenge of casting to skittish trout so I headed toward a section of my home stream that's dense with underbrush.

This spot was very shallow and actually had some mucky spots which made heading down stream difficult. The good thing about this spot is that I don't think anyone has every fished here! It was full of brookies.

This thick brookie hit the deer hair stimi. Rather than a dead drift I stripped the fly up stream and it drove the brookies crazy. I caught around 20 out of this stretch, but gave up after getting hung up in the brush too much. 

Once I got back to where I parked I decided to head up stream a little ways to see if I could find any deep runs. At this spot the river split, flowing around a gravel bar. This pool gave up a couple surprisingly nice fish.

These guys both fell for the elk hair caddis on consecutive casts! They both measured around 12 inches. After a short while heading up stream I decided to try fishing a spring pond in the middle of a section of river. In Wisconsin there are many remote spring ponds, usually with muck bottoms and woody banks. Montana has more alpine lakes fed by cold glacial melt water. This spring pond is probably not a true spring pond. There are springs seeping from the shorelines, but the river flows in and out. Usually a spring pond acts as the headwaters of a stream.

I fished from the gravel bar. With fish surfacing all around me I didn't have to be too accurate with my casts. I watched for fish to surface, waited until the surface ripples dissipated, then cast toward the spot. I ended up pulling in quite a few little brookies and some ok sized rainbows from the current seam. I also caught a few just casting randomly. Overall it was a nice trip. I got to be out side, sneak up on some trout, and pull 'em in!