December 14th Meeting 7:00 P.M. (come about 6:30 P.M. for Social/Raffle)
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Program: Fly Fishing the South Fork of the Flathead River in the Bob Marshal Wilderness of Montana
Presentor: Tom Piccirilli - Past President of South Platte Chapter of T.U.
The South Fork of the Flathead is a wild westslope cutthroat fishery and when the season is open anglers are allowed to fish for bull trout (dolly varden). The South Fork flows through the largest area of designated wilderness in the lower 48. It is about 1.5 million acres and 385 miles around and located just south of Glacier National Park In addition to great fishing this wilderness has incredible scenery, solitude, seclusion and a healthy population of grizzly bears. Last year we fished 4 full days and saw 2 fishermen one day and they were about ¼ mile downstream. Access is by foot or horseback only. I have fished the South Fork 11 times since 1993 and have used horses, backpacked and also rode in on a horse while packing a river raft and floating out. My preference is to ride a horse in and out. We usually ride in 27 miles which takes about 11-12 hours, set up camp, fish four or five days and then take a day to ride out.
The westslope cutthroat is a blue collar fish and pound for pound much stronger than any Colorado cutthroat, rainbow, brown or brook trout. On an average day one can expect to bring maybe 25-30 fish to the surface and land about 15 - 20. Average size of the fish run between 11 – 15 inches and usually a couple of 20 inch trout will be caught during the trip. These fish readily take the basic attractor dry flies such as humpies, royal wulffs, renegades parachute adams and elk hair caddis in sizes 10-16. Finesse is rarely required when fishing for these trout and a 9 foot rod with 4x or 5x tippet works fine. If fishing below the surface, conehead muddler minnows, and conehead wooly buggers in size 8-10 (olive/black yellow) work great. When fishing for Bull trout which can weigh up to 15 pounds one must use 0X to 2X leader with plenty of weight.
Meetings are normally the Second Thursday of each month in Gander Lodge at Aurora GANDER MTN. (Click here for map and more)
