Saturday afternoon was our fly fishing trip and you could not have asked for better weather. It was very clear, the temperature could not have been better. Bruce wore shorts and a long sleeve fishing shirt. I was in capris and a short sleeve shirt but shorts would have been fine. I was a little worried about being cool on the river. We met out guide and loaded up in their vehicle and drive over to a launch point on north fork of the Flathead River. They use a rigid inflatable that holds three people, the guide is in the middle sitting lower down and the two people fishing have higher seating, one at each end of the boat.
We were told the person in the front gets the most coaching as that is the way the guide is facing so Bruce went up front. There is a place for you to stand up in front of your seat and they have a stand that you can lean in to help you balance. Below is a picture of the boat.
We got loaded and swiftly took off in the water. There were two boats being launched so we went further down the river with our guide to start our instructions while the other guide kept his boat close to the launch area. The guide then started giving us instructions and got Bruce started with his fly rod. Then he gave me a slightly shorter rod and started me casting the line out. If you are going to fly fish, go for the front seat. It is easier to cast when you are not worrying about hooking the guide, the boat and the oars. I managed to miss the guide but caught one of the oars and hooked the fly on the boat a few times. I could fish to my right or my left but not in front. Bruce had no one in front of him and the oars were behind with the guide so they were safe from him.
Despite being in the back seat, I caught the first fish. Did not realize I had a fish as I was checking out the scenery. Kept hearing the guide saying something about pulling up the line and thought he was talking to Bruce. They finally got my attention and I pulled up the line to discover this pitiful 1 1/2 inch long silver fish that looked like a minnow. Managed to get the line up enough to see it and then he dropped off the line.
I then caught a Bull Trout according to the guide. I will have to take his word for that as I never saw the fish. Apparently they are considered endangered and they rarely see them in this area. Because of their endangered status you cannot even pull them up out of the water. The guide caught the fish in the net while keeping it under the water, he then gave the net to Bruce to hold in the water while he bent over to get the fish loose. That took awhile because he had to make sure he did not damage the fish. Bruce said he was able to see the fish but because of where they were holding the net I never saw it. They got it loose and let it go.
I managed to catch one other cutthroat trout at which point I decided I had finished for the day. After two hours I handed in my rod and announced I was going to sit back and just enjoy the scenery. There were a few waterfalls created where streams/creeks fed into the river and of course some rapids.
Bruce caught 3 cutthroat trout all about the size of his hand, you are not allowed to keep them either but you can at least pull them up out of the water so you can see them. Below is a picture of Bruce holding one of his trout.
Bruce kept fishing the entire time until we got back to where we had to leave the river. I think the guide said we came out somewhere into middle fork of the Flathead river. In addition to the 3 Bruce caught he hooked several others but did not manage to get them to the boat. One of them was actually big enough I could see it while it was still in the water. The water is very clear with lots of beautiful rocks and with the sun shinning on it I found it very hard to see anything.
You can keep the rainbow trout but we never caught any of them. The guide was very good and very patient with untangling my line as I seemed to have an issue the first hour with tangling up my line. Bruce only did it once.
We had a good time and were off of the water around 6:00. If you are going to take up fishing it is nice to have a guide that does all the work. He launched the boat, did all the paddling and guiding through the rapids, fixed our lines, netted the fish, unhooked the fish, and took the boat out of the water and loaded it on the trailer. All we had do was sit back and cast the lines out. It was a very relaxing way to spend an afternoon with perfect weather.
The guide also gave us tips on what to see in the park and where to go to eat.
My sister Dora and her husband Wayne need to book one of the all day fly fishing trips. They even have multi day trips.