The Nez Perce, Bighole River, Brookies and Graylings

Carol and I left our mountain retreat on the West Fork of the Bitteroot and traveled up the East Fork along route 43 to the little village of Wisdom, Montana to fish the Big Hole River. We took this route for two reasons. First we wanted to miss the city of Missoula and its 20 mile-long strip mall. Second... I forgot the other reason.

The Big Hole National Battlefield is on the North Fork of the Big Hole River and we stopped by to learn about the battle that was fought there August 9-10, 1877. This was a very nice park and the movie that explained what had happened was disconcerting. This was not America's finest hour. The 7th Infantry led by Colonel John Gibbon attacked the Nez Perce village at dawn and were ordered to fire low and into the teepees of the sleeping Indians. The 7th Infantry killed many women and children, as well as braves, in this surprise attack. Many braves escaped, re-formed, then charged the 7th Infantry, killing many of the soldiers. The few soldiers that were left dug in and held off the braves. The counterattack by the braves allowed their wounded to escape capture. Click here for more information on the plight of the Nez Perce and this battle.

Wisdom is a small, quaint, prairie cow town set on the upper reaches of the Big Hole. There is a small grocery store, a small trinket/art store that served latte-style coffee and had wifi, and a couple of restaurant/bars. Given our experience with the Bitterroot, Jack wanted to fish the upper part of the river. Plus, 20 miles upstream in the next, even smaller, town there was a hot spring that William Clark visited on the return of the Lewis and Clark expedition. After lunch we decided to stay at a free (donations suggested) American Legion campground where several motorcyclists were camped. Jack had been reading the Montana fishing regulations and noted that he could keep up to 20 brook trout each day. Brook trout are not native to Montana and apparently the state would like to reduce their numbers. If you have ever eaten trout, you might know that brook trout (which are actually a char, not a true trout) are delicious. So Jack decided he would keep any brook trout he caught and we would eat them. Jack suited up for fishing while Carol went birding, took photos, and worked on her latest book project.

Fishing the Big Hole at Wisdom

Our camp lay on the west bank of the Big Hole. A bridge crossed the river and led to the town. Fences and barbed wires were run on all four corners of the bridge to prevent cattle from entering the road. I had thought that the banks of all Montana trout streams were fenced up to 10 feet away from the river to prevent cattle from entering the stream and to provide access to the stream by fisherman. Apparently this is only the case on the sections of the Yellowstone River (outside the National Park) that I fished several years ago.

Knowing that the highway bridge was state property and once in a stream that fishing rules in Montana allow you to fish any river, I climbed over the fence, being careful to stay on the bridge abutment, and dropped into the water. I waded downstream and found a good spot to fish. It didn't take me too long before I had a hard fighting fish on a fly that was reminiscent of my "Big Gaudy" from last year's trip. To my surprise, the fish was a 12-inch brook trout so I kept it. Because I had stopped killing trout years ago, I only had my net with me to carry the fish. So I decided to stop fishing and head back to camp. Later that night after meeting and chatting with our motorcyclist friends at the campground, Carol and I enjoyed dining on that brook trout. Only thing missing was a nice cool glass of Chardonnay.

I caught the 12-inch brook trout on this fly. Note the bunch of white fuzzy material attached to the body.

The Big Hole in Wisdom is fairly large. I could reach the far bank with my flyrod and "Big Gaudy" fly.

The next day we headed headed north to Jackson in search of more Big Hole waters to fish and to test out the hot springs. The Clark expedition had broken all their thermometers so Clark came up with the idea of hanging a piece of meat from a stick into the water to test how long it took to cook through. Turns out the temperature of the spring is about 150 degrees F. It's cooled to 105 degrees F for soaking.

Before we soaked, we checked out a spot for fishing. All land looked like it was surrounded by private property. As Carol and I stood on a bridge on a dirt road puzzling over how I could gain access to the water, a ranching family came by in an ATV. I waved, and Carol stopped them and asked the rancher if we could fish from their property. The rancher graciously gave us his permission. It's really nice having Carol scouting places for me to fish. [Carol: I got excited at the prospect of actually eating some fresh trout! It's been YEARS since Jack has kept a trout, and brook trout are my favorite eating!]

We are about 20 miles upstream here. I waded in on the left of the bridge.

The Big Hole is much smaller near Jackson. Great water for brook trout.

I fished the stream for about 2 hours and caught a bunch of brook trout on a grasshopper imitation. I threw 6 fish on the bank for supper. After I finished fishing I could only find 3 of the 6 fish. I suspect when I was not looking, some bird or animal took off with the other 3 fish.

These were destined for our stomachs, after we got a chilled bottle of Chardonnay.

After fishing, Carol and I soaked in the hot spring. Ahhhh... A fellow came up to me and asked how I did fishing. Turned out that this fellow was a high school teacher from Spokane, Washington and was involved with a biology arctic graylings genetics project which involved 19 kids from his class. He explained to me that arctic graylings were in the nearby inlet and outlet streams of the Miner Lakes about 10 miles up into the mountains. These lakes and the grayling trout are left over from the last Ice Age and these fish are found only in a few spots in the U.S., mostly in Alaska. These are apparently the only river grayling (called "fluvial grayling") left in the lower 48 (there are lake grayling in other places).

Arctic Grayling about to be released back into the water.

Fishing the lake outlet stream in the morning.

I've always wanted to catch a grayling and Carol wanted to see one, as they have a spectacular large dorsal fin, like a sailfish. So we decided to stay another day and travel up to those lakes.The 10 mile dirt road was slow going, but well worth the trip. The place is beautiful. We found a path leading to the inlet stream for the lakes and Carol and I hiked the path. I almost immediately caught a grayling. Unfortunately, it was a female and so did not have the big dorsal fin that the males have. I hooked several more before dark, but they all got off. We spent a very cold night in the Roadtrek covered with three blankets. I tried fishing the outlet in the morning, but was not able to catch another grayling. Maybe in our next trip we will return to the Miner Lakes.

Then we took off in the RoadTrek and headed to Dillon to fish the Beaverhead River, next on my "bucket list."