Fishing - TR: Bitterroot/Rock Creek (Long winded!)

Although I'm back to reality, five days last week broken the cabin fever
that had a hold of me this year! My cousin (Sam) flew in from Virginia last
Tuesday night with plans to meet up with a long time fishing buddy (Scott)
over on the Bitterroot Wednesday afternoon. I had not fished with Sam since
last May/June when we were up in Alaska, so we had allot of catching up to
do. We sat up till nearly 3:30 in the morning, had a couple beers and a good
chat.

Wednesday morning came quick, I woke at 6:30 AM and couldn't go back to
sleep due to the excitement and anticipation of the trip ahead. About 7:30
AM I woke Sam, due to the 3 hours time difference and the late night, I
think he was in shock when I opened the bedroom door and said "Let's go
fishing!" After a nice breakfast prepared by my bride (bless her heart, she
just gave birth to Lily Marie two weeks ago and hasn't missed a beat) and a
quick stop over at my folks for a short visit, we were out the door and on
the road. We stuck our favorite music in the CD player and reminisced about
trips
past. After what felt like a short drive (about five hours) with good
laughs, stories and conversation we arrived at the Willow Creek Ranch (the
place that we would be spending the next four nights)
http://www.vrbo.com/19816
to meet up with Scott. After the hello's and hand shakes, we went inside to
talk stream flows and discuss our options for the following morning.
Needless to say, a late night with good stories, passing a Crown bottle and
a great steak dinner prepared by Scott took place.

The next morning we were a little slow getting up, but managed to shower
(this was a major bonus, we generally camp and the morning wake up is a cold
outhouse followed by no shower) and get out the door about 9:00 AM, we
stopped at the Frontier for a great breakfast (as always) and then a stop to
visit with a good friend (Chris and bus. partner Robert) and owners of the
River Otter fly shop
http://www.riverotterflyfishing.com/...terflyfishing/
to schedule a shuttle and get the last minute river conditions. Given the
flow at Darby of 960 cfs, it appeared that our best bet would be fishing the
upper river, so we decided on fishing Hannon to Wally. This is an 11 mile
float, with the longer days and the river flowing so high, getting on the
water at about noon was not an issue to make this float before dark. We
started out fishing skwala dries w/ a San Juan dropper occasionally
switching over to grey drakes when we found risers in pools. We had about
18 - 24 inches of visibility, the fishing was not hot by any stretch,
however between the three of us, we boated 12 - 15 fish with the largest
about 17 inches. We didn't catch any dinks, most of the fish ranged 12 -15
inches, however we generally pick up a few fish this time of year at or over
20 inches. Overall, we were very happy with the dry fly fishing considering
the high flows. We arrived at the Wally take out just before dark. After a
short drive to the Ranch, we setup the video cameras so we could view
footage of previous years and our adventure to Alaska. We rounded out the
evening with a Lasagna, coleslaw and garlic bread dinner that my wife had
prepared for the trip. Gotta love the dinner that you can put
in the oven and 45 minutes later it's ready to go!

A few photos:
http://www.snapfish.com/home/t_=34666013
Choose Spring Root '06

Day two started out very similar to the previous, the only problem this time
was the call that we had made to Chris. He informed us that they had opened
up the Painted Rocks Reservoir dam and the river was up to nearly 1600 cfs
at Darby. After looking at the river, it was way up and off color. We
decided to hit breakfast and discuss our options. After much deliberation,
we decide to take a drive and see what Warm Springs had to offer. After a
2.5 plus hour drive, the river looked okay, however we had about a 40 mph
wind with higher gusts... We scratched that idea and started for upper Rock
Creek. After another 2 plus hours, we arrived to a high running Rock Creek.
After tailgating with some snacks and a couple beers, we suited up and
started looking for access. We fished large stone nymphs with various other
droppers off the stone. We only caught a few fish and it started getting
dark. After a long drive back to Willow Creek, we had some dinner, a nice
roast with all the goodies thanks to Scott. I was shot, after 360 miles of
windshield time, and the previous two late nights, the bed was sounding
really good.

Day three unfortunately started with news that the Bitterroot had not
changed and was still flowing at the same bloated 1600 cfs. After breakfast
we decided a drive was not in the plans so we went up and floated the same
section from day one. It was more of a float trip that anything, we fished
the entire day, but did not boat a fish. We had a couple fish chase yellow
buggers off the bank, however that was all we had for the entire day.
Despite the fishless day, it was nice to be on the water with good friends.
We rounded the day out with a nice chicken dinner purchased by Sam and
prepared by Safeway... :)
Knowing this was the last night of the trip, we stayed up late telling
stories and laughing about the trip.

The next morning was a bit of a drag, I knew this would be the end of the
trip and my cousin (still has his place in Boise, but is on a two year gig
with his company in VA.) would be riding back to his house in Boise with
Scott. After packing up and saying goodbye it was back on the road for home.
The drive started out a bit somber, however I turned it around by throwing
some good tunes in the radio and reminiscing about the trip and how luck I
felt about spending some time fishing with two great friends.

Feeling fortunate,
JT