TR: Glacier National Pike

The mini-clave at Glacier National Pike didn't find as much park as we
expected. Somehow that didn't come out right, but there's not much
wind here, so you'll probably get my drift.

My son Andy and I arrived Saturday just after noon and found Warren
missing, but John Hightower and George Miller were in the Many Glacier
campground waiting for us. Warren Findley, Mark Tinsky, and Mark's
friend Vicki showed up in the evening, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Andy and I helped George and John set up for pike, and we headed out
to the lake to a few of my old reliable spots. The wind was strong
enough to raise white-caps, but not quite strong enough to preclude all
casting so we thrashed the water for three or four hours to no avail.
We had a good dinner of chicken and dumplings, aided considerably be
George's wandering all the way to St. Marys to get more chicken because
I hadn't planned for enough folks. After dinner the rain came and
stayed for the night, a Seattle rain - not hard, but steady.

In the morning John cooked us bacon, eggs, sausage, and hash browns and
we waddled off to the lake. We arrived just as the wind picked up.
After trying the last of my favorite spots, we sat down for lunch and
decided the fish must be up at the inlet. Andy and Mark were a bit
discourage by the lack of pike, and fished the Swif****er River between
the lake and the dam. The rest of us hiked out to the inlet where the
river dumps into the lake, fishing the river as we went for pike. No
sign of any fish until I stumbled on a pair of 6 or 7 pound fish just
where the river turned into a lake. George hooked one, but it broke
off at the wind knot in his leader. With all the wind and the bulky
flies, wind knots were a problem. John landed one about like mine, and
Warren had a short strike that didn't result in a hookup. Those three
turned out to be the only pike we caught. Not my worst trip here, it
didn't snow, the wind stayed below 30mph, and we got more than one fish.

Monday we got up early to beat the wind. It was calm and cool and the
sky was clear. We hiked around the west end of the lake, covering a
good two miles of shoreline without so much as a strike. Some trout
were rising for something like #14 calibaetis, but when we considered
changing gear the wind came and ended the hatch. Lots of good water,
no fish, I'm still puzzled.

Monday afternoon George had the sense to go home, Mark and Vicki took a
beautiful drive up the Going to the Sun Highway, and Warren, Andy, and
I hiked up the shore of Upper St Marys Lake to the St Marys river and
worked it for trout. Warren hooked some small trout below the falls, I
got a couple, and Andy hooked a few whitefish. Another quiet outing.
We had Polish made Pizza and slinked back to camp with our tails
between our legs.

Tuesday morning George went to work, John, Warren, and Mark went home,
and Andy and I drove in the rain over the Going To The Sun highway in
search of sun and trout west of the park. We got to the trailhead at
4:00, hiked 2.5 miles to the lake, caught a couple dozen 8-12 inch
cutthroat and hiked out in the dark. The next morning we hiked 4.8
miles in to the lake that was supposed to be better, and caught many
fish, fifty or more each, almost all between 11 and 12 inches. The
biggest might have made 13. The place was gorgeous. We saw a cougar
track on the trail as we went in. In the evening as we hiked out we
spooked a black bear about 50 yards from us and watched him go over the
mountain. As we took a break on the trail, a nanny goat and her kid
came down to the lake about a hundred yards back, near where we'd seen
the bear. We took a couple long distance pictures, and she disappeared
down the lake away from us. About 5 minutes later they came back on
the trail and passed within 50 feet of us. Lots more good pictures,
and then she went off down the trail towards our car. We gave them a
few minutes and followed to find that they were on the trail blocking
our way. We finally had to scramble down the scree, around the goats
and then scramble back up to walk out. OK, I'll name it, the Jewel
Basin Hiking area east of Big Fork, Birch and Crater lakes.

Thursday Andy and I drove home, stopping for 15 minutes on the Clark
Fork and catching nothing, them stopping again at Vantage on the
Columbia looking for carp, but only catching one 14 inch smallmouth.

I hope Kevin did better at Devils Lake.

Chas
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