Blackfoot River – Near Lincoln

August 10, 2008

I’ve been aching to fish the upper Blackfoot River for as long as I can remember. My dear father-in-law, Bill Mular, occasionally tested its waters in his travels, but always came back doubting that it had much of anything respectable in it. Now, Bill was truly a great fisherman. Before he passed away in 1997, the upper Blackfoot might well have been still on the mend. It’s certainly a handsome river nowadays and doesn’t seem to be overly fished during these days of high gas prices, at least. There was no shortage of traffic on U.S. 200, which hovers over this nice section, but I saw only one other fisherman. He quickly disappeared, leaving me a ½ mile or more of holes to myself, if I possibly could have fished them.

Taking advantage of good weather and dry roads up high, I took the direct route from Helena to Lincoln. That is, through about 50 miles of dirt roads and forest. The 63 mile (total) trip took two hours by fast motorcycle. It’s only about an hour by highway either across Flescher or MacDonald Passes, so I resorted to pavement most of the way back. The Dalton Mountain road cut, maybe, 10 miles off of the return trip back through Avon.

Water

The Blackfoot is crystal clear this time of year. These pictures don’t do it justice, but from the roadway, I could easily see to the bottom of the pools, which were 10-12’ deep in places, I’d guess. At each bridge and along the highway there were pools after pools

Wading in motorcycle boots and jeans, my feet and legs got a bit numb over a couple hours, so the water still has a bit of chill to it.

Fishing

I fished a hopper pattern most of the afternoon. Call me slow on the draw or what-have-you because I missed probably a dozen strikes. It must have been a bad hook. Yeah, that’s what it was. Once I switched to a different hopper, I caught this beautiful 15-16” cutthroat right away. Then a little brookie. Then missed a few more. Must have dulled the hook on this beauty. J It was a surprisingly plump fish for a river that has more rocks in it than vegetation. The fish must be getting something to eat!