Harper Lake    MT

Crossed the border into Montana yesterday, and rolled into Missoula about mid-day.  Missoula is a pleasant college town and we took a little time to explore the campus of the University of Montana, and the downtown area.   We were originally planning to get to Great Falls by  day’s end, but while in town we heard the fishing was so good around Missoula that we decided we just might have to set up camp  somewhere along the Blackfoot River tonight  to try our luck.

After stocking up  on propane, firewood, ice,  etc,  we dropped in on a little tackle shop  in town to see what we might need to do some fishing. Being total city slickers, we were basically starting from square one with this fising stuff.  Turns out most of these shops here in Missoula are high-end boutiques geared toward fly-fishing- and toward guiding wealthy out-of-towners on $400 day-long fly fish outings   (why would anyone pay that much to fish for flies??).  They sized up me and my bait-fishing outlook pretty quickly,  and as a result sent me over to Ace Hardware. This was fine really, as all I needed was some bait and a license, or so I thought.  Unfortunately, as it would soon turn out, foregoing the purchase of a five dollar net would be the oversight that later on prevented us from hauling in the big one…

Just outside of town we turned North on Hwy 200, paralleling  the Blackfoot River, which was running very fast, while cruising along in the Behemoth which was moving as per usual: real slooooowww….!

After a few miles we stopped in at a little boat launch along the river to have a look.  From up close we confirmed what we had been seeing from afar.  This river is a raging torrent, unfit for any small watercraft- let alone one prone to tipping!

Chomping at the bit already about the fishing stuff, I was just about to grab my fishing rod when a fisheries warden, having spied our big red rocket up there on the roof, came by and asked if we were planning to drop the canoe in right there and right then.  We were not, we assured him,  which he found to be quite a relief.  I mean we may be tourists, but we’re not crazy!    According to his account,   a canoe party decided to give the river a go the previous week and  had flipped their boat not too far upstream from this very spot.    In general, with all the spring run-off,  we’re seeing  the rivers are looking pretty fierce out here this time year.  We just hope the Upper Missouri is a little more muy tranquilo…   Before parting ways, the warden gave us a few leads on some pretty decent fishing holes

In Montana, fishing spots along the highway are as plentiful as roadside diners back home.  Along Hwy 200 we kept seeing signs that said “Fishing Access” with a little picture of a fish and a hook, with the name of each specific river or lake. At the confluence of the Blackfoot and Clearwater rivers we came across one of these, which also happened to indicate there was a campground.  This sounded like pretty close to paradise to us, so we decided to pull in and set up shop.

After setting up camp right along the river, Amy grabbed a book and pulled up a chair at water’s edge.  Meanwhile I grabbed my rod, tackle and bait, and waded out into a shallow spot and threw my line into the Clearwater. However, turned out it was really shallow and fast moving and quite a few reeds in the water so my line kept getting snagged. After losing a few spoons, I was thinking maybe fly fishing is the way to go after all…   As it was, my only  catch that afternoon was someone else’s hook and leader, at which point I drew an analogy with fishing  to my golf outings- whereby for every ball I found, I would lose three…

The consolation prize at dinner was some Catfish we had purchased at Albertsons in Missoula.  Sigh….  But then when I went to fire up the camp stove, we found we had both neglected to bring a lighter or matches. Actually, Amy asked when we were packing if I had some, to which I replied yes.  Fortunately a few campsites over were a couple of firefighters doing some training in the area and they provided us with a lighter- plus some tips on really good fishing spots to boot!. These guys were all right.

We turned in pretty early, before nightfall even, and when I woke up and got out of the tent to heed nature’s calling, there were some of the most impressive stars in the sky you will ever see.  Except that I could not really see them, as I had taken my contact lenses out, and did not have my glasses handy.  Amy later got up and spent the next day raving about how magnificent they were.  With very little tree cover around us, it was like a 360 degree panorama of glittering starry skies.

In the morning we woke up thinking it was about 8.   But it was really a quarter to 6 and broad daylight out already.  Are we anywhere near Alaska up here?  We got up and whipped up some oatmeal with fresh cherries and peaches that we had purchased at a little roadside vendor-plus some nice French press coffee-  and headed out to Harper’s Lake, a few miles up the road.

After a wrong turn or two we soon found it- and were initially surprised that it was quite small.  One other boat besides ours- a row boat- was also in the lake. The sun was just coming up and the lake was like a sheet of glass so it was very peaceful to be out there.  Being a small lake turned out to be a good thing, as this kept the power boaters out. In addition to the rowboat, several other people were fishing from shore  so I thought these people must know what they are doing.  After rowing to the middle of the lake, I threw a night crawler on the hook and cast my line out- and waited, and waited. And waited.. All the while it seemed like everyone around us were hauling in 10 inch Rainbows, but I just got a couple of nibbles. Finally around 10AM, I said if we don’t catch something in half an hour, we’re done.

Not 5 minutes later I got a big bite  and started reeling in my line. While reeling I felt a lot of slack, so I thought it was just perhaps another nibble or a snag, but I kept the line coming in. Soon we saw a silver flash below the surface, and it looked pretty big. Quick:  grab the net!!  What?  We don’t have a net.   (Dang.. should have bought that net…) OK, here’s plan B:  we had a big plastic bag, which I thought would suffice  (OK, I did not think this whole fishing thing through evidently…). Back to the story:   after bringing him up near the surface I handed the rod to Amy and told her to bring him close to the boat and I would try to shoo him into the bag.  But just as we handed off the rod,  he leaped out of the water and wriggled loose from the hook, and with another flash was gone far below the surface.

Dang…. Looks like spaghetti for supper again.

Well, after an invigorating cool-down dip in the river, we were packed up and  back on Hwy 200 heading for Great Falls. All the while, lamenting the big one that got away…