A short day on the Ruby
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Spent the 4th with friends in Ennis, MT. Watched the parade, the rodeo and all tourists on mainstreet. Spent the evening sipping wine at 7000 ft amongst the wildflowers. On the 5th, we spent the day traveling across the Gravelly Range to spend a couple of hours on the upper Ruby River where the word “selective” is not in the vocabulary of the prolific cut-bows. We dodged a thunderstorm for a couple of hours before having to head back to Ennis, this time over the south end of the Gravelly Range where the views and the wildflowers are beyond description. Every meadow was awash with every color of the rainbow as there were millions of wildflowers of every sort blooming. It is very difficult to describe the endless acreage covered with wildflowers up to 9000 ft.
The Ruby fished well with hoppers and stimulators along the cut banks and deep runs. All in all it was a good couple of days.
Typical Upper Ruby Runs
Typical Ruby River Cutt Bow
Some of the wildflowers of the Gravelly Range
Black Butte, highest point in Gravelly Range at 10,542ft
The vistas were tremendous
Strategy without Tactics is a Slow Route to Victory, Tactics without Strategy is the Noise Before Defeat - Sun Tzu
Very nice scenery, Mike. That is a beautiful stretch of river – I drove a big stretch of it a few years ago, but never did actually fish the upper river due to the access being a bit confusing. I don’t think I made it quite as high up as you were…although I also don’t know that river well enough to know exactly where you were from your photos. Looks like you’re having a great summer!
The stretch of the Ruby in the pics is ~ 30 miles south of Alder. The upper ~13 miles of the Ruby (above Cottonwood Creek) is all National Forest land. It doesn’t get much pressure and yes the summer has been great so far.
Strategy without Tactics is a Slow Route to Victory, Tactics without Strategy is the Noise Before Defeat - Sun Tzu
Great photos Mike. I loved fishing the Ruby. Besides the fish, things that stood out was the disposition of the landowners on parts of it. We entered at the Vigilante access and walked downstream a good ways. We were fishing downstream and met a guy (apparently a guide but not sure) with two other anglers moving upstream. He wanted to know how we got to that part of the river since he apparently had access across private property and couldn’t believe someone would walk that far (it wasn’t really all that far a hike). We politely turned back and fished back up stream. Another day I went down to a bridge south of Alder, there was a public access point there with a porta-potty, etc. The road went west off of Ruby river rd., had a 90 degree turn to the left and then crossed the river. We had to crawl thru some barbed wire that was illegally attached to the bridge. A couple trucks would see us in the river and stop near us in what I assumed to be a weak attempt at intimidation. We just ignored them. We went back to the Ruby on a later trip and it looked like that access area was no longer there. I don’t remember the name of it. Just a little ways upstream was a nice new house built right on the river which I was wondering if it belonged to one of the infamous guys that think they own the river. I had a friend who fished just below the dam who said some guy carrying a shotgun walked the bank the whole time they were fishing. I just read today an article printed in Bozeman Outside by John Holt who pulls no punches about the stream access attacks by the wealthy litigants. We all need to stay vigilant and not be intimidated to give up our rights.
I plan on living forever, so far so good.
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