Epic Trip Report, Part 2 – Man Down on River X (pic heavy)
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My Dad and I hit the road again and headed to River X, which is by far the most beautiful river I have ever fished. The river was chock full of fat cutthroat trout, with rumors of them being caught up to 25[ch8243]. We went ahead and loaded up our packs and hit the trail, hiking in about 2 miles and then climbing down to the river. This is no place for the faint of heart, access to the river requires a fairly substantial downward climb even in the easiest places to access it. We wound our way down the slope to the river and got a whopping 15 minutes of fishing in before a monster storm blew in. We were socked in under an all out down-pour and hail storm for about a half hour or so, waiting it out under a tree. The storm shelter tarp that my Dad has carried around for the last 25+ years finally came in handy. The storm finally broke and we hit the river in search of the storied cutthroats. Soon enough, we were hooked up and had fish to hand.
Unfortunately, disaster struck in the form of my Dad slipping on one of the super slick rocks. To make a long story short, he tweaked his ankle, managed to climb out from the river and hike back to the car by some miracle, we headed into town and got it x-rayed. Spiral fracture of the distal fibula with complete separation of the two pieces of the fibula. On top of that, numerous ligaments were torn. Needless to say, my Dad was down and out for the rest of the trip, so he made arrangements to fly home early and flew out mid-day on Saturday. He’s now back home safe and sound, and goes under the knife this week to get all fixed up. It was a really unfortunate turn of events, and I feel awful that it happened. Hopefully it will heal up well and he’ll be back on the water before too long.
After getting my Dad on his way, I headed back to River X and continued to hook up with beautiful cutthroat after cutthroat. I’ve fished a lot of rivers, and I can honestly say that this is the most beautiful river I have ever fished. I also had the coolest fishing experience of my life. River X is home to a small population of Bull Trout, a rare trout that is currently protected in Montana as a threatened species. It is illegal to specifically target bull trout, but there is nothing illegal about observing them, and that I did. I hooked into a decent sized cutthroat in one of the BIG pools, and was bringing the fish in toward me. Out of nowhere, two HUGE (think 36″+) bull trout came screaming out of the depths of the pool at about 100mph after the fish I had hooked. Keep in mind, the cutthroat that I have hooked is a decent fish, in the 14[ch8243] range. It goes absolutely CRAZY, flying from one side of the pool to the other, trying to escape the bulls. Soon enough, I see my fish head for the depths in one last effort to escape. I feel a hard tug on my rod, it starts pulling hard, and whatever is on the end of my line races upstream at a rate that I have never experienced before. This was a kind of power that I had yet to experience, not even the steelhead that I’ve caught have had this kind of power. The bull had won, eaten my cutthroat, and raced upstream with my fish in its mouth. My 5x snapped in a matter of about 1 second, but the memory of that scene will be etched into my brain forever. I had HUGE bull trout come out of the depths a few previous times chasing the cutthroats that I hooked, but they only ate it that one time. It was amazing to see those fish at work, there was nothing that was going to stop them from getting that meal. They are by far, the top predator of the river.
Here are a ton of pictures from my time up on River X. Enjoy. I’m heading south now to meet up with Corey K. in Wyoming on Friday.
I’ll try to group the pictures into relative categories. First up, scenery:
Next up, fish shots:
And finally, a tribute to Bull Trout:
Note: the above pictures does not do the Bull Trout justice. The cutthroat on my line is about a 16″ fish, and the bull was a good 36″ fish. Absolutely awesome.One last picture for those that requested the food shot. Here you have it, dinner at its finest:
I blew a flat tire in the boonies and decided I had better head toward a town and get it fixed. Unfortunately, they can’t get the tire until Thursday, so I’m heading back out to camp and fish for a couple days until the tire gets in. Pictures will surely follow.
Cheers,
TimTim .. Bummer about your dad, but glad he was able to make it out on his own. Sounds like you had an AMAZING adventure on river X. Looking forward to Meeting up on Friday! 😀
Great stuff Tim! Man I love river X! Have fun with Corey K! When you come back trough give me a shout!
Joel
That’s awesome Tim! I got a kick out of reading your report, particularly since I just fished this river for the first time last week. Your trip echoed ours in many ways, from the good to the bad. We had great fishing for cutts and had BIG bulls chasing our catch. I don’t know what a guy would do if he hooked into one of those big bulls there, you wouldn’t stand a chance. As we were hiking out of the canyon my dad slipped on a steep slope and twisted his knee pretty bad, bummer. What a place though, my bro in law caught a 22″ cutt, my biggest went 18″.
Are those griz tracks on the trail?
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