I was away on a family vacation during the week of 8/5. When I returned I hosted a group of 8 fly anglers at Crane Meadow Lodge in Twin Bridges, MT during the week of 8/12. This is an annual trip for me and was our 12th year at the lodge. John Freeman, Jr., from Osprey, FL, and I traveled together from Tampa and met up with Bob Reynolds, Joe Erndle, Jim Ewoldt and Gene Gabianelli, all from the St. Louis, MO area, Mark Leidy, from Steamboat Springs, CO and Mike Perez and Dennis Kinley, from IN, in Bozeman on Monday afternoon, 8/12 and made the 90-mile drive west to the lodge in Twin Bridges. We fished the Beaverhead, Ruby and Madison rivers and several spring creeks, either wading or floating, where we caught and released mostly brown trout along with a few rainbows. Many fish were caught with a variety of dry flies including crane fly and hopper patterns. A hopper/dropper combo with a nymph under the hopper accounted for many of the fish.
John Freeman and I waded the Ruby and Beaverhead rivers with guides Tyler Barrus and Dave King a couple of days and had good action with big browns and a few rainbows. Bob Reynolds and I also had good action floating the Beaverhead and wading with guide Tom Caffrey. Bob and Mark Leidy caught some big browns and rainbows wading the Ruby with Tom another day. Joe Erndle also had good action with nice browns and rainbows while wading and floating the Beaverhead and Ruby rivers with several of the guides.
Mike Perez and I fish together and had a good day skating Crane flies and later wading with guide Dave King on the Beaverhead one day. Dennis Kinley and John Freeman, Jr. also had good action on Crane flies and hoppers the same day. Mike caught a huge brown while wading the Ruby with Dave another day. Jim Ewoldt and Gene Gabianelli had a couple of good days floating the Beaverhead and wading a spring creek with guides Dan and Tom. Action was similar for everyone in the group with a few good days and a couple of slower days.
The weather and scenery in southwest Montana is outstanding. This year was a little warmer than previous years with low's ranging from the high 40's to low 50's and high temperatures from the high 80's to low 90's with low humidity. In addition to beautiful valleys surrounded by rugged mountains, the wildlife is amazing! We saw whitetail and mule deer, antelope, hawks, eagles, ducks, geese and sand hill cranes to mention a few. We also saw numerous moose and had one outside the lodge several mornings.
Back in Sarasota, catch and release snook around lighted docks and bridges and reds and trout on the flats should be good options. There should also still be some tarpon in the coastal gulf, in upper Charlotte Harbor or areas of Tampa Bay. Juvenile tarpon in canals and creeks of Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda should also be good options.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
FFF Certified Fly Casting Instructor
Orvis- Endorsed Outfitter Guide
CB's Saltwater Outfitters-2011 Orvis Outfitter of the Year
Snook Fin-Addict Guide Service, Inc.
(941) 923-7799
E-mail snookfin@aol.com
www.flyfishingflorida.net and www.snookfin-addict.com