Bonefish on the Brain Bonefish and all that relates (maybe a bit about tarpon too).

We almost didn’t go. Smoke was thick up on the Yaak and my wife’s asthma was going to nix the trip, but the smoke blew away, as smoke does, and the trip was back on.

Instead of smoke, our week up on the Yaak River in NW Montana was accompanied mostly by clouds, a bit of rain, and cooler temps. That did put a little bit of a kabosh on the fishing, but there were still some highlights.

This corner of Montana doesn’t get written up too much and people don’t find themselves up here by accident. It isn’t really on the way to anything, or from anything, it is just up there all on its own. People have to head here on purpose.

My in-laws live on the Yaak, a pretty little free-stone with loads of trout in it. Loads and loads of tiny, little, finicky, temperamental, temperature sensitive trout.  I never seem to get to look at this river when it has water in it. I’ve seen it in December, when most of the water is frozen up in the mountains. I’ve seen it in September when all that water is mostly through the drainage (no dams on Yaak). They float this river in the Spring, but you’d have trouble getting an inner-tube down it in September.

Dark skies, cloudy, cool weather.

The picture above was me getting mostly worked by the Yaak. So much good water, water that hadn’t been touched in a long, long time, and had nothing in it interested in eating. It seems when the cooler temps hit the water, the fish just shut their mouths. I caught fish, but if things were going well it would have been fish after fish after fish. I’ve seen that happen here, just not this year.

I did stick some fish on the river, even got my son out in the backpack to do some fishing on one of the decent weather days.

The boy in the backpack… good stuff.

The Yaak does have trout, this is a big one for that bit of water.

That fish is from riiiiiiight there.

On his way.

It is pretty pretty up there.

Other stories, coming soon…

• My daughter, again, crushes 20 trout on a little creek.
• My dad and I float the Kootenai
• I get my wife out fishing (rules to follow were 1. no wet feet, 2. she didn’t have to touch the fish)

My in-laws live up in the Yaak River Valley. You’ve likely never heard of it. It is in Montana, but doesn’t make too many fishing magazine covers. It isn’t one of the sexy MT rivers you’ve read all about. This is where the family and I spent Labor Day weekend.

It’s a beautiful freestone river and fluctuates with the seasons and the annual precip totals. It’s not supposed to be “on” right now, but, it totally was.

The Yaak River, Montana

Let’s just say I crushed up there. Hopper/Dropper was the key and if the sun was on the water, it was fast and furious.

The fish weren’t big, but they were plentiful. I even had the odd surprise, like this 17″ feisty rainbow caught right in front of my in-laws place with everyone watching.

Nice Yaak bow

I’d say most of my fish on the trip were under 9″, but there were just so many of them! It is the kind of river I love at these late summer flows. You get in, walk around, cast at pocket after pocket after pocket. You are constantly on the move and if something isn’t working, you can adjust quickly because the feedback is so immediate.

A nice little Yaak bow, returning to the river.

My girl LOVED Montana. She especially loved riding on the ATV with Grandma and Grandpa, but she also loved the snake we briefly detained,all the fish, the big grass field, the woods and pretty much all the good stuff Montana has to offer. It was simply a fantastic Labor Day weekend. We hope this is the start of a Montana Labor Day tradition.

Looking forward to the return trip.

Awesome.