ChuckNGaleRobbins.com
Order On the Fly Northern Rockies
On The Fly Northern Rockies describes over 50 top fly fishing destinations within Idaho, Montana and northern Wyoming. A vast sweep of jagged peaked, windswept, black timber-clad mountains, endless sagebrush prairie and foothills intertwined by wide, lush river valleys. A place where, in the short span of just a few steps, you might very well spook a grizzly bear or startle a rattlesnake, even catch a cold trout…or a bass…or who knows what might eat your fly next?
Fly fishers know the Northern Rockies as major trout country—cutthroat, brook, brown, bull or rainbow—and rightly so, since hardly a piece of water anywhere within the region doesn’t hold trout. Trout swim in our broadest rivers, most placid spring creeks, the tiniest tumbling mountain brooks, as well as prairie potholes, natural lakes and sprawling reservoirs. One and all potential trout waters, fly waters if you please. While the hardest part might be finding water doesn't hold trout many waters house other fish as well: bass, bluegill, carp, crappie, perch, pike, steelhead and salmon to name just those mentioned most in the following pages.
While the eighty-odd waters covered herein are certainly good spots to catch big fish potential size of catch had little influence in the final decision what to include or leave out. Rather the most important consideration was "Is this a fun spot or what?" Even a "pig factory" like Monster Lake would have failed to make the cut were it not for the presence of a fun-type guide like Steve Bassett. To my way of thinking there is way too much pretentiousness, way too many dour looks on fly fishers today. Hey, fishin' is fun, save the sour-puss-act for work, life's serious shit.
While this book attempts to sample the best of the best, the cream of the crop if you will, certainly there are other worthy candidates didn’t make the cut. On going drought claimed a bunch, on going problems such as whirling disease cut a few more, just plain loved-to-death claimed some others; especially if we thought perhaps the water in question might have suffered enough already at the hands of loose fingered scribes such as myself. And of course there were those not included just because there wasn’t time or space. Still, as you can plainly see, even at that the project grew into a pretty thick book.
What is included are descriptions and anecdotes gathered from our personal experiences fly fishing a large number of primo waters for a variety of fishes—some spots we go back a long way, others are relatively newfound friends, but you can bet the farm there are NO waters dealt with we can’t wait to get back.
To make this book as useful for you the traveling fly angler as possible we’ve gathered together as much information as possible, focusing not just on the fly fishing potential but on the best places we know to camp, the best places we’ve found to eat, the comfortable and friendly motels and lodges, who and where to contact for further information. Along those lines I would urge you to peruse the information thoroughly, check out the web sites, call the outfitters, call the agencies, call the fly shops, make the reservations, etc.. One last word of advice, if you can afford one hire a guide at least for the first day on any strange piece of water, believe me it will save you in the long run, big time.
Tight Lines,
Dillon, MT
2003