Montana ... take two :)

[UofMontanaAlum]

4:15PM CST 07/10/2008

I'm at it again. Leaving for another 11 days in Big Sky Country. This time I will be at a family friend's cabin which is situated on Swan Lake. Swan Lake is near both the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Glacier National Park.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/Elmobile/MontanaMap.jpg

There are two areas I am looking forward to fishing on this trip. The first is the South Fork of the Flathead. I've read many articles about this fine stretch of water and hearing about the size and quantity of native cutthroat trout really gets my blood pumping. The second is a back country river that my dad and I scouted the last time we were doing some ATVing. The river is near the boarder of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. I'm hoping it turns out to hold some fish. We'll see.

My wife and I drive up from Des Moines IA to Minneapolis MN tonight. We catch a flight out of MSP into the Great Falls International Airport tomorrow at noon. From there we drive 6 hours out to Swan Lake.

Just like my "Bill and Scott's Excellent Adventure" post, I will keep this updated as much as possible with pictures and stories.

:biggrin:

[Butte Irish]

We miss again.

I was in Seely for the 4 th and had a great time. visiting family and will be back in Whitefish July 20 for the FFF conclave. I hope to fish a bunch. & will be tieing flies at the show on Friday and Saturday.

Butte Irish

[UofMontanaAlum]

I'm finally back home and have a second to cover my trip.

First off, fishing was minimal. I fished 4 times the entire trip. We were just too busy to get out. We spent most of our time relaxing and enjoying time with our family and friends that we only get to see 2-3 times per year.

We took our STAR boat out again on a few small Montana mountain lakes and had fun fishing. Nothing to brag about and I didn't even take pictures of the fish.

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Drive up to Swan Lake ...
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/Elmobile/P7110013.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/Elmobile/P7110032.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/Elmobile/P7110033.jpg

First night fly fishing the Swan River ...
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/Elmobile/P7160046.jpg

First night campfire view ... (looked like this everynight :biggrin:)...
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/Elmobile/P7170086.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/Elmobile/P7170087.jpg

Continued ...

[UofMontanaAlum]

These were from an ATV trip my dad and I took on Crane Mountain ... (looking down over Swan River Valley and Swan Lake.) ...
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/Elmobile/P7190097.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/Elmobile/P7190096.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/Elmobile/P7190100.jpg

It sure is hard to leave this kind of beauty (headed back to Great Falls from a wonderful week at the cabin) ...
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/Elmobile/P7200108.jpg

Overall it was a great vacation. Even though it wasn't as "fishing packed" as our trip earlier this year ( http://littleriveroutfitters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10673 ), it was just nice to be home again.

[pineman19]

Montana Alum,

Awesome looking country! Maybe one day I will get to visit that part of the world.

Thanks for sharing,

Neal

[jeffnles1]

Beautiful pictures of beautiful country.

Thanks for sharing,
Jeff

[Grampus]

Montana Alum, aka Grizz Man

Enjoyed your Swan River photos. I journeyed to the Swan River Valley, namely Condon, in 1994. Spend a few nights fishing the necklace lakes in the Bob just up from Holland Lake.
I didn't see any information from your trip regarding the South Fork of Flat Head. Did you get to fish it on your trip? I fished it about this time last year. We went in from Kalispell and traveled upstream (south) roughly 25 miles from the trailhead. The fishing was great that far up. Plenty of 20 inch cutts coming from the depts to rise on huge hoppers!!! Of 30 years of flyfishing, one day there we really got into the fish and ranks in my top 5 fishing days ever. Unfortunately, we had only 5 days in and had to work our way out. The further downstream we hiked, the smaller the cutts became. There were forest fires literally all around us, making the air really smoky and views absent. Still, a pretty good trip.