A Day At Rock Creek Cattle Company

After a long day of travel followed by a late night with Joel and Deb on our first night at the cabin, Monday morning started a bit slow.  I had fallen asleep on the couch by the woodstove and woke up several times during the night to add a piece of wood on the fire and fell back to sleep while peering out the window to a sky shining bright with stars.  There is a calm and quiet at the cabin that is tough to match anywhere.  I ended up sleeping on this couch for the rest of the week.  The veiw and proximity to the woodstove was just to excellent.

The fellows wanted to start the day with a good breakfast and coffee.  I lit three burners on the stove and got everything started.

I decided to make up a pot of grits, scrambled eggs, and sauteed up thin strips of steak in the frying pan.  Breakfast was warm and tasty.

With no electricity everything at the cabin, including making the morning coffee, is a bit of a process, but it really is nice to slow down and enjoy the day.

Joel drew us a napkin map which truth be told was missing a few turns.  Joel's excuse was he ran out of napkin space.  Our thought as we were lost on the Rock Creek Cattle Company property was that it might not be a good idea to get directions from Joel after a night of drinking beer and red wine. 

The Rock Creek Cattle Company property and it's facilities were really impressive and it was neat to have Joel sneak us on the property for a tour.  The fly shop was comfortable,  well equiped, and I'm a bit jealous that Joel calls this his office. 

Rock Creek Cattle Company guide, Ron Snow, picked out a few fly favorites for the area streams and stillwaters for the week.

The lost fly rod travel tube was found by airline staff and dropped off at Joel's house at 01:30 a.m.  Sorry for the wake up Joel...but great to have all nine fly rods back safe and sound.

Joel's suggestion for the afternoon was to fish one of the property ponds for large Westslope Cutthroats.  Dave, Mike, and I ended up getting blown around the pond for a couple of hours where I ended up with one good tug and one heavy cutthroat brought to the net. 

Joel spent the late afternoon taking us to a section of the Clarks Fork River where we tossed everything from dry flies to streamers. 

Dave found success fishing a small hopper up against the weeded banks.  Who would have thought that the trout would still be looking up at terrestrials in mid October.

I hucked meat all afternoon with a Nick Granato "Chubby Muffin".  A couple tugs but no connects. 

It was great to fish the Gypsy Rod Works built Steffen Brothers Fly Rods 8 1/2 foot 5/6 weight build.  I matched this build with a LOOP Opti Dry Fly reel and a Sharkskin six weight forward line.  This is an excellent big fly outfit and will certainly be on my "Out West" trip list from here on out.

Joel casting in the fading light.  He hooked up with a large brown trout just moments after this photograph was taken. 

The evening ended with the four of us walking back to the vehicles in the near dark.  Tired, a bit cold, and looking forward to getting back on the water the next day.