Touch of Winter

Dec 1 Update: Some updates for the upcoming 2017 season, including one big one! Click the new page above "Montana Spring Hatch Tour"!!
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It seems "finally" winter is coming here in Paradise Valley. Days are getting shorter and we have started to have snow flurries so often (not giant heavy packs yet).
On Sunday 27th, it was one of those days "just between" sunny and stormy weathers. It was mostly cloudy but NO winds at all, just a very light snow shower from 9-10am. Renee and I picked a perfect day to fish DePuy's Spring Creek.
We got one stretch to ourselves. Just as we strung our lines through rod-guides, we noticed something.

Ohhhh the bull moose from late October!!! He's been hanging along the creek!!

   
Actually we noticed him by first spotting people looking at the creek from highway..........
Yes, moose is rarer to see, compared to other ungulates, however, do we need to remind these people that they were randomly pulling over and standing unsafely on HIGHWAY 89 !!??  This is not an Yellowstone Park road!! Vehicles are legally driving 70MPH on one lane US Highway!!!!

I set Renee upstream and I started fishing upstream toward her from where we were close to moose. Originally it was other way around but it worked OK. While I was not even spooking trout, she started getting good actions!!

A good starter!!

She went on.

I finally started to catch up with her!

These were nice rainbows in one spot!!

She has mastered the "Shotgunning" or Shotgun Nymphing"!!

Nice brown after I stole a spot from her😁

Lunch break was in Anglers' Hut. Warming up with the woodstove, we greatly appreciated what DePuy's offers other than fishing!

In the afternoon, we encountered hatches and rises. It was almost all identical to Bighorn the other day = midges then baetis. We were at Annie's Run, which is a never-easy stretch. We hooked a few but they got off before net or camera. It was good experience for Renee.

We started nymphing again.

Every spot/stretch we fished was productive!!

Our good friend and neighborhood fisher Lester snapped some great pictures for us!!

Thank you!!

     
We fished late as actions went on.

Nice browns!!

Followed by nice rainbows!!

Indeed this was a very impressive specimen!!

Time flew by quickly!!