With thousands (literally) of people lined along the banks of the Gallatin River this weekend, I headed a little further south than usual, and camped along the banks of the Taylor Fork of the Gallatin River. It's a small stream, but something in the ecology keeps big fish in place. At least until later in the summer when the flows are down.
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| Aforementioned big fish... |
It's also a notoriously wild area, with a large population of grizzlies, wolves, and other critters. Val and I came across a couple critters, but they happened to be river otters. After I released a nice fish Saturday, a family of five swam into my fishing hole. They don't look menacing, but they can be extremely aggressive. Before I had a chance to grab Val, she was across the stream and pouncing on one of the bigger otters. Big mistake. She immediately tried to flee across the stream, but the otter swam underneath her, biting onto her leg and pulling her underwater. It was the loudest I've ever heard her scream/yelp, and luckily I was able to wade in and luckily I was able to wade in and pull her out.
She limped for a half hour or so, but was ultimately fine and playing around again shortly. There was some great dry fly action in between rain storms, but Sunday was a little slow. Still better than combat fishing the Gallatin all weekend (although weeknights have been good: see below).
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| A Gallatin brown trout from Tuesday night. |
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