"EL TORO" | A Montana Bull Trout Story (Fly Fishing)

my name is leo rosenthal i'm a fisheries management biologist in montana fish wildlife and parks coal trout are protected in montana the density of our fish up here is not the same as other trial population throughout the state [Music] we're actually doing the biologists field work and helping them maintain data so that we can start making better decisions about the bull trout you get a catch card where you record the location and the size we're all jazzed just to go get on a new piece of river this is 100 virgin water to me and everybody else down here this is one of the few places where you can actually target them they were listed in 1998 as threatened under the endangered species act places like the missouri river where we routinely have three to five thousand catchable fish per mile our streams up here have three to five hundred catchable trout per mile these are cutthroat trout that i'm talking about we're all in it together like no one has the knowledge we're not leaning on any one person to make decisions about where or when we go somewhere we're kind of coming in on the back end the downslope of the migration period where they migrate up there's a lot of positive energy around the group right now so i think i think that we'll do all right i think we'll get them we know how many people are out there fishing for these fish and how many fish are being caught and released we can put that into the context of how things are going with the population as a whole we're tearing down camp right here and then we're gonna go up river we're gonna put in we're gonna start catching some bull trout hopefully it's all an adventure it's all in a day's work yeah it's all in a day's work but luckily we got scott the mighty camper it's a little bit of pressure overnight no biggie to make pumps for ready i'll move this truck and then i guess nick can just pull up over there into that grass [Music] i knew that the put in was a little difficult i didn't know that it would be as difficult i guess to sum it up it would be man i hope this works [Music] i think the launch was a little unexpected we didn't scout the night before so we didn't really know what we were going to get into [Music] good thing scott's there because he's good motivation because i think without scott we would have tried to look for something else not just us against the fish but us against us and you know us against the mountain come on you know difficulty arriving at a place it adds to the overall value of the experience so time is 10. got up at 5 30 and we've been these were working to get everything down to the river we've been rehydrating and getting rods rigged i don't know jay's got like nine nine rods laying around my raft right now so we'll see which one works and uh no it's chomping at the bit so yeah we'll get the cooler strap down and shove off best case scenario we catch a 30-plus inch all right yeah nick how are you feeling feeling good going ready ready catch the bull drop at least watch pacheco dang the beer bags [Music] i said this spot looks good it's like backheady [Music] um not yet maybe before we get too close to this pool on the right side [Music] look at this tiny one see him dude get away [Music] yeah underneath this one right here uh getting some lunch finishing some of those calories from this morning and uh just gonna keep drifting and casting not all you can do right dude this is always a win i've not been disappointed by these meals had three fish all three eight the last one bit my wiggly tail off one of them looked more like a bull than anything we only got five or six miles to go today so just having a fight debating fly selection everybody's had a couple follows some lookers nothing no takers [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] oh i got one what is it what is it it's a bull going into this trip um i wasn't too sure how i was gonna pan out i we knew that the migration was on the back end and it was it was winding down and we figured there would be a couple stragglers we got a ball dude we were all super stoked about it just because we we knew it solidified the fact that we knew what we were doing we were in the right place we were using the right gear little bull trout came and hammered this big game changer so cool that's a good sign for the trip gotta fill out some information date um the length of the fish and some other information so we're gonna go ahead and take care of that and then we're gonna keep rolling it sort of ended the mystique and it it told us yes okay they are here i think especially being on our first day that played a part in boosting spirits and you know keeping the keeping the dream alive as it were this whole bend looks nice though but man we we pulled up on this pool and this fish came out of the water that was a big bowl that was a big bowl i'm guessing he was down there sharking around eating small bait fish how do we get him to eat is the question yeah i could try that game changer again it was probably 10 minutes later he came up and ate again same one huge and for a second i thought he wasn't gonna eat every cast i was doing something different i would strip fast i would strip slow i was trying everything and then my voice i was like [Music] trying to get him on the reel get him on the reel [Music] holy [Music] [Music] scott was clutch with the net and uh as soon as i saw the size of that fish um i was stoked i mean that made the trip i didn't have to catch another fish good job man that was that's awesome dude i needed that fish man look at the leggy boy [Music] [Music] [Music] look at that thing [Music] i think i can say for everyone we were all pretty stoked to see what see what was going to happen the rest of the wrestling trip so that fish pretty much made it a guarantee that i'm gonna go back next year for sure i had the geez noah i know we're filming here sorry you want me to stop sneezing yeah we didn't get started until about 10 30 yesterday so we're four hours ahead of that basically right now and we're gonna slow roll until the [Music] work the pockets deep water anything that looks uh deep and cold and then uh hopefully our strategy pays off like it did yesterday just having a spot of breakfast and then we're gonna get back at it [Music] quantity was not quite there the fish were few and far between [Music] caught that first bull trout and we couldn't be happier what a dry water too [Music] i feel like you got a grind for these these these babies fine all this hard work all the the tight you know the flies that i tied all the rowing and the you know the 0.24 mile put in it was all worth it in that moment stay at it everybody saying purple haze so [Music] all right i gave a little half roll cast into this this fast rapid water let's see what he's got i got lazy with where to cast and how to cast throwing that big a fly and that big a rod just put to wear on you [Applause] nuts look at that game changer baby it all comes together and makes it all worth it whenever you catch a fish like that [Applause] shoulders gonna get sore and tired and keep throwing every time you go somewhere you think why did it take me so long to get here well there's a lot of places like this and we can't get to them all so uh it's just really nice when we do get to these places yeah good times all around [Music] nice dude [Music] to be doing it in a place that's difficult to get to and doesn't see many visitors because of that i think just adds to the you know emotional magnitude of the experience sick let's go find another one it's just awesome i mean i could row through that like the rest of my life you know i didn't have to fish it i could just look at it the rest of my life [Music] let's go these fish are our largest native from a native predator that we have they're they're great game fish we're doing everything we can to to try and recover them and hopefully have other fisheries in the future [Music] the thing that we kind of preach the most and it seems to be something that's catching on throughout the fly fishing room in general is this keeper black campaign [Music] that was the first time any the four of us ever hung out first time we ever fished together and it was just good vibes the whole time there was no pressure we were literally just having fun fishing together kind of leap frogging down the river and we were all after the same thing the same goal was hopefully catch a bull trout um but at the end of the day we were just we were just hoping to have a good a good trip and i think we did that cheers cheers here let me get it straight [Music] [Applause] there it is it really speaks to the work of montana fish wildlife from parks and the forest service to be able to monitor this fish population for people to be able to go out mentally [Music]

Channel: The Fly Project

Views: 54,506

Keywords: #bulltroutfishing, #confluentus, #bulltrout, #streamerfishing, #gamechangerfly, #montanaflyfishing, #montanabulltrout, #howtostreamerfish, #flyfishinggamechangers, #flyfishingshortfilm

Id: CkVBH8wXx1M

Length: 17min 16sec (1036 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 24 2022