Spring Trout Fishing

With almost all of my grading finished, it was time to drive over to a favorite little creek in the upper Big Hole River watershed (just over the Great Divide from Butte Montana) for a few hours of troutfishing.

It was sunny and not too warm, but that did not stop an old, ailing dog from having a swim in the creek. Here's RolyTheDog just after her swim, enjoying the sun on her back:

I love fishing NoTellum Creek in part for the beautiful view of the high peaks of the Pintler Wilderness. At 10,000 feet, they are still gaining snow, even on days like this when the valleys are sunny:

But fishing is about catching fish, too. I had expected to bring home a good mess of brook trout for the table. Instead, 12- to 16-inch long rainbow trout were on spawning redds and you could not keep a "San Juan worm" (a small artificial worm) away from them. With catch & release fishing, I usually do not even lift the fish from the water. I couldn't resist one good photo, though:

The creek has other treasures, such as Western Pearlshell Mussels (Margaritifera falcata). They are readily distinguished by the purple nacre, as in this photo of a shell underwater:

In my hand, the nacre caught and reflected the blue sky for a wholly different look:

On the way home, I stopped at the watercress spring for some salad greens. When walking through aspen trees, I'm always on the lookout for bear claw marks (like the one in my blog photo). People, too, like to mark aspens, though usually folks just carve their initials. Never saw aspen art quite like this before, though it was allegedly common for Basque sheepherders:

As we drove up the hill to Walkerville, I had to pull over and stop for a photo of yet another gorgeous sunset:

But so much for the aphorism, "Red sky at night, sailors' delight." Yep, in the gray dawn light of this morning, I looked out the backdoor to find yet another spring snowstorm upon us: