This is not a traditional fish story
Guest commentary:
Spring in northwest Montana is known to run the gamut of weather conditions. We can be blessed with snow, freezing rain, high gusty winds, pelting heavy rains, sunshine-filled warm days and cloudy cool afternoons. Occasionally bouts of gropple, a slang term for those tiny beads of snow and ice, bounce off our faces and windshields.
If you happened to be a young forester back around 1982 or so, you listened and learned from the older forest rangers. You listened to them because they were classic forest rangers, meaning, a warden who patrols forest lands. Some of these old timers were in their heyday around 1935, when it was not unusual for them to be on horseback for months at a time, with rifle, pack, grub and a strong constitution. They wore wool about eight months out of the year. And so did you if you were smart.
On this day, two young foresters walked along the banks of the Kootenai River near the Troy valley. The wool-clad guys carried light spinning gear and found what they thought might be a good fishing hole. At a pause in conversation, the waters of the deep hole sloshed loudly and parted out in 20 feet of ripples and rings. Amazed, they estimated the distance at 90 feet. The taller fellow threw on an old white and red daredevil lure and launched it. It was a good cast.
Counting the seconds off to let the lure sink down deep, he slowly began his retrieve. A semi-strike that could have been a snag made him hesitate. A second later, his pole bent in half. The fish never came out of the water, but submarined up and down this stretch of river. The fight was on.
For 25 minutes or so, the battle raged and the sweat poured out of the man. The sun had come out and warmed things up quite a bit. Just to make it interesting, a young girl on a horse appeared up on the bank with two dogs. She screamed out that this was the biggest fish she had ever seen in the river, eyeing it from her vantage point on the bank. Her two dogs were excited too, and one cut under the horse’s legs, sending the equine rearing up abruptly, and neighing loudly.
The two men, the girl, the two dogs and the horse were all extremely excited. The young man asked the girl to back her horse off, and politely she did. The fisherman knew he could not and would not falter, or he surely would lose this prize. Miraculously, after another 25 minutes he slid the tired fish up into a sand bar and his partner grabbed the monster through the gills and brought it to inner shore. They celebrated the catch of this 16-pound Dolly Varden with a few beers at the shorter man’s tepee along the river.
The inland form of Dolly Varden was eventually declared a separate species, the Bull Trout. This fish has pale yellow spots on the back and a slightly forked tail. They are piscivorous (eat other fish) and are sensitive to high sediment levels that may smother eggs and fry. It is illegal to harvest bull trout without a special permit in most areas.
- Brian Baxter is a long-time resident of northwest Montana and an outdoor education specialist.