Fishing the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

I admit it: I totally slept in.

And went to the wrong lake  in the middle of the wilderness.

Other than that, I had a great day trekking out to Peterson Lake in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.  Will Moss, a good friend of mine, and myself made it to the Sweeney Creek trailhead at about 1:30pm and began hiking.  The trail is beautiful, enough steeps to keep people away, but many scenic vistas throughout.  The whole hike I’m thinking about how many fish we are going to catch; I’m always the optimist on trail.  After some sweat and hundreds of steep steps later, we arrive at a point overlooking the lake.

Having done plenty of lake fishing with Will in the past, we realize instantly this isn’t the lake we intended to go to.  Somehow I had the names Hart Lake and Peterson Lake screwed up.  We crack a few jokes about being at the wrong lake and wanting to leave, but start to head down through the dank, thick forests full of expectations that are only found by large bodies of water.

Then the meadow!  An incredible meadow somehow finds us as we hike towards the lake.  This meadow created an incredible backdrop for our fishing, plenty of downed trees to walk out on and to fish under.

We crack a PBR, tie on some flies, and each of us pick a log.  Of course, Will, being the practical one, picks a log that he instantly starts slaying from.  Craziness and giggles abound!  I move closer to him, cast three times and get three hits each time.  Will has already landed two fish, I’m losing them left and right.  One word can be used: Fun!  This sounds great and dandy to any fishermen, but I must admit the rainbow trout we were catching were 6-9 inches long and didn’t put up much of a fight.  Certainly no king salmon!

The sun falls over the ridge, and being the end of September, the temperature falls with it.  Our toes and fingers instantly tell us it’s probably time to go.  A last cold cast, and we’re off.  As usually happens when having a great time, time slipped right away from us.

Before we are out of view of the lake, it starts to get dark, I mean really dark.  The Kootenai Creek fire has been burning big and it obscures any light from the moon we might get.  So, slowly, and with more than one stubbed toe, we hike the 5 miles out.

If anything, this day has taught me that a.)  you don’t always have to get up early to have a great time on the water, and b.) a jumbled up memory of place names can sometimes work out very well.

-RC Cone.


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