Camped along side the Boulder River about 30 miles south of Big Timber. Similar to the Wise River and Rock Creek: river carves a path between steep mountains. Thick conifers in a national forest.
Where the Wise and Rock Creek are extremely narrow, the Boulder canyon is much wider. Like the other two at least half of the fishable waters are privately owned. Just how that works in national forest is a mystery to me. The private lands are crammed with ramshackle cabins alongside McMansions.
Water was mostly clear but free of the huge algae strands seen in the Wise and lacking the super fine layer of silt in Rock Creek that made wading very slippery.
Further downstream in that same side channel there was a narrow but deep spot where a 17 inch rainbow devoured a nymph. The fight was so much bigger than the smaller rainbows I'd been catching.
Later in the afternoon I hit a series of 6 rainbows ranging from 16-19 inches. Amazing!
Next day I found a streamside dispersed campsite and moved in.
Drove the road further south to look for other fishing spots and found this gem:
Loaded with cutthroats that would race up from the depths after my fry flies but sometimes would turn away at the last second. Caught 6 including this beauty:
All in all, the Boulder River gave me one of my best trout fishing outings ever. That's the end of the Montana portion of this trip
I'm now off to Burgess Junction, Wyoming - an old favorite for a few days and then to meet my grandson for the very first time!
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