Hoot owl restrictions, and fishing the first ninety minutes of daylight
When the water hits 68°F they close the river after two in the afternoon, and rightly so. Here is how we restructured the whole trip around a four-hour fishing day.
Station readout · Rock Creek, Sapphire Range, MT
- Discharge
- 340FT³/S
- Water temp
- 67°F
- Air, low
- 52°F
- Drive, one way
- 702MI
- High point
- 7,180FT
- Nights out
- 3
- To hand
- 9
- Fly that worked
- Chubby Chernobyl #10
The restriction
Hoot owl means no fishing between two in the afternoon and midnight. It exists because a trout played to exhaustion in 68°F water often does not recover, and it is one of the few regulations I have never heard a serious angler complain about.
What it does is invert the trip. You are not fishing a day with a lull in it. You are fishing a morning, and everything else — the driving, the camp chores, the sitting in shade doing nothing — arranges itself around that.
What worked
Up at four thirty, on the water by five fifteen, done by nine. The fish were in the fast oxygenated water at the heads of runs, and a big foam attractor got eaten because they had about ninety minutes to make a decision and were not inclined to be careful about it.
Nine fish in four days is a poor return by any normal measure, and it was one of the better trips of the year.
What I got wrong
- I brought too much gear for a four-hour fishing day. Two rods and one box would have covered it.
- I did not check the restriction before leaving. It was posted eight days before we drove. Finding out at the trailhead is not a plan.