The "Old Bait and Switch"

Things in the last week have really started to fish well,  With Salmon Flies on Rock Creek and the West Fork and soon to be on other area rivers things are really looking good for June/July.  We have recently had some awesome fishing on the Blackfoot for trophy trout and here is the story of two different situations in the same day.  We were fishing the lower Blackfoot with slop rigs when one of my customers picked up a nice 16 plus inch rainbow a second or two later a big bully came up and tried to eat the 16 inch rainbow.  Since the rainbow was to large to eat easily my customer pulled his trout away from the Bully.  Mean while, while all this was happenin no one noticed my customer in the back of the boat winding up for the cast.  He slammed his streamer inches from the Bully and since it was an easier meal than the rainbow the bully tooked it a promptly ripped us out into the backing.  After a rather exciting 15 min. battle we landed a beautiful 28 inch bull trout without a single mark on him.  The day was a success but wasn't over yet.  After a couple of hours and countless large brown trout hookups my customer in the front of the boat hooked what has to be the smallest trout ever hooked on the Blackfoot.  While we were laughing and giggling about how small it was, out of nowhere a huge bully came up and ate the tiny trout like a dry fly.  When my customer automaticly set the hook the tiny fish came flying out of the water and smacked my other customer in the face in the back of the boat.  While we were all laughing about what had just happened we had forgotten that there was still a streamer in the water and all of the sudden the customer in the back of the boat yells I have a fish on!  We all look over the side of the boat to realize that in the absence of the tiny fish the bull trout wanted to eat he had found that other streamer and hooked himself when we were not looking.  The big bully shook his head and spit the fly and sunk below the surface but now we have proved that the "old bait and switch really does work.  The most interesting thing about fishing in late May and Early June is that you just never know what kind of experiences are out there.  Can't wait to get back out there tomorrow and see what lays in store!  karl@sheerwaterguides.com