The good ol' days, fishing on the reservation

One day last week was just like the good ol’ days on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

Catching 6-8 pound rainbow trout?

Nope. Sitting in the truck waiting for the wind to stop making whitecaps!

When I arrived at a hidden lake (hint) a few minutes before 11 a.m., the surface was calm, with an occasional ring showing a fish feeding.

By the time I’d loaded one rod with a water boatman on a dry line and another rod with an orange-tailed Prince Nymph on a slow-sinker, there was slight, but noticeable, air movement from the east.

Fine with me. Before I left home I checked www.wunderground.com which showed a wind switch in early afternoon, followed by squalls a few hours later.

An east wind has never been my friend on the rez, but I was hoping for a couple hours of reasonably calm winds during the switch before the settled from the west.

I fished about an hour, all blind-casting. Never got close enough to put a fly close to a fish feeding near or on the surface.

I did notice a shower to the north and some nasty-looking black clouds building up over the eastern front of Glacier National Park.

Rather than kick too far from the truck, I stayed within 200 yards upwind, then decided to move back towards the “just in case.”

Well, “just in case” happened when I was almost back to the shoreline.

With one mighty gust, the wind changed from “slight” from the east to “almost blew me off the water” from the west.

I dragged my pontoon close to the truck so the wind wouldn’t send it across the prairie, then sat in the truck for two hours.

Just like the good ol’ days before Internet!