It is never too early to plan the summer fishing trips and Bill Bendt, a friend of his, and me are planning a very unique fishing trip in Montana. The plan is to meet up in Missoula in early August and have ourselves, our pontoon boats, food, and camping gear packed by horseback into the middle of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, so we can float the South Fork of the Flathead River.

We'll float for 6 days and a packer will come into the wilderness to pack our stuff 3 or 4 miles around a gorge too treacherous to float and then we'll float an additional 3 or 4 days to Hungry Horse Reservoir. I've done the majority of this trip with Dave Hutchison back in 1998 or so. We did the initial float in 4 days and packed our stuff out to a trailhead, where our rental car was waiting. We hired someone to shuttle it up there from the pack station.

This time, Bill's wife Terry will be waiting for us at the takeout in their truck.

This is the largest continuous wilderness in the lower 48 states and is home to a vast array of wild animals, chief among them are the West Slope Cutthroat Trout. The South Fork is full of these fish, ranging in size from about 10" to close to 20". In addition, the river holds Bull Trout, but fishing for them is very different than fishing for the cuts. You use sinking lines and heavily weighted flies for the bulls and floating lines and large, bushy dry flies for the cuts.

The "Bob" is also chock full of Grizzly Bears, but in my experience they don't exactly hang out near the river in summer, due to higher temperatures and the number of people using the river corridor. Not that the river corridor is crowded by any means, but the bears get a little snotty about sharing, which is fine by me.

This has got to be one of the truly pristine fishing experiences in the world. If you fly fish, this trip has to at least be on your bucket list.