(Chapter 16, Pig Ponds)

I was truly blessed by many friendships, which originated while I was working in the wildlife conservation arena. It wasn’t unusual at all for these special friendships to result in invitations to fish what my buddies in Montana very affectionately referred to as Pig Ponds. These are private stillwater fisheries managed and manicured in an effort to produce behemoth trout – trout large enough to be dubbed Pigs. From time to time, in conjunction with business trips to the Big Sky Country, if my timing was right, I enjoyed a day, or two, or three pursuing the big slab-sided trout, normally rainbows, but sometimes browns, that grew very large feeding on the abundance of aquatic food found in the fertile ponds. It was always a treat to be offered the opportunity to chase the pigs around one of these wonderful stillwater fisheries. And over time, I found the huge trout in these oftentimes small lakes were very willing to take my artificial offerings – flies such as heavily dressed wooly buggers, damselfly and dragonfly nymphs, and large but sparsely tied chironomid pupae.
So one morning while I was sitting at my desk, I was delighted when Gregg Harris called from Bozeman and asked when I was going to make my next swing through Montana. I was fortunate to have landed a position requiring me to make frequent trips to the west to touch base with various associates and business partners. These trips took me to places with familiar names to fly fishermen like Bozeman, Livingston, Missoula, Twin Bridges, and Ennis, and included stops at lesser-known places where business partners were located.
Gregg was a business associate, great friend, and superb fly fisherman. Gregg’s love for angling, coupled with his creativity and technological acumen, led him into the video production business. When he called he was in the middle of producing a series titled On the Fly, which aired on ESPN. The program was a nice blend of travelogue and angling where-to and how-to. The show provided a very enjoyable means of escaping on Saturday mornings for 30 minutes to live vicariously through the angling experiences of others. Gregg called to tell me that in a couple of weeks he was heading to Battle Creek Lodge outside of Choteau, Montana, to put together a program and he wanted to know if I might be in the area and be able to join in on the activities. I knew about the big trout, a.k.a. Pigs, in the lakes at Battle Creek and I was almost certain I could arrange my upcoming Montana trip to accommodate Gregg’s offer.
Luck smiled on me and I was able to arrange my itinerary to be in Bozeman on just the right day. I rendezvoused with Gregg and a couple of other diehard anglers early in the morning, and we anxiously headed northwest toward Choteau. Gregg and his filming crew and the other two anglers were in the Winnebago RV Gregg used to transport all of the video gear, and I was following along in the rental vehicle I needed in order to head for Helena late in the day to make an appointment the following morning. We stopped in Choteau for gas and supplies and then headed west on a dirt road – way off the beaten path. Battle Creek’s location is what I always refer to as a long way from a bag of groceries. I think we traveled about 40 miles on the washboard dirt road before we reached the base of the Front Range of the Rockies – just down the mountain from the Continental Divide. We were looking up at numerous peaks reaching over 8,000 feet.
After traversing the 40 miles of rough gravel road, we finally arrived at the lodge. It was a fantastic setup and the owners were very special people. They were rightfully proud of their facility and the angling opportunities Battle Creek offered. It was still pretty early in the day, so we enjoyed getting to know one another over a cup of coffee before heading to our first destination of the day – Fish Lake – or as I like to call it – Pig Pond #1. Gregg had explained to all of us when we were initially invited on the trip that the first day was a scouting and fishing day to allow him and his helper to get a handle on the situation. They were going to actually be filming the ESPN show on the second day. Sounded good to us.
We loaded into one of the ranch pickups, escorted by a fine young man named Justin, our tour and angling guide extraordinaire. After traveling deep into the ranch, Justin slowed the pickup and stopped below a fairly long dam. He wanted us to walk up on the dam so he could show us Fish Lake. As we crested the embankment, we got our first look at the lake. But it wasn’t the body of water that immediately captivated us; it was all of the huge rainbows cruising back and forth in the shallows at the base of the dam. With the exception of some aquariums I have visited, I had never seen so many large trout congregated in one area. We stood there in absolute awe staring into the water and watching huge rainbows swim by in the shallow water below. Finally, Justin brought us back to reality when he said, “Does anyone want to fish?”
It sure didn’t take us long to get off the dam and back in the pickup. We drove around to the south side of the lake, parked under a couple of large trees, and everyone started getting ready for the day. Besides the huge rainbows we spotted, I made one other observation – the wind was not yet howling down the mountains. When I told a few people I was going to Battle Creek, they warned me about the winds coming off of the mountains. They said the wind ripping across the lake totally ruined their experience at Battle Creek. I hate the wind. I wanted to get my gear on and start trout chasing before the winds started blasting off the mountains.