Lolo Creek enters the Bitterroot River at Lolo, MT, roughly 10 miles southwest of Missoula. The creek starts at the summit of Lolo Pass and flows approximately 35 miles before entering the Bitterroot. The average width is about 65 feet.

I first visited Lolo Creek as part of a field trip for my aquatic biology class at the University of Montana. During that visit, we conducted stream-bottom sampling in order to identify the various species of aquatic insects that inhabited Lolo Creek.

Then one early fall day, my friends Kate and John called and explained that they were going elk hunting along Lolo Creek and asked if I would like to come along and fish. I happily agreed, and Kate and John picked me up at the university early the following morning. 

As we drove along, Kate said, “We’ll drop you off with lunch and pick you up at dusk when we are done hunting. Just walk along the road, heading downstream, and we’ll find you.” 

It was a glorious fall day when they let me off. The creek in this reach was about 35 feet wide, well shaded, and not far from the road. Since it was early October, there were no insect hatches, so I started fishing with a pair of size-12 nymphs. Over the years, I found that Prince and Isonychia nymphs were excellent producers, regardless of the river or the season. 

Lolo Creek in this area had a nice number of reasonably deep pools, mixed with riffles and short runs. I began fishing by casting my nymphs into the heads of the deeper runs and letting them drift downstream along the bottom, into the pools. I just lifted the rod as the nymphs bounced along the bottom, and followed them downstream until they began to rise with the flow. If the line stopped, I set the hook. 

I found this method effective in every river that I fished with it. 

It didn’t take long for the first strike. I had made a cast into a very likely looking run and let my flies drift, when the line stopped. I raised the rod tip and felt the pull of a trout. In a few minutes, I had a nice cutthroat close to shore and into the net. Over the next several hours, I fished my way downstream, picking up trout here and there. It was a mixed bag as far as the species were concerned. There were a few pure-strain west slope cutthroats, some rainbow/cutthroat hybrids, but mostly rainbows. As wild trout go, these fish were not overly large, ranging in size from nine to about 14 inches. 

I didn’t keep track of the number of trout that I hooked and landed on that lovely fall afternoon, but it was quite a few. Frankly, I was amazed at the number of trout that Lolo Creek held and the variety, along with the number I hooked and landed. My biggest surprise was how easy Lolo Creek trout were to catch. In all my years of fishing, from the Catskills to the Rockies, I never had better fishing. Lolo Creek was full of trout. 

As I continued downstream, I came across the Lolo ranger station on the opposite side of the road. When I looked toward the back, there was a young moose, staring at me, with the hair on the back of its neck standing up! That moose, even though it was a fair distance away, was not happy to see me. I always carried a 22-caliber Ruger pistol in my pack as a precaution against critters. But that little handgun would’ve been little use against an 800-pound moose, had it decided to charge.

All too soon, the shadows began to lengthen, and the evening chill descended over Lolo Creek. That’s when I walked up to the road and headed downstream. Pretty soon, Kate and John’s red Ford pickup stopped a little way in front of me. I hustled to catch up, loaded my waders and tackle in the back, hopped in and we returned to Missoula.

If I recall correctly, I fished Lolo Creek on just one other occasion. That time, it was where Route 93 crossed the creek. We found a parking area and fished downstream from the bridge. On that trip, I used an ultra-light spinning rod with an Alcedo Micron reel, 4-pound test line, and a size 0 Mepps Spinner with a silver blade. I fished this lure by casting up and across the stream and retrieving as fast as possible. 

Fishing a Mepps Spinner in this manner was deadly. I decided to keep a few trout for dinner, but did not have a creel. So as I fished my way downstream, the trout caught were laid on the stream-side rocks to be retrieved on the way back upriver. 

It didn’t take long for the local ravens to spot those trout and try to steal them. I was able to scare most of them off, but some of those raucous birds still got away with a few trout. 

It has been a very long time since I fished Lolo Creek. So I have no idea how that body of water has fared over the years. My guess is that Lolo Creek is not what it once was. Yet when I fished it, there were a lot of nice-sized trout and the fishing was exceptionally good.