August 14th, 2017
The kind of day JP hoped for! He had been waiting for this kind of fishing experience! So I thought he should be the one to blog about it – so here goes:

We needed to get away from camp for a while so I found a route that would take us along the Continental Divide and put us through some small towns to explore. We left Holter Dam campground at 9am and traveled NW for 50 miles to a town called Augusta Montana.

On the way, we mapped a lake called Bean Lake and decided to check it out. It was an alkali lake that looked more like a cattle trough than a lake. We continued along the edge of the Divide and marveled at the gigantic mountains.

We arrived in Augusta. This town was founded in 1883 and was a Blackfoot Indian travois trail and later became a stage and freight route, the founder, Phil Manix’s store still stands today. We walked the entire two blocks of the town and stopped in at the general store. We were greeted with “Hello, we have guns bullets and booze” I bought a few things I needed and asked about the local fishing. I was given a simple map and pointed in the general direction. We stopped for lunch at the Western Bar in town before we headed out.

We headed to Wood Lake, a lake not on any map, I had but was assured it had fish. 25 miles of dirt road through the Lewis and Clark forest and we finally arrived at Wood Lake. (We were cautioned that this was bear country so Cheri wanted the bear spray close.)
It was the lake I had traveled to Montana to find. Circled with pine trees, spring fed and about 20 or so acres. A shallow lake with lots of beautiful, hungry Cutthroat Trout. We had the pontoons boats and were in the water in no time. Cheri not being a flyfisher person was at a disadvantage as these fish were looking for flies and worms were not on their menu. I lost count of the trout I caught and several that I missed. The trout were fat and healthy and were eager to come to a fly. It was a perfect day.

On the way home I put a rock through the front tire and we limped home. The tire was destroyed so the next day was finding a matching tire but that’s another story.   JP

Note: Lucky isn’t a 4 wheel drive trailer. If he were I’m certain that somewhere in our adventures we would come back here and camp. We do OK dry camping but its a long way in and though I love all the wildlife – BEARS not so much!