Owlsley and Schoolhouse Sloughs

Dave Ashcraft watches an angler on Owlsley Slough

Dave Ashcraft is Montana. A third generation rancher in Montana’s Gold West Country he’s a true American cowboy.  Dave doesn’t drive a SUV, he drives a Dodge flat bed truck and his other car is a horse. Up until a few years ago, Dave drove 600 head of Black Angus cattle from his C Lazy J ranch to their summer range near the headwaters of the Ruby River in a week long cattle drive. But ranching modernization takes no prisoners. These days, the cattle are herded on to a transport truck and shipped, making that same journey in one day. That leaves Dave a little more time for his pride and joy, Owlsley and Schoolhouse Sloughs, two beautiful little spring creeks that meander through his property.


Like many other ranchers in Montana, Ashcraft has had to diversify. Due to the soaring cost of land, it’s become almost impossible to earn a living by ranching alone. For Dave and his family, that’s where the Big Hole C4 Lodge comes in. Seven years ago, Dave looked around at what other ranchers were doing with their properties. And the answer was simple, fly fishing. So Ashcraft built a rustic 12 bedroom lodge on his ranch in between the two sloughs that connect two of the most famous fishing rivers in Montana, the Big Hole and Beaverhead. The first time I spoke to Dave Ashcraft on the phone, he mistook me for a telemarketer. He quickly made it abundantly clear to me he didn’t have time for telemarketers. I reminded him of the emails we had exchanged and Dave agreed to let us film at his Big Hole C4 Lodge. We were especially interested in seeing the restoration work Dave had performed on his two spring creeks. Before we decended upon Owlsley Slough, Dave made sure we had a cold beer in hand. Then he showed us his personal style of “smash and grab” spring creek fishing. It was kind of like chuck and duck with a heavy weighted nymph only he used a coneheaded bugger. The trick was to smash it into the creek, drag it through a hole and hope a big brown grabbed it and hold on. No fine tippet here, the smallest we used was 3X. It wasn’t the typical style of spring creek fly fishing but it was fun and the fish were big. Thanks to Dave for providing us with an opportunity to film on his property.

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