New Years Resolution: Catch More Trout!

I had a good season but I hope to do even better next year!

 These fish were taken all over Montana. They are not necessarily the biggest fish, but they are the most colorful and in some cases required the most skill to catch. I hope next years selection includes more cutthroats.

Trip Report?

Today I went out for a short outing on a local lake known for monster lake trout. I really just wanted to get out an paddle a little bit. I didn't catch any fish but on the way home I picked up a bunch of beads for tying.

 When I got home I decided to tie up some stripped quill zebra midges. Last night I youtubed how to strip the peacock herl and I found this hand way... Take the herl and a pencil eraser. Run the eraser against the grain of the herl and the little barbs come off easily!

 Each of these bags contains a half dozen flies which I'm going to sell this spring. The proceeds will fund next years trout adventures!

Trip Report: Spring Pond Failure

Today I took a short exploratory trip to a local millpond fed by deep sandy blue springs. I could see the bottom in around 25-30 feet of water, but I failed to even spot a fish. I've heard that this spot was poisoned a few years ago and never restocked. I've also heard that there are brookies in the pond but they're hard to find. After work on Friday I spotted a few little fish rising in the river that flows out of the millpond, but that's closed for the season. This will be a great spot to fish with little time.

Obscured by fog, the mountains tower over this spot on a clear day.

A few small springs pour from the hillsides into the pond in this area. There's current from those and underwater springs which create some good looking feeding lanes.

I did a lap on the pond, casting intermittently, before I was chased off by freezing fog. The trees frosted, the pond steamed, and the air crystallized.

This is a winter mountain flower!

New Vise!

My new Apex Anvil vise. It greeted me this morning after I dropped the wife off at work. So far I've tied a few dozen flies and the vise seems great.

More Waiting By The Phone...

Today I am again stuck waiting for work. Between searching for jobs I've been looking at some fishing sites from around the Midwest. This inspired me to go deep into the history of my emails to bring up some sent fish pictures from my bro, which I thought were gone with my last hard-drive. These pictures made me both miss home and excited for next season!

These three pigs came on buzz baits and/or pr dubs. Sorry about the nip shot! I really like fishing from the kayak because it is easy to maneuver once you get a basic feel for resistance from the wind, current, or lure. I have a pretty basic setup but it does the trick. Here in Montana I'm going to fish sub alpine lakes and some smaller rivers from the 'yak. In rivers such as the Flathead I may paddle up stream, shore hopping to target trout in some areas, and monster pike in others. I'd like to rig up something with wheels to take the the boat to lakes requiring a short hike (prob. 3 miles max). 

 I caught this guy on the Wisconsin River near Stevens Point. This is my favorite pike picture. And yes, that is my blood on his gill plate. I had to reach about 2 feet down from shore to grab him and he wasn't played out. He thrashed and those monster teeth got me. I didn't realize it until the moment the fish swam free that my hand bled. He was somewhere around 30 inches.

 This skinny pike came during a day when my bro and I landed a low estimate of 35 small pike and a few nice small mouths on the day. Stay tuned for a few smallies from the trip!

Here's a little walleye actin' all tough.

I wore a look of pure excitement on my face after pulling this nice river smallie out of the logjam behind me. I found this southeastern wisco spot during my last summer in college. Lots of pike, lots of current, lots of smallies.

I caught this guy on the next cast upstream with the buzzbait. After ferrying the boats to another spot downstream I had a monster smallie jump out of the water for the buzz, but I missed him. I know its hard to believe one could have a 50 or 60 fish day in Montana let alone SE Wisconsin, but I've had those days in both places.

I only hooked into a massive smallie on the fly twice. In one spot I pulled one 19" on a size 16 pheasant tail and another on a small hares ear both tied by my brother. Most of them came off store bought deer hair divers stripped quickly just beneath the surface.

 There are three spots that open for an early c&r season beginning January 1 in Wisconsin and I hope to get out their while we're there for Christmas. I stumbled upon all three spots in summer while on an otherwise unsuccessful trout adventure/scouting trip.

Here's a massive spring pond brown that came from one of those special season Wisconsin ponds. I landed him by hand, snapped a quick photo, and watched him swim off strong. After this fish I started carrying my net on every trip. I spot fished him with a small gray hares ear.

And while typing this I got the call for work tomorrow!

-Cash Money-

Sitting By The Phone...

I've been sitting around tying flies while waiting for UPS to beckon me away to deliver Christmas cheer to the residents of Kalispell. I just got some dry hooks in the mail so I've been tying up a reserve of skittering caddis, as well as a few experimental variations to tease the cutthroats.

 I'm going to get a good reserve of this fly, the royal wulff, which is a great fly for cutthroats.

 The first fly is a skittering caddis. The second is a small stimulator with a red butt. Red is a good color for cutties and I'm sure I'll go through a fare share both of these patterns.

This is what the fish see!

This dark green one will be great in early fall. I've tied quite a few of these with minor variations.

By Christmas I hope to have this jar filled.

 I had such good luck with the sunken caddis last season, and such bad luck with an nymph fishing, I decided to try some different sunken caddis patterns. They have a great buggy look.

Trip Report: End of the Season

Today is the last day of the general fishing season on small streams here in Montana. To mark the occasion I decided to spend a short afternoon on the kayak. I headed to Foy Lake, a deep lake just outside of Kalispell. I've heard that this lake was good in the past, but has fallen off in the last few years.

My second cast enticed a beefy 15 or 16 inch rainbow from only a few feet off the shoreline. After I played him sufficiently I uncased my camera, turned it on, and tweaked the settings. As I raised the camera to snap the picture the fish gave a hard shake, undoing the hook, and swam away. This lake is around 150 feet deep at certain points and crystal clear. With deep drop offs and rocky shorelines this lake will definitely be on the list to check out when runoff has the rivers unfishable.

Foam Hoppers Galore

For the last few days I've been practicing my foam hopper patterns so that I can tie them for sale next summer. I had a little trouble at first but I think they're starting to come together!

 This is the gang. I'm going to tie a mason jar full of hoppers and one full of caddis patterns so that I can just grab a few any time I need them. Too often this summer I found myself tying up a quick few on my way out the door.

 I think these guys will do the trick.

 These split-wing foam hoppers are a little different style than the above pattern in that the wings are split and the white fluff gives the fly a "cashed" appearance.

I really like this pink, red, and purple split-wing. The purple and pink is a popular color combo here in Montana. I think the red fluff should be especially attractive to the monster cutthroats of the S. Fork of the Flathead! I think these hoppers should be good for a few of these late next summer...