Hiking To The Lookout

Today I hiked with a new friend and an old one. We started off under sunny skies and in warm temperatures. By the time we arrived back at the trailhead the heat and humidity had intensified.

 Hiking through this old burn left us with great views of the surrounding area but provided little respite from the sun.

The first mile of the trail is relatively flat but the rise for the next 1.6 miles was pretty intense.

 The overlook provided great views of Lake McDonald and the mountains of Glacier National Park. Totally worth the hike.

 This mountain is much more impressive after you've hiked it!

Trip Report: Evening-ling

Last evening I decided, after a late start, to go in search of Grayling and monster cutthroats! I arrived at the lake under sunny skies and calm breeze at around 6:30. Immediately the fish made themselves known.

This chunker sucked down a pink pookie foam hopper! Most fish hit the hopper but a few nibbled on the tiny prince nymph fished as a dropper.

 The itty bitty Grayling on the left hit the hopper a few times but couldn't swallow it. He settled for the prince nymph. Every twenty minutes or so I grabbed my spinning rod for a few casts. The ling on the right chased it down and nipped it as I raised it out of the water. At one point I had a huge (18+ inch) Grayling chase it in but he failed to connect with the spinners treble hook.

 My arm almost wasn't long enough to fit this fella in the picture. He, along with a half dozen or so nice cutthroats, hit the hopper but only he and another smaller one got hooked.

Stay Tuned: I might just run into a few alpine cutties this weekend!

Trip Report: Snyder Lake

For the record I have done more fishing than my recent blog activity would suggest! I hit a few streams around town and the wife and I hit my local grayling factory. She managed one around 18'' and chunky and I got one around 17. A few pan sized cutties also came to hand. I managed to hook into one really nice cutthroat (around 18 inches) but he took a long run and snapped my tippet. Today my wife, a friend, and I hike 4.4 miles up into Snyder Lake.

We saw tons of water flowing from the snowfields. Runoff is in full effect in the Flathead Drainage. After hiking up 1.6 miles of steep switchbacks we met up with the Snyder Lake Trail. This trail climbed steadily up to the lake.

 This lake was hard to fish around but we managed to find a few spots to drop a fly. The fish were small but very colorful and extremely aggressive.

This is where I waded in to my knees. Before I entered the water I caught two little cutties in less than 6 inches of water.

 After catching a few of these little gems we headed up toward Logan Pass, but ended up turning around due to car troubles...

Stay Tuned: Summer is here and I'll be trying to get up to more of these high mountain lakes filled with eager fishes!

Hiking Trip Report: The Easy Way Up

Yesterday the woman, a friend, and I hiked a local mountain known for its great skiing in winter and great downhill mountain biking and hiking in summer. We opted to take the lift up for a few bucks and hike down (the lazy man's hike). Now I called the day before and the worker at the mountain told me the hiking trail in question was open all the way with a little snow. A little snow never hurt anybody...but It was cold!

Immediately, the trail ran into a huge snowfield. None of us had ever hiked this spot so we had no idea where to go. It didn't help that the trails were relatively unmarked. But the views were spectacular!

This picture shows the sky showing a tiny bit of blue over the Flathead Valley, with Flathead Lake visible near the center of the photo. 

 We walked through some forested areas, some alpine meadows, and a good amount of snow.

This picture shows a good view over the town of Columbia Falls, at the base of the canyon and near the center of the picture. We also got views of the Canadian Rockies, Glacier National Park, The Great Bear Wilderness and Hungry Horse Reservoir, The Swan Range, The Flathead Valley and Lake, and The Salish Mountains, and The Whitefish Mountains! This was definitely a good way to spend an afternoon.

Today I may go out and catch some Pumpkinseeds on the fly...

The clouds have risen!

Trip Report:The Last Three Days

During my spare time from uploading pictures of Glacier I managed to get out and fish a little bit! I caught a few Grayling and Cutties on both spinners and flies.

This pretty little fishy swam away the second the camera snapped the photo.

At one point so many Grayling were surfacing that it sounded like heavy rain. During this twenty minute period I pulled in at least 8 or 9 fish, all on gray hares ears. The others were caught during heavy wind on spinners pulled through lillypads at a medium depth.

A few other cutties came to hand but this one is the biggest by far. 

 I got a couple pretty little pumpkinseeds too! After all of this lake fishing I was itching to get on the small streams. With temps flirting with 80 and high humidity it was time to fish.

 

Unfortunately this creek runs almost exclusively through private property. A guy drove by with two shot guns mounted in the rear window on his truck. Then an old man and his wife pulled up as I was leaving and lingered a bit. The old man told me about the good fishing right off his land and said he isn't afraid to fire a few shot in the direction of any trespassers. Good to know!

 This guy came from under a bridge. I spotted a few really large ones but couldn't manage to get a strike. Maybe next time.

 Oh yea, the storm came!

Even More Glacier Pictures

Some More Pics From Glacier