Sedges have edges

Photo of traveling sedge

The annual and usually predictable traveling sedge hatch on Georgetown Lake, Montana has been anemic this year, to say the least.  After 3 weeks of heartbreak, I think it's time to move on the some of the year's best carping.

To be fair, the fishing is still good up at the lake.  There are daily spinnerfalls of callibaetis and the damsels get going around noon.  The fish will eat a damselfly nymph slow stripped or fished below a dry or bobber.  The sight fishing on sunny days in the shallow flats has been really fun and many of these fish are eating dries as well as your perfectly cast damsel nymph or small leech.  I did see the sedges.  Each day I saw more and more.  Right at dusk, you will see quite a few and if you've never seen the hatch at full bore, you might think it looks ok.  But, it's not.  There should be more bugs, the fish should be so keyed in on them that they eat the dry all day, and it should definitely be going strong by now.  The lake has been full and we had a nice normal wet spring.  Maybe it's still coming; I don't know.

Anyway, it's hot in Montana and so is the fishing.  It's also prime time for giving the trout a break from the summer crowds and exploring all over Montana's carp country.

Mish mosh SW Montana fishing report - Late June

Carp flies now sold at Sportsman's Warehouse in Helena 

The huge variety of fishing options in Southwest Montana makes it much harder to write coherent fishing reports like I could do in Missoula.  I write reports every once in a while so that there is a non-biased, transaction-free source of information out there for anyone who cares.  I also use this blog as a personal fishing log which comes in handy sometimes for my own pursuits.  So here it is:

Big Hole River:
It was huge and the salmonflies have come and gone.  Usually, the fishing sucks for a couple weeks after the hatch.  It's called the "salmonfly hangover" and it can really suck.  I avoided the party this year due to my trip to Florida and the shitty conditions.  The river is dropping in nicely now and summer on the Big Hole should be the best it has been in years.  It would be awesome to be able to fish hoppers in the afternoon this year!

Upper Clark Fork:
As the river drops and clears, the caddis fishing will get insane.  The Upper is a caddis stream through and through.

Silver Bow Creek:
I haven't been out there yet this year but things usually get going right about now.  You'd be surprised by what may eat your larger attractor dry or simple streamer...

Missouri River (Craig reach):
I have to distinguish what area now because my Missouri River Range has grown so much over the last few years.  The dry fly bite is on big-time.  There are pods of snotty MO trout all over the river. You need to bring your A game.  Perfectly placed casts and drag free drifts are crucial.  Fly selection comes second in importance.  They will eat PMD spinners, caddis, and buzzballs like candy if you can present them properly.

Holter Lake Carping: 
I'm embarrassed to say that it was my first time on the boat up at Holter recently.  It is such a beautiful place!  I didn't have much info on carp fishing up there but I knew that they had to be there. They are, and they get big like in Clark Canyon.  The carp were tough and I got my ass handed to me. There is still a bunch that are spawning but I was able to find some over on the rockier eastern shore that were willing to eat.  I even landed one of the largest carp yet to date. I can't wait to get back up there again.  There are also some great trout in Holter!

Three Forks Ponds Carping:
The carping in the Three Forks Ponds is outstanding right now!  There are still some spawners but the ones that aren't are tailing in groups in the flats.  Throw a small black wooly bugger or small leech pattern for all-day action.

Clark Canyon Carping:
I haven't been down there since I've been back but I imagine it is the same as Holter.  They were in full spawn mode before I left and the fishing was hit or miss picking on the wallflowers. The carping should get better and better here by the day.  It's time to start thinking about callabaetis, damsels, and dragonfly nymphs perfectly cast and timed to be in the hot zone of a slowly cruising, golden submarine.

Georgetown Lake:
I will be checking in on Montana's finest brook and rainbow trout lake very soon.  The traveling sedge caddis should be underway as we speak and intensifying over the next few weeks.  Also, callabaetis, damsels, and dragonflies in nymph and adult form will play out as well.  The traveling sedge hatch on G-town is one of the finest of any hatch you will ever encounter.  Big bugs and big willing fish are what it is all about.  Have you ever had a 100+ fish dry fly day?


Thats all I got for now.

Brook trout clown suit

Brook trout skin

Here in Montana, we have plenty of those little dink brookies that come to most people's minds when you say "brook trout." They are not native here and they cause some ecological trouble with our native and threatened bull char.  However, in Georgetown Lake, they are somewhat isolated from the rest of the watershed and they are managed for in a positive way because they get huge.  Some of them can get to Labrador, Canada-type sizes.  In the fall, they put on their clown suits and are the most colorful fish you can find.

Big boy guarding his redd in Emily Spring

As of now, the brookies in the lake are in full to late spawn and are just about impossible to catch. The good pre-spawn fishing is over but you can find some schooled-up roamers moving around that are not on the redds.  Throwing a big streamer at them may piss one off but at this point, it's a lost cause.  However, there is a fun alternative.  The rainbows will also join these moving herds. Throw an unweighted double egg rig right in front of the moving school.  As they all move over it, watch your line tip.  Once it starts following the school, set the hook.  It will be a big G-town rainbow every time!

Take your kids up to see the kokanee and brookie spawners in Emily spring and the hoards of eagles. I'd be surprised if you made it all the way around the lake and did not spot a moose or 2 as well.

The spawn is on

Rainbow trout spawn at Georgetown Lake

The rainbows and cutts are on the spawn all over Montana Right now.  One of the most fascinating places to watch this is at Georgetown Lake.  Here, thousands of large rainbows spawn on the east shore, in Emily Spring, and in the tributaries like Stewart Mill Creek.  There are so many trout that other animals key in, especially eagles.  If you want a local taste of what a salmon spawn in Alaska is like, head up to G-town and bring a camera!

Rainbow trout spawning swarm in Emily Spring

As of last week, there was still a lot of ice on the lake

As the sun sets on 2015...

Georgetown Lake, Montana

This last year was one of the best since I've been on this planet, and I've had some good ones.  I completely fell in love with my new city, Butte, and I fished, played, worked, and learned like never before.  Thank you 2015!

Happy new year to everyone out there!  I hope I'll see you on the river, lake, flats, slope, trail, or ice next year.  Until then, watch out for traffic jams...

Traffic jam on MT Hwy 1

Autumn is about more than just brown trout...

Giant Georgetown Lake brook trout

I absolutely love brown trout!  I live in a part of Montana which is lousy with tons of huge, angry browns and fall is like the Superbowl of brown trout fishing.  However, it's always good to remember that there are some other great fall spawners worth pursuing as well.

Georgetown Lake, Silver Bow Creek, and the Big Hole River all hold larger-than-average sized brook trout.  The monster male shown above was over 20" long!  I bet folks back east didn't know they could get that big.  Our brook trout here in SW Montana (especially in Georgetown Lake) rival those found in Labrador, Newfoundland.

Other fall species to chase in Montana are:

• Kokanee salmon (landlocked sockeye) - great fun and good food
• Lake Trout moving out of Flathead Lake (yes, in the fall you can catch them on streamers in shallow water and the Flathead River)
• Bull Trout (only in the South Fork of the Flathead!!)
• Pike seem extra feisty in the fall and are easy to spot in the Lower Clark Fork and Bitterroot
• There is even a strain of fall spawning rainbow in the Upper Missouri (above all the dams)

For all of these fish, you'll want to throw streamers.  Check out the streamer factory on my dining room table.  Priorities.

Red Boat Mark's dining room table

It's fall, get out there!!

Little Red Bugger

The Little Red Bugger

Hook: Size 10 streamer hook (it's supposed to be tiny)
Thread: 6/0 whatever color you want
Ribbing: Small diameter gold or silver wire
Tail: One red and one peach colored marabou feather
Body: Small red standard chenille
Hackle: Small red strung saddle hackle
Flash: a couple strands of your favorite tinsel in the tail (not shown)

I was first turned onto this fly, some years ago, by the old guy at Flint Creek Outdoors in Phillipsburg, Montana.  I went in to ask for tips on the early season fishing on Georgetown Lake and he told me this little red Woolly Bugger was the ticket.  He said it did a good job resembling a tiny brook trout.  Whatever the fish took it for, it was definitely a really effective fly.  I caught a million rainbows and my first huge G-town brook trout.

The story doesn't end there.  The next day, as it always seems to do up there, the wind started howling and it even started snowing.  I hadn't got my fill of fishing yet (don't know if there is such a thing) so I headed down to the upper Clark Fork at Warm Springs.  Out of pure laziness and curiosity, I left the little red bugger tied on and proceeded to catch what seemed like every last brown trout in the river. It was unreal.  I also caught one of those gigantic rainbow trout that fall over the spillway.

The streamer trend over the last decade has been towards those huge, Gallup-inspired wet mops streamers.  While they are fun to fish and certainly effective in a lot of situations, streamers that huge are really not necessary for catching huge trout.  They can be hard to get down in the fish's feeding zone, they are impossible to role cast, and in tailwater-type waters, they aren't really the best choice. Think about that 2 foot brown trout you caught on the MO on a size 22 midge nymph...bigger bait doesn't always mean bigger fish.

E-Z Antron damselfly nymph

This fly was shown to me by an old fly tier I met this year.  He swears by it and says it out-fishes everything else at Georgetown.  It is ugly, easy, and apparently effective.  I'll report back after a field test coming soon.

E-Z Antron damselfly nymph

Hook: Size 14-10 (12 for G-town) nymph
Thread: 6/0 black or green
Ribbing: Small diameter copper or gold
Eyes:  Bead chain, burned mono, or the plastic ones
Body: Antron yarn tied in in clumps folded over and wrapped with the wire, one at a time

I was told to fish this on a sinking line with a slow strip retrieve, swimming the fly just off the bottom.  If you have never fished Georgetown Lake, Montana, you should.

Sharptail Media's "Damsels in Distress"

Damsel season is upon us.  The east shore and no-motor bays of Georgetown Lake will finally open to fishing this week.  You can see what these guys went all the way to Australia for, right here in good old Montana.  This video never gets old!

Westslope Trout Unlimited spreads the love of fly fishing at the Cabela's grand opening.

Two bits of good news about the new Cabela's in Missoula.

• The fly fishing section sucks big-time.  I really thought they'd have had one of those little fake fly shops in there or something.  So, it is still just as easy to support your local fly shop!
• The grand opening event brought a lot of outdoors people to one place which was great for spreading the love of fly fishing, fly tying, and stream conservation. 

Montana Trout Unlimited's Kids Camp at Georgetown lake is July 13-17!  Click here to find out more.

http://www.westslopetu.org/

fly tying with families and kids

Elmer P. - TU volunteer and fly tyer extraordinaire

Elmer P. teaching casting to the next generation.

Western Montana - high water - fishing report

The large freestone rivers in western Montana are experiencing a nice, steady runoff.  It's looking like we are going to have a great summer and fall with full streams and fat fish.  The cool thing about Montana, especially now that true fishing season has started, is that there is always a place to fish, even during run-off.

Highway 434

You can drive over to the Missouri River which is fishing great.  You can also now fish the tribs here, there, and everywhere.

View of Craig, MT from the Craig Cemetery

RBM Chronicles thanks the people of ALL faiths, genders, ethnicities, abilities, and styles of fishing who have served our country on this Memorial Day.


Flint Creek below Phillipsburg is another great high water option.  Most of the flow comes out of a reservoir from the next drainage over (crazy!) so it has a tailwater aspect to it.  It is loaded with medium sized brown trout and the occasional rainbow and there are plenty of larger fish mixed in.  

Flint Creek in Six Mile Canyon with Pintler Mountains

Flint creek fished ok with small streamers in the sun last week.  They are brown trout though, so early morning or clouds are good to have on your side.  Nymphing with worms and stoneflies was productive lower on the creek where it carries more water and color.


Further up the drainage, Georgetown Lake is an amazing fish factory and will begin to fish like the Dickens soon.  The rainbows are in full on spawn mode which has slowed the fishing at the moment.  They will be done soon though and if you saw the pics of the east shore and Emily Spring from earlier this week, you know there are more than enough huge trout in this lake to make anyone happy.

Rare afternoon glass on Georgetown Lake

Georgetown fished best with egg and worms thrown to trout cruising the shoreline and rainbow trout or brook trout looking streamers fished the same way.


The Beaverhead River is a small tailwater in SW Montana.  It is one of my favorite streams to fish on the planet.

Christine on the Beav

Beaverhead Brown

Tailwater nymphs work here but that's not what I like.  The Beaverhead is one of my favorite places to fish streamers.  This last trip was no exeption.  We were lucky enough to get afternoon clouds and thunderstorms which made sweeping little Matukas through untouched side channels into something I have't stopped thinking about for the last three days.  I had mega chase-downs by mean browns and my fly had the effect of an electro-fishing wand where I could at least move, what seemed like, every fish in the river.  God, I love that stream.

The Beaverhead Mountains of SW Montana

Happy Memorial Day and happy spring fishing!

Insane trout orgy

The higher elevation rainbow and cutthroat trout are now in full spawn mode.  These pics are from the east shore of Georgetown Lake and Emily Spring.  These areas are closed to fishing until the madness ends.

Rainbow trout spawning swarm in Emily Spring

East shore Georgetown Lake, MT

East shore Georgetown Lake, MT

Dragonfly Larvae are as bad-ass as it gets!

This is one of the coolest nature videos I have ever seen.  One of my favorite hatches of the year is the damsel and dragonfly hatch on Georgetown Lake in Montana.

Tie up some of these bad boys in the nymph and adult forms.  Watching a 25" rainbow sip your damsel dry in 3 feet of water is pretty fun.

Degrees Of Gray In Phillipsburg

I love Phillipsburg, Mt.  In fact, it is a very special place for many different aspects of my life.  I was part of making the "Degrees of Gray" into the "Prettiest Painted Places in America" a few years back.  When I entered into the professional world of trout conservation, I cut my teeth in the Flint Creek Valley working with ranchers and their irrigation diversions during a low water year.  Yes, people told me they would shoot me, a lot.

Richard Hugo is awesome.  This is a video of a short interview and then, a short clip where he reads his poem "Degrees of Gray in Phillipsburg" to a backdrop of some P-burg and Granite footage.



Make a good stiff drink and listen to some poetry!
The Flint Creek Valley offers some fantastic fly fishing.

• Georgetown Lake
• Flint Creek
• Boulder Creek
• Trout Creek
• Upper Rock Creek
• Plus mountain lakes and secret creeks galore!