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.

Fish pics

Brown trout skin

Here's a short photo collection of some of my favorite shots from the last couple of months.

Juvenile arctic grayling

Bowl full of browns

Cutthroat hiding with grayling in foreground

Gigantic hatchery rainbow

Raceway cutts

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

March Madness on the Poindexter Slough

The Poindexter Slough of the Beaverhead River

The Poindexter Slough in Southwest Montana flows through one of the finest pieces of public land in the entire country.  The Slough is America's spring creek and although it is on public land, the skill and physical fitness level required to fish it keeps the crowds very much at bay.  In fact, I fished just about the entire reach and I saw nobody else all day long.  The only people I did see were two bait fishermen fishing frog water while I was limping back to the truck in the dark.  I was too tired to tell them that fishing bait is still illegal for two more months which turned out okay because they were really nice and told me they hadn't caught a thing.

I, on the other hand, had a 40+ fish day and one of the most fun days bushwhacking and catching large browns and rainbows so far this year!

Brown on the line

The Slough is not the place to bring a beginner.  Your roll cast needs to be in top shape here as the banks are lined with thick willows.  You're also going to want to leave lollygaggers and the timid behind.  If your not getting your ass kicked by the willows and your skin and clothes ripped by the roses and currants, your not getting in deep enough.  Effectively getting to where the big fish are is as close to going guerrilla in a jungle as you can get in MT.

Underwater Brown

  


























The Slough is chock full of very large, very wary brown trout and some big-ass rainbows too.

Brown Trout sucking on the Meat Whistle

I fished streamers downstream all the way down to where the Slough hits the Beaverhead and was absolutely blown away by the number and size of the browns in that small piece of water.  The MeasureNet works on a number line centered on 0.  To get a measurement, you add the value at the head and the tail of the fish.  As you can see here, this guy was pushing 20in. (51cm.)  John Barr's Meat Whistle in green was the ticked to getting some vicious hits from the browns.

Another brown sucking on the Meat Whistle

Once I reached the mouth, I set up a nymph rig and headed back upstream.  I put on the Soft Hackle "Sow Bug" and all of a sudden, started to catch huge pre-spawn rainbows.  Surprise!

Soft Hackle Sow Bug in a big rainbow's kype jaw

I'm talking BIG rainbows!  Check out the kype on this big guy.  He was pissed about getting caught.

Female rainbow release

This large female was never lifted out of the water and released faster than a toupee in a hurricane.

Underwater rainbow

It's getting to be the time of year where you have to start looking out for redds.  More on that soon.  Once irrigation starts in the Beaverhead Valley, half of the water going into the Beaverhead and also the Slough ends up going down ditches.  The weeds grow long in the Slough and the fish become almost un-catchably spooky.  I'll see these guys again in the fall...

The Upper Clark Fork in winter

Mt Powell and the Upper Clark Fork in January

The Upper Clark Fork, from the outlet of the Anaconda Settling Ponds down to around Galen, is essentially a tailwater fishery and it fishes all winter.  It is full of of brown trout, has some giant rainbows which fall over the spillway from the ponds, and has the occasional cutthroat and brook trout mixed in.

Frozen foam disks

This stretch of river sees a lot of pressure because the fishing is awesome so, it can get really technical.

Ice in the guides

It can get crowded at times.  This is easily avoidable though, so long as you fish at odd times and during the off season.  Also, similar to Rock Creek, most of the people fishing here have no idea what the hell they are doing.  If you have half an idea, you can usually come right behind them and catch fish.  Just try to stay out of sight.

 Staying out of sight is going to be harder for a while as two major sections of the floodplain and stream are closed right now due to some restoration work.  An area about a half mile down stream of the spillway (near the first bridge) has been closed for a while and there is another section on the Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch that is under construction now.

See ya later Mr. Brown

All I can say is that I'm stoked about the restoration work and the future of the fishery.  I'm also excited to now live 20 minutes away.  Want some good advice?  Fight the urge to fish nymphs and throw SMALL streamers.  There are also some epic midge, BWO, hopper, and caddis hatches up here at the appropriate times.

Urban trout

Downtown brown

Rainbow eats the wire body soft hackle

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

The man who showed me fly fishing

RBM's Uncle Tim 

When I was 14, I took a trip out to the Pacific NW to visit my Uncle.  Up to that time, Uncle Tim had been the life-force for exposing me to the outdoors, fishing, conservation, ever since I could walk.  On this trip, our plan was to drive over to the east side of the Cascades and do some car camping and fishing with my sister and cousins.

After sightseeing, spin fishing all day, and setting up camp, Uncle Tim set up a fly rod and took us all down to the river which flowed right past the campground.  I remember him trying to explain the concept of fly fishing to me in the standard way - the line is the weighted part, the fly should float and not drag, and that if put in the right spot, a trout would actually come up and eat it.  I was in total disbelief.

I may never have given fly fishing a second thought if it weren't for that little rainbow trout that came right up out of the riffle like clockwork to crush my uncle's fly on his second or third cast.  I had to do that too!

Like with everyone else that fishes with a fly, my first time was ugly.  I snapped and popped and got super tangled on everything.  It probably took me an hour to just be able to get the fly on the water but as soon as I did, there was another enthusiastic little rainbow that would eat that hopper and change the course of my life forever.

I still can't believe that trout can be caught on some pocket-lint tied to a hook.  I think that's why it never gets old, it's unbelievable.

So to my Uncle Tim, thank you!

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.

CSI Montana

I came across this crime scene on my walk home from fishing downtown yesterday.  I suspect this trout was dropped by an osprey due to a lack of any other logical explanation as to why there was a rainbow trout in the middle of 3rd Street.  The missing head provides further evidence, as trout heads are a known osprey delicacy.

Looking west on 3rd St. in Misosula

Rainbow trout crime scene

Just imagine if it fell on your windshield - or shoulder. Ha!

Western Montana Fishing Reports

Rainbow in downtown Missoula

The Clark Fork (at Warm Springs):
Some of the best fishing up there is during this time of the year.  It's all about the right flies up there.  They want pink tailwater stuff right now.  Midge stuff, pink scuds, eggs, and the sot hackle sow bug rules here!  I had a 40 fish day up there last week with many of those nice browns running over 18" in length.  There were midges and i noticed one rise but nothig in the way of solid dry fly fishing yet.

The Clark Fork (around Missoula):
Water levels are down to where accessing the good winter runs is not a suicidal act.  The water is still cold and there is not a lot going on yet.  I dredged up a few right in downtown yesterday.  Normally, at this time of the year, the CF has been nymphing great for months and is starting to pop BWO's.  Not this year.  I did notice some rises to the midges yesterday.  They were too few and far between for me to cut the nymph rig off.  Flies that work include: Smaller rubber leg stones in brown/green, worms, big prince and pheasant tails nymphs, eggs.  Fish the slow winter runs still.

The Bitterroot (lower)
For the most part, you wont see me fishing the upper Bitterroot.  It can look like the Salmon River in NY up there these days and I don't go fishing to hang out in a crowd.  I do fish the lower river consistently though.  It is a different beast and most fishing reports don't give it enough attention.  I hope to shine some light on it.  The water is still big but it is clear and green.  The nymphing is fantastic right now.  I caught lots of huge pre-spawn rainbows and some great browns on the soft hackle sow bug trailed below a rubber leg stone.  This river is normally on fire this time of year.  The trout haven't even got going on the midges yet this year.  Normally, they'd have been eating them on top since Feb. then weeks of BWO's followed by all the big bugs and the crowds.  It is still a total nymph game right now, but not for long.  Stonefly nymphs that look like skwala, worms, eggs, midges, baetis nymphs, and the soft hackle sow bug rules here!

Rock Creek
If you don't mind throwing nymphs, specifically egg patterns, you can have a life changing day up at the creek right now.  Just be sure to know what a redd looks like and stay the fuck away from it!!  The big Clark Fork rainbows and cutts are staging in the lower reaches and their brown friends are right behind them getting ready to eat eggs.  The chance to catch the fish of a lifetime, all day long is there, but you have to work for it.  Nymphing heavy and deep and losing all your flies is the only way to go about it.  You have to put in some footwork too.  Get away from the other fisherman, commit yourself to a full day and you will catch fish like you never have before.  Stonefly nymphs in any size or shape, smaller mayfly stuff, worms, egg patterns, the soft hackle sow bug should be illegal on this stream!  Pinch your barbs!

The Blackfoot
The same story as the Clark Fork around Missoula.  Still big and cold from the crazy winter.  The same nymphs in the same type of water will work.

Area Lakes
I'm excited to have this as part of my report because nobody reports on the lakes and that is just stupid.  Western Montana has thousands of awesome lakes and ponds and a ton of elbow room and great fishing.  I love to fish still water.  I think it can be incredibly hard and fun.  So here it is:  the area lakes are all still frozen!  Of course, but Beavertail Pond is normally open by now.  I checked last week and it was still frozen.  There was about a foot of thaw at the edge.  I'm going back to check on it today.  Ice-out in Montana should be declared a state holiday!  I'll keep you informed.  Once Beavertail goes, the rest follow in perfect succession in relation to their elevation.  You will certainly see pictures of big, nasty, steelhead sized, brood stockers on the blog soon.  Stay tuned!