Winter Carp on the Fly - Montana

First carp of 2017!

Carp season has begun in Central Montana!  Well kinda.  You've got to know where carp are this time of year.  This guy came out of Canyon Ferry in open water.  Find the open water and you'll most likely find the carp.  I drove a huge loop to the main carp waters of Central and Southwest Montana over the past two days and here's what I found...

Update on the carp conditions in Central and Southwest Montana:

Clark Canyon:
Most of the lake is still frozen solid with 2+ feet of ice.  The ling are getting going with their spawn so, catch that while you can. There is a large, open-water area near the mouth of Horse Prairie. I'd bet good money that there'll be carp tailing in there on the warm sunny days from here on until ice-out. It's not right at the mouth of the creek so, it's not all quick-sandy. The mouth of Red Rocks can be scary during low water because the fine sediment is deep.  I'd bet there is some open water there too.

Three Forks Ponds:
If the weather stays warm (I don't think it is supposed to), the ice may retreat enough to allow the carp to start feeding in the open, shallow water within the next couple of weeks.  As of now, the ponds are still mostly frozen to the shore.  I would not walk on the ice!

The Lower Jefferson River:
It still looks like the arctic on the lower Jeff.

The Upper Missouri River below Toston Dam:
The river is big, cold, and off color.  No good.

Canyon Ferry:
The majority of the lake is still frozen and will be for quite some time.  However, there are many tributary streams that enter the lake.  Find the mouth of one and most likely, you will find a bit of open water. There are surface and groundwater flow coming in which makes these areas warmer than the rest of the water in the lake.  These areas area also shallow and now warm up pretty good on warmer, sunny days.  The carp will pour out from under the ice to feed in these bays.  Fun, fun, fun!
I got a location tip from an ice fishing guy last week who was witnessing this.  I checked it out and it was awesome!

Dun Magazine - Winter 2016

The winter issue of DUN Magazine is here!  I just love this magazine.  They always seem to have at least one picture of a carp in each issue.

Dun Magazine Winter Edition 2015 - I love this magazine!!

Click here to read Dun Magazine Winter Edition 2015

Give me Montana or give me death

Winter sunset on the Deer Lodge Mountains

I was bummed because I could not afford the trip to Helena for the Public Lands Rally yesterday.  I'm still stuck in that in-between time when you transfer jobs and you don't get a paycheck for a month and a half.  Not cool!  In lieu of the rally, I went and enjoyed some public land and reflected about how lucky I was to live in a place with so much of it.  

Upper Clark Fork brown trout

I've been working on my release shots lately.  They are not as easy as you might think but I'm getting it down.  I suppose a polarized filter will help but that's a couple weeks out.

Copper colored bone

The Upper Clark Fork is one of my favorite places to fish in America.  It's also a toxic mess.  I study this stuff so I love to go and take pictures and samples as well as catch tons of huge brown trout.  I'm going to guest lecture a class at MT Tech and I really wanted to get some pictures of some blue colored bones and stream-side slickens to show the class.  Mission accomplished!

Mine waste slicken on the Upper Clark Fork

Mmmmmmmmmm.  Phytotoxic soil.

Most folks don't fish up here.  I assume signs like these may keep the crowds away.  You'd think there'd be no fish. You'd be very wrong.

Upper Clark Fork River

Despite the insanity, the Upper Clark Fork is absolutely gorgeous.  I had as good a day fishing for large brown trout as I did on the Beaverhead but with no dry flies.  That's fine, I love to fish the streamer.

Brown trout release

Looks like the spring weather will continue here in Montana.  Better get your fishing in now because mid-summer flows are going to suck.

Exciting volunteer opportunity with the Clark Fork Coalition

Get off your ass and help the rivers we use and love!

LaFontaine's Buzzball - A Step by Step Guide

LaFontaine's Buzzballs!

In the book Trout Flies: Proven Patterns by Gary LaFontaine, he sates that he developed this fly for the great winter midge hatches on the Missouri River here in MT.  I have found that this simple and effective little fly does a great job mimicking midge clusters wherever they are found.

In recent years, the Buzzball has had a huge resurgence in popularity with the credit mostly going to Mark Raisler of Headhunters Fly Shop in Craig, MT.  He has found that the Buzzball also works great in the summertime on the MO when there are a ton of dead bug parts on the surface.  I, as well as everyone else he's turned onto this fly (I actually think Sara R. gave me my first one), have had amazing success with it.

It doesn't end there.  Being the endless experimenter that I am, I've taken the Buzzball all over Montana and used in on a variety of waters.  I've tested it on everything from the freestone rivers and Georgetown Lake, to stocked borrow pits and high alpine lakes.  I've also experimented with the recipe.  The variable here is the orange hackle used in the original pattern.  If you use brown or black instead of the orange, you can cover a variety of lighting and hatch situations.  I've also found that substituting a cream colored hackle for the orange is extremely effective for the spruce moth which occur on the west-side, freestone streams.

The Buzzball is ridiculously simple to tie, easy to see on the water, and extremely effective in a variety of situations.  In my book, that is what makes a good fly!  Here's the recipe for the original and step-by-step instruction.

Hook:  Size 18-12 dry fly hook (16 is my favorite)
Thread:  8/0 burnt orange
Hackle:  1 grizzly hackle in the appropriate size (approx. 1 1/2 gap length); 1 light dun hackle (smaller, but size doesn't matter); 1 orange hackle (smaller, but size doesn't matter) 


Step 1:

Wrap the hook shank thoroughly and evenly.


Step 2:

Tie in the grizzly hackle in a size appropriate to the hook.

Step 3:

Tie in the orange hackle (size is not important because this is going to get cut).


Step 4:

Tie in the light dun hackle (again, size in not important because this going to be cut) and the advance thread to front of the hook.


Step 5:

Palmer both the orange and light dun hackles to the front of the hook.

Step 6:

Cut the orange and light dun hackles to about hook gap length all around the hook so that it resembles a bottle brush.

Step 7:

Palmer the grizzly hackle forward and then whip finish.

Step 8:

Cut the grizzly hackle flush to the orange and light dun on the top and bottom of the fly only.  Your done!

Fishing Rock Creek in winter with my mom

I owe my mother the world a million times over for a lot of things, especially after her heroic help during my insane move over to Butte in a gnarly blizzard and 24 below 0 deg. F temps.  We did take a day off from the insanity to fish Rock Creek though and I got some good pics.

Mom on Rock Cr. Rd.

Horses in pasture

Winter wonderland

Snowy Rock Creek

Getting our asses kicked post-holing through the meadows (snow on lens)

Totally getting our asses kicked post-holing (snow on lens)

Valley of the Moon Bridge wintertime 2015

The fishing kinda sucked but the beauty and laughs were plentiful.  Get off yer ass and get out there. Winter is awesome!

A little surprise

Upper Clark Fork brook trout

So, my "work/school fishing trip" to the Butte area turned into a work/school fishing trip.  Turns out, getting all the required documents to my new school is a lot more laborious than I expected.  However, I did have to shoot back over there yesterday to look at an apartment.  That left me like 45 minutes of daylight in a snowstorm to hit the Upper Clark Fork below the ponds.

I had been fishing for like 5 minutes when I hooked into this male brookie all colored up for the spawn.  I've never caught a brook trout this big in the Clark fork.  There are huge brookies upstream of the ponds and the tribs in the area are loaded with them but this big boy was right in the main stem and was surely a post spawn holdover.

There are redds everywhere in the upper CF right now from the browns (and some brookies I guess) which have been abandoned.  I'm sure you can still find some fish on redds, but it looks like the spawn is over.  Be really careful up here, don't be a dick and fish for trout on their redds.  More importantly, don't walk on the redds.

Redds are easy to spot in small streams like the upper Clark Fork, especially redds from fish who spawn in the fall.  The bottom is usually covered in dead organic material which is a darker color.  The redds are dinner plate to dinner table sized areas of stream bed which are clean gravel.  They are usually in slower water and at the tailouts of deeper holes.

You can see that this fish is wrapped in my leader.  I didn't take the time to try and get a perfect picture because this guy could potentially still be trying to find a mate and he most likely just had a long voyage from wherever he came from.  This was a quick lift out of the net, snap, and release type deal.  Notice the EZ Bunny hanging out of his mouth.

Winter fishing is full of surprises.      

Early winter scenes from the lower 'Root

The lower Bitterroot in December

The warm, foggy conditions over the last week have made for some great winter fishing conditions on the local rivers.  Even the Clark Fork has shed most of its shore ice.

No ice - no people

Bitterroot in early winter

Did I mention that there was a solid midge hatch and some fish up on them?  I stuck with the streamer because it is still really effective.  Man, I lost two huge trout yesterday which just about ripped my rod out of my hand.  Sometimes those monster streamer hits can spook you when your not paying attention.

I love walking down a snowy shoreline and the only footprints I see are from the geese, heron, and furry creatures.  

Go Grizzlies!

The Montana Grizzlies take on the Eastern Washington Eagles today in the second round of the FSC playoffs.  No matter what happens, my bet is that it is a really good game.  It's also nice that it is in the afternoon.  This will allow me to get out on the river and swing some flies before the game.

The Clark Fork and Bitterroot are kinda fishable right now.  The work/school fishing trip to the Butte area is all set and I'm really excited to try out some of my ice fly creations on Georgetown.
 

Staying busy

The hot seat

I've been tying flies like a Chinese factory worker for the upcoming demo at the Trout Unlimited meeting this month.  These are all flies that are great winter patterns that can also be used through the ice.  I will post them on here soon.

The fishing has been rough around here since the cold blew in again last week.  The rivers are frozen up pretty good.  At the same time, the ice on the local ponds got pretty sketchy during the last warm spell. For good ice, you have to travel.  Reports from Georgetown are good.

I got a trip to Butte coming up and the upper Clark Fork and Georgetown are in my sights.

Missoula Area Fishing Report - Mid November

Yep, winter came in last week and shut down the fall fly fishing for good.  All of the rivers in our area look like Alaska right now.  While most people have packed up their fly fishing gear and have started to think about getting into some powder, I have gone into fishing overdrive.

Winter fishing is awesome.  One of the biggest factors for me starting this blog was a realization that there is very little information and enthusiasm for winter fishing.  That ends now!

For instance, did you know that you can fly fish through the ice?  They even make ice rods with fly reels on them.  You use the same winter flies you would use on the river.  It's a whole different game but it is a hell of a lot better than freaking out about winter and being miserable like everyone else.

During warm spells the Bitterroot, Upper Clark Fork, and the Missouri can fish like the freaking bees knees and you can go days without seeing another fisherperson. We live in a winter wonderland, those people who get cabin fever in the winter are either just lazy or for some reason not able to be active.

So here it is, a somewhat abbreviated (for now) Missoula Area winter fishing report.

The Clark Fork:
Frozen.  However, the upper river will fish all winter.  Use Missouri River winter patterns like orange bead scuds and sows, eggs, and streamers.  There are some monster rainbows up there (pushing 30") that fall over the dam and there's always the resident browns.

The Bitterroot:
Frozen.  When we have a warm spell, this river will be scary until the iceburgs clear out, but then, it is low flows, easy wading, beautiful sunsets and stacked up fish in the winter runs; and you have it all to yourself.

The Missouri R.:
The only issue you'll have here is nasty weather.  When you get a nice day over there, it is winter paradise.  It's so pretty and odd.  I just love it on the MO in the winter.  I don't take a boat because wading is the best in the winter.  It's a nymphing and streamer deal with midges on the shoulders of the season.

And ice fishing:

Beavertail Pond:
I love this stupid pond.  As of yesterday, it had 3 inches of hard, clear ice.  I played it cautious and fished in no deeper that waste deep in case I fell through.  Ideally you want 4".  The north side of the pond is where the aquifer enters so the ice was only 2" thick.  I'd stay away from that end for a while.  The brood stock rainbows are in there and they are ready to eat.  They are huge (25"+ and up to 10lbs.) and they cruise around in swarms.  You can go a half hour without a sign and then all of a sudden there's 3 submarines headed at your fly.  In between trout swarms, you'll catch perch.  I use steelhead size egg patterns, tiny egg patterns, and jig head streamers.

Harpers Lake:
This is a small natural lake up near Clearwater Crossing.  Because it is at a higher elevation, the ice is better than Beavertail. The brood stock are also put in here.  The water is very clear which makes looking down the hole really fun.  One of the best things about ice fishing is that it is a lot like snorkeling.  Your suspended above this whole scene and you can watch all sorts of stuff and get instant feedback on the fish.  I use the same flies up here.

There are many other ice fishing ponds/lakes around here but I won't report on them until I fish them.  Stay tuned.