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Flyfishing
By Montana Angler at Mon, 2011-02-07 12:48 | Flyfishing
A good wade fisherman is like a sharpshooter that applies all focus to their target and ignores everything else. Unfortunately, many anglers use the more of a shotgun approach when wade fishing and try to scour a creek or river by spraying casts in every direction. Many fly fisherman quickly begin to learn that most trout occupy a small percentage of a river, choosing to lie in the most productive zones such as seams, riffle corners, and riffle drops. Even when anglers recognize the best holding water in a river, I have noticed that few fisherman consistently use the correct casting distance for specific situations when nymph fishing.
By Montana Angler at Wed, 2010-12-29 21:42 | Flyfishing
How to catch monster trout
Spectacular scenery, time with our friends and the joy wading a cold river are frequently rates as the main draws to fly fishing. Most avid fly fisherman are quick to comment that it isn’t really the size or even the number of trout caught that defines a great day but rather simply being away from the office and on the water. While landing monstrously large trout is not always the main priority for many fly fisherman, lets all fess up and admit that we wouldn’t mind a nice picture on the desk of a massive hook jawed brown whose belly sags over hour hands as we struggled against his weight to hold him for the camera. Every red blooded fly fisherman needs to catch at least one monster at some time in his or her life! Some of us get downright addicted to catching grandaddy trout and begin engaging in disturbing behaviours like throwing 10” streamers during a PMD hatch when all of your friends are catching fish left and right with their dry fly imitations. Since monster trout aren’t and every day occurrence it pays to target them if you want to get serious at making your friends jealous with your post fishing trip photo email. So how big is huge? This is obviously depends on person to person and region to region. Here in Southern Montana we consider any trout over 20” to be of serious consequence and is probably enough to make all of your friends back home envious. If you live in big trout country and all of your friends are fishing guides then you have to raise the bar even higher...a 23” brown will definitely be a nice fish but won’t generate much buzz in the local shops. To really light up the local conversations you need to shoot for the 25 - 30” range. If you are lucky enough to hang a 28 or 29” brute you will be forever enshrined with your grip and grin shot hanging behind the counter of at least one fly shop and your hog photo will go viral on email and facebook accounts around Montana!
By Montana Angler at Thu, 2010-09-30 14:16 | Flyfishing
It is hard to pull a fly fishing magazine off of a shelf and not find an article or photo of Montana fly fishing. The shear number and density of world class trout rivers in the state rivals any other location in the world. Rivers like the Madison, Yellowstone, Bighorn, Missouri, Gallatin, Big Hole, and Jefferson have long been on the short list of passionate fly fisherman from around the world.
By Montana Angler at Thu, 2010-09-30 14:12 | Flyfishing
Montana fly fishing is often at its best just after runoff subsides. Post runoff fishing can be very good for a variety of different reasons. First, trout have not been fished to in several weeks…it is hard to fish when you are dodging floating debris! Second, water temperatures are hitting the mid 50s (F) and both the aquatic insects and trout are becoming much more active. Third, strong mid river currents push trout close to banks where, effectively concentrating all of the fish in the river into a small zone along the edge of the river. Fourth, several of the best aquatic insect hatches occur just after runoff including the monstrous salmon fly that can entice even the largest fish to the surface. Finally, several smaller rivers are only floatable during the short season after runoff, thus increasing the opportunities for float fishing.
By Montana Angler at Thu, 2010-09-30 14:11 | Flyfishing
Montana’s Madison River has long been one of the most famous and revered rivers in the world. The river often is listed as the number one trout river in North American and appears in books with titles like “50 places to fish before you die”. In the mid 90s everything changed for the river when a microscopic invader had a devastating impact on the river. Whirling disease is a small microbe that affects rainbow trout. The parasite causes deformation in the spinal cord of young trout that causes them to swim in circles, usually resulting in death. In some reaches of the river, mortality of rainbow trout reached levels over 90%. News of the outbreak quickly spread throughout the angling community and the number of fisherman visiting the river drastically decreased. The Madison river became the poster child for whirling disease and the microbe quickly hitchhiked to other rivers around the West producing similar results. Some states, like Colorado, tackled the problem by stocking rainbow trout fingerlings. In Montana, where there all trout in rivers are wild and there is not a hatchery program, fisheries biologists decided to let nature run its course. The gamble paid off, and the trout that did survive the initial massive die offs began showing some resistance to the disease.
By Montana Angler at Thu, 2010-09-30 14:08 | Flyfishing
Montana fly fishing is well known for some of its great hatches. The Salmon fly hatch in Montana is one of the world’s most legendary fishing spectacles. It ranks near the top with fishing the giant migratory tarpon of the Homosassa flats, site fishing to back country New Zealand trout, Tierra del Fuego sea run browns, the green drake hatch on Penn’s Creek and the sedge hatch on an English chalk stream. The mystique of the Salmon fly is the gargantuan size of both the insect and the trout that try to eat them.
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