Posts from — July 2008

The Federations conclave is under way in Whitefish. I haven’t been up yet but will attend Saturday. Work postponed my trip to the Mo’ for a week so I get to go. I popped into Lakestream today on my way through town and it was cram packed with conclavers, guides hooking up with clients, fly tiers and shoppers. If you are anywhere in the area try to make it. Federation conclave info.

My youngest son was wade fishing the Flathead River last night and he said it was alive with fish rising and a hatch in progress, probably Caddis and PMD’s. The river looks great right now, unfortunately I am feverishly running up hours at work to offset some of the financial casualties that will be inflicted next week fishing the Missouri.

Speaking of the Missouri, everything I am hearing right now is that its on fire. Mostly Caddis but also PMD’s and probably Trico’s coming into the mix anytime. The flows are coming down around 4,000 cfs. Talk about champing at the bit!

No, we were not “targeting” Bulls- just in case you are an agent of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. He was keeping questionable company among a pack of Mountain Whitefish as he was among a horde that my son couldn’t resist picking on for some late AM fun. He was caught on #18 PT Flashback. If thats “targeting” I better paint my truck black so I blend into the blacktop.

Mountain Whitefish are the aquatic version of Raccoons, they can’t leave anything shiny alone.

One of the few real natives left in the state of Montana. Personally, I’d rather catch Rainbows or Browns but they are a pretty trout. This one was fooled by an Olive Snowshoe Hare Emerger, #16.

We fished one of the smaller rivers in northwest Montana this week. Flows were normal but dropping fast. Temperatures are climbing too so we’ll see what happens. Most of the fish caught were on #16-18 Nymphs. Not a lot hatches going on. I did hear that the Clark Fork was seeing some decent hatches so go figure.
One week to go before we hit the mighty Mo’!

Guess who’s playing here? I picked out a few. Letterman probably didn’t even realize what a lineup he had here. I got the obvious, Earl and Randy Scruggs (acoustic guitar), Steve Martin, Marty Stuart (Mandolin), Vince Gill (first solo, electric), Alvin Lee (second solo, electric), that’s as far as I got.

Now, slow it down a bit. In case you didn’t know, Mark and Chet made a record…