WFFW Reports

April 26, 2010 I took a quick trip up to Rogers lake this AM to see if there was an easy Grayling to be had. It was pretty cold (still frost at night) and the wind was blowing and no bugs in the air. I did see a damsel nymph paddling about but nothing else. And no fish within about 30 minutes so I wimped out and left. As soon as it warms up the fishing should improve- dramatically.

April 24, 2010 The Flathead is officially blown out. Waters up and muddy, bad for trout, good for bass and pike. Unless the weather goes glacial it will probably be up for awhile.

April 18, 2010  Alright already, I see all my Grayling posts are getting crushed so we are all thinking the same thing- is the ice off Rogers Lake yet? The answer is yes- and no. There is an island of ice floating back and forth across it but the good news is, it will fish!

If you need the “killer” fly for Rogers, look up Lester at Lakestream Fly Fishing (406-862-1298) in Whitefish and do the Grayling a BIG favor- use barbless hooks. Unless you are a total putz you will catch enough of them that losing  a couple won’t matter and it will be a lot less wear and tear on the fish.

Also, every year there is some a$$holes that feel like they have to camp out off the mouth of the only spawning creek and hammer the fish, if you see someone there turn the ba$tards in- there is cell coverage, but do yourself, and anyone else within earshot a favor; turn it off unless you need to bust someones balls.

March 25, 2010 I made the rounds of the local shops today. It sounds like there is some action (for March) on the main stem Flathead. The real news comes from Bob Arends at Arends Fly Shop in Columbia Falls. Most of the better fishing water on the Blackfeet reservation is open with the exception of Duck lake. Black woolybuggers and scuds, big scuds, yellow-gold and olive. Watch your weather, the wind is a game killer.

March 22, 2010 Ice be gone! Unfortunately I’ve had damn little time to spend ice fishing or even tying up some flies. I’ve got a few grayling  bugs tied up but that’s it. Anyway, the good news is that spring is working it’s magic. It’s still staying cool but we’ve had very little precipitation and the mountains are already looking a little bare for this time of year.

Most of the valley lakes are opened up or are very close. All the lakes up north in the Eureka area are open, Dickey, Murphy, Tetrault and Sophie. West of Kalispell the Thompson chain lakes were coming open last week. Bitteroot should still have a decent ice cover on it and the bays will be in ice for awhile. I’ll be checking on Rogers this week.

January 2, 2010- Happy New Year! Almost half way through winter. Little Stoneflys are only about 8 weeks away!

Blackfeet Reservation fish stocking report, 2009! Good luck getting this off a government fish and wildlife site till sometime next fall! If only the IRS was that slow.

December 29, 2009- There’s plenty of ice out there now although I haven’t heard the conditions on McGregor or Bitteroot. Bays are probably ok on Bitteroot. McGregor always seems to be the last to freeze. I just poked a hole in Smith lake west of Kalispell today and its got an easy 8-10 inches. While I was drilling that hole a small pike tryed to drag my rod down an abandoned fresh hole I invaded (some would call that lazy, I call it opportunistic- especially when its cold and getting dark).

So with a couple of exceptions the ice fishing game is on.

Below is a list of upcoming tournaments:

January 3, 2009 – Perch Assault held on Smith Lake

January 17-18, 2009 – Fisher River Valley Winter Fishing Derby held on Lower, Middle & Upper Thompson Lakes, Crystal Lake, and Loon Lake

January 24, 2009 – Perch Assault Masters Invitational held on Church Slough – Flathead River

December 4, 2009- It’s a damn shame but we’re waiting for ice. It’s like waiting for a single topping pizza after months of meat lover combo’s. It takes a couple weeks to acclimate myself to the world of ice fishing and pretty fast and furious fishing to keep me interested in staring down a hole in the ice.

Even reasonable winter temperatures are heading south for a few days so the ice pack should come quick, like by the end of next week. In the meantime I’ve hauled in a fresh supply of wood and am making no plans of going anywhere unless it involves food or a quick trip to the shed to rummage through some fishing tackle.

October pretty much sucked in northwest Montana. An early cold snap killed every insect within 500 miles it seems. It did warm back up but by the time it did it was time to move on to hunting season. So it was pretty much a wash. We tryed Pike fishing a couple times and they had slowed down to a crawl so we pretty much bagged it and got the guns out.
September 29, 2009, the warm weather and house work has about wound down; it was a good run but past overdue to turn colder. Bass seem to still be pretty deep and off shore unless there is a rock pile or some sort of structure to huddle around. Plastic and Booyah jigs in dark colors. When the weeds go down a bit I hope to try them again with the fly rod but maybe there is still a chance on top.

I’ve almost forgot what a trout looks like. If we don’t totally arctic I hope to get after them one last time before the snow flies.

August 2009, sadly I’ve been spending to much time on domestic chores around the house and not enough time chasing fish. The one upside is that we have a warm water lake (warm by Montana standards anyway) nearby that’s full of pike up to the 5lb. mark. I know there is at least one significantly bigger one; we saw what he did to one of smaller fish he T-boned while it was being reeled in.

I used an oversized bass popper on the surface at sundown, kind of a frog pattern. I also used a foam frog with good results and a few on the ol’ red and white zonker.

July 15-19, Noxon Reservoir, mid day temps from 95-100 (air of course!) fishing best very early till near mid day and from about 6pm till dark. Plastic included crawdads and Senko’s. Fly was an olive/white Clouser Minnow. The weekend brought to many bass boats. Fish mid week and BEFORE tournaments.

June 30- We spent this last weekend at the Jr. Bassmasters tournament at Noxon Reservoir. Overall fishing seemed pretty good. None of the tournament fish broke 20 inches, the better ones were in the 16-17 inch range. I’m not up on Bass but I will just add what I observed with the few fish that I caught.

It was windy off and on, Sunday late morning the wind came up and seemed to put the fish down and off shore. Cliffs had fish deep. All the fish that I caught were off points in at least 10ft of water or on the edge of drops. I was in really small boat for the reservoir so as soon as the wind came up I bailed.

I used crawdads. Others did well with the usual worms and crank baits. I did haul out my fly rod Sat evening and got one pass on a frog on top. I was hoping to catch a nice Smallmouth but mine were all small.

Sunday eve we fished a small lake for largemouths and were plagued by wind till just before sundown. We stuck a few in the weed beds on junebug colored worms at sundown.

June 14- I’ve decided for now that dredging for bass on the bottom is probably an art better matched to spin outfits and a Texas worm rig. I will haul the fly rod for top water affairs.

That being said, river flows are still up (mainly main stem Flathead) but smaller drainages are now coming in pretty good. Caddis, Golden Stone etc.

We fished Blanchard Lake in Whitefish Sunday,  mainly for Largemouth and did pretty good on darker plastics. I will probably fish a Jr. Bassmaster Buddy Tourney next Sunday and then I can get back to trout fishing for awhile or maybe some river Smallies.

June 12- Take care floating the Bitteroot- http://www.ravallirepublic.com/articles/2009/06/12/news/news60.txt

June 6-7- Ugly weather and yard work, what could be worse.

June 8- A covert amphibious military type invasion of  exorbitantly wealthy landowners on Pond X in the later evening proved fruitful. While probably not worth a ticket for trespassing I did finally accomplish my goal of Bass on fly. All I needed was an ice breaker to get the ball rolling and hopefully this does the trick!

May 2009

Broadly speaking, I do this a lot…

For the last two weeks of May I haven’t even stuck a toe in trout water. Actually in my travels at work I have driven by lots of water. 5/29 the Flathead, big and ugly, looked like four day old coffee with cream in it. Upper Stillwater and Tobacco river drainage’s didn’t look to bad, still a bit high but at least they were clearing. Lower Clark Fork (below St. Regis) tributaries should start coming back in soon.

The lakes are fishing good. Bass fishing is going strong. Pike are around and while both are ignoring my fly offerings so far, spin/baitcasting stuff gets em’. Anywhere there are Kokannee, Trout etc they are active. I hear Grayling are still active in Rogers Lake.

Caddis are going, Golden Stone etc., Salmon Fly is probably done where they are present in this area (lower Clark Fork).

5/19/09

Weekend temps and early week thundershowers are putting water high up on the banks and muddy. Probably the end till June sometime unless we cool down again.

Rumor has it the Grayling are in the creek at Rogers Lake with little action in the lake.

Mother’s Day weekend- Upper Clark Fork near Warm Springs. Combat fly fishing- Lots of anglers, a few fish. Water was headed up and getting murky by Tuesday (5/12). #18 smaller Nymphs. Caught the tail end of what was a good Caddis hatch on eve 5/9.

5/8/09

Pike and Bass waking up. Think lakes and sloughs.

5/5/09

Grayling, Rogers Lake. Game on. Peacock herl body nymphs, Zug bug, Prince, Lester’s Hula Girl.

April 2009

4/6/09 (WMumford) Thompson River, river is coming up with the rising temps, lower river more so. Browns on Flashback PT. Small hatches but nothing much happening at the surface. Tried the Clark Fork off the bank for Bass for a short time. No luck, fish probably still holed up in the deep. None visible.

4/8/09 (WMumford) Lakes: Tobacco valley lakes are going to open the soonest in this area. Anytime now for Sophie and Carpenter. Lakes west of Kalispell are still tight- feel the need for a little more ice fishing? Thompson chain, MacGregor, Loon- forget them for at least two weeks, probably the same for Rogers.

Noxon has a little ice around the dam area otherwise clear. Bull Lake still has ice.

4/27/09 (WMumford) Freaking spring weather- snow, rain, wind- you name it. Rivers headed up. Good news is that all the lakes are open, bad news is that the freaking wind has been blowing so much its hard to get on them with any success.

Arends in Columbia Falls says Blackfeet lakes are fishing good, but you better hire some sled dogs if you want to get there right now. The front got handed 2-4 ft of snow overnight, even the I-15 was closed.  Nothing like instant drought relief.

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Reports for March 2008-2009

3/21/08 (WMumford)- Upper Clark Fork, small nymphs, 18′s smaller, Ray Charles, PT’s.

3/22/08 (WMumford)- Bighole River, nymphs, 8 Golden Hares Ear

3/23/08 (WMumford)- Warm Springs Creek, nymphs, Prince, PT’s. Dry 18 BWO Emerger and Parachute, Parachute Adams.

4/1/08 (WMumford)- I have not been out for a few days but it is flipping cool compared to recent springs. Its still snowing a bit every day, nothing measurable in the valley (Flathead) but its still adding up in the high country. Late week should see some improvement.

4/7/8 (WMumford)- Flathead River @ Kalispell. Maybe 50° @ 4pm, when the sun was out and wind not blowing, which did actually happen. Little Brown Stone, Nemouras, abundant.

4/11/08 (WMumford) Flathead @ Bigfork. High 50′s. River rising. Not much bug activity.

4/12/08 (WMumford) Flathead @ Pressantine Bar. Mid 60′s, water rising. Bugs VERY small.

5/3/08 (WMumford) Rogers Lake, Kalispell, mid 60′s, ice out around 4/30. Fishing well, last summer the Grayling were hit hard by heat, how bad remains to be seen. There seems to be no shortage of fish, even picked up a couple small Cutthroat. Prince Nymphs w/variations. These Grayling are fond of about anything that has some Peacock Herl on it. A few working the surface. Once the flys get going a size 16 Adams will get em’ on top. Anytime now.

5/3/08 WMumford, Rogers Lake, Kalispell. Low 50′s, windy. Fished later PM, water calmed down toward sundown. Cutthroat and Grayling fishing well. Added a split shot to get the nymph down out of the waves. A VERY short, but furious Mayfly hatch late.

5/17/8 Mumford, Flathead River @ Kalispell. High 80′s(!), wind variable in PM. High water but 4-5 ft below flood stage. Fishing backwater for Largemouth Bass. Better in AM. Spinner baits, plastic. Water looks like Chocolate Malt.

5/25-26/8 Mumford, Georgetown Lake. Upper 40′s, windy, rain, a little sun. Ice out was around the 20th. Rainbows beginning to false spawn and some in creek at Stuart Mill bay. Fish were a little picky. They finally settled on Flashback PT’s and Light Olive Hares Ear and did pretty well. Clark Fork was muddy and full tilt.

6/8/8 Mumford, Rogers Lake, upper 40′s to mid 50′s (when the sun peeked through). The day was marked by heavy overcast, soaking rain, and a little sun. Fishing was on (Grayling) when we started at around 3pm. As soon as the weather went south the bite died. I think the hot spring run is probably done. Giant Zug Bug, Prince w/wet hackle and hot butt. A hatch tried to get going but never made it. That might have made for some decent surface action.

7/4/08 Mumford, upper Clark Fork, fished 3-5th, highs in the low 80′s, a few thunderstorms. River running higher than this time last year. flow 45 cfs, height 1.9 (Silver Bow, Butte), Size #18-20 Flashback PT, Ray Charles, Soft Hackle Caddis (tan), Scuds, Copper Johns. Lots of Damsels nymphs crawling around which means that Damsels are probably a good play on Georgetown now. Nothing to speak of on drys, fish didn’t seem to be keying on surface at all.

7/11/08 Mumford, upper Clark Fork, flow 31, height 1.75, river has slowed considerably from 6 days ago, running clear.

8/6/8 Mumford, Missouri river, Holter Dam-Wolf Creek bridge, flow about 4100cfs, decent fishing but seemed real touchy, fish would turn on/off like light bulbs. Had a couple windy days. Best fishing was nymphs- Caddis everywhere but fish didn’t seem real interested in dries (not mine at least, CDC and Wing patterns). A few were taking. Most of the action was nymphing variations of lightning bug/caddis pupa and emerger patterns size #18 and smaller. I had a good run on a pupa pattern that Lester at Lakesteam set me up with. Olive Brown ice thorax, mint green body segmented, bead head (gray) on a #16-18 scud hook. Use good hooks, between the current and the fish, cheap hooks get mowed.

Caddis hatches were good but sporadic mostly evening. Tricos were starting up around 9AM and on the water by 10 but not really a lot pods yet.

10/12/08 Yikes, I haven’t been keeping up here. Mostly lake fishing now although I did fish the tribs off the Clark fork a week ago on Monday- was slow but the fish were still getting flogged to death by the tourists. Should improve soon. Lake Blaine was slow, Bass were deep but we did find a couple under the docks. Smith Lake today was slow but managed to fool one Northern.

Have been seeing a few Fall Caddis for about a week now.

10/20/08 The weather had been great. 50′s/30′s at night. A few showers but a lot of sun too. By accident we ran into Lake Trout in small feeders and shorelines along Flathead Lake. White Streamers with a little flash were the ticket. The Whitefish are running up from the lake and are now in the river.

11/12/08 Weather here in NW Montana has started cooling down some but not as cool as it probably should be. River fishing has slowed with the cooling temps although Lester at Lakestream says there are a few Cutts still to be had in the Flathead River. He also said the Missouri was slowing some but they caught a few on small (18) Baetis nymphs etc. We lake fished for Largemouth and caught a couple last Sunday. Perch flavored Rapala’s. I know, spin fishing. I figured if there was a good bite going for spin baits then I would break out the Streamers but it was slow even for spin baits so I stuck with the easy stuff.

12/14/08 Cool weather is in. Below 0° territory for the near future. Time to start ice fishing. Smith Lake west of Kalispell is good for smaller Pike although a few stray larger fish are in the mix. Jigging spoons with a bit of smelt. Ice is about 6 inches.

12/27/08 Still fishing Smith Lake (it’s 10 minutes from the house) Today was derby day there but had to work so didn’t get to go. Last year the biggest Pike was well under 10lbs. A lot of the smaller fish are getting thinned out. The pike are getting bigger on average but not like they were 3-4 yrs. back. We have been catching them in the 20 inch range consistently- big enough to keep it interesting- for awhile. A transparent lime green (chartruese) plastic grub (split tail) on a lead jig with a little smelt hung on it does the trick. Spoons will work too- they don’t seem to be to fussy.

Foy’s lake is giving up a few Salmon and Rainbows. It’s a little to urban for me. I suspect that the fish are probably heavily tainted with lawn fertilizer, bad sewer system effluent and the like; not unlike fishing on a golf course pond. They would probably make awesome fertilizer though.

2/1/2009 If you are in the southwest part of the state, the Bighole and beyond, you can probably find enough action to make the cold go away. Warm afternoons are releasing a few bugs, midges and BWO’s. Dredging with nymphs, Flashback PT’s, scuds, Hare’s Ears, Copper John’s.

3/19/2009 At long last the weather seems to be moderating into some mid 40′s and more spring like weather- meaning in 15 minutes you could see everything between sun and blizzard conditions. Robins have been around for about 4 weeks now and they generally are early harbingers of spring. They have been taking a beating but things are looking up.
Lake ice is thick in places, like 3 feet in the Flathead area. Ice fishing seems slow and my enthusiasm for it has gone over the cliff. Open water and bugs are coming.

River fishing should be picking up soon, a few days near 50° should get things started but fish are active already. Call LakeStream (406-862-1298) in Whitefish for an updater. I haven’t been out to the river yet but by this time last year there Winter Stones all over.

3/22/09 Bitteroot Lake on fire Saturday. Why was it on fire? Because I wasn’t there that’s why, I was working. 40+ Kokanee felt the hook. 34 came home. Half dozen over 2lbs! I was’nt on the ice for the carnage but I was here for the dinner bell. Swedish Pimple and Rat Finky with the usual pink maggot garnish.