Exloration Of The Middle Fork

Today was a day to explore. In the fall, in Northwest Montana, the fish tend to abandon the rivers and move to lakes. Makes sense since the water gets pretty low. So, I decided to go test some water I had driven by dozens of times.  This water takes a bit of effort, another 3 to 4 mile hike! Hey, I am getting exercise and fishing! Exploring new water lets me know where I can catch better fish in the spring.  So, the fall to me is about finding new water.

 Some days you fish to catch fish. Some days you get out and just relax.  Today was a bit of both. I decided to hike into a section of the Middle Fork I had always wanted to fish. Takes some work, but I hit the water running.Caught some decent fish. Wish I had pulled out a streamer, but the nymphs were working just fine!

Exploratory Hike That Paid Off

A friend and I discussed a spot that I had thought about exploring for years. He said he was down in the area hunting and saw some great pools that looked fishy.  I had the afternoon off and decided to head over and give it a shot. The hike in was only about a half a mile on the map. The problem with maps in the mountains is that they really don't give you an idea of how hard it might be to get there.

The hike in was a bit more difficult than I expected. Two significant drops that required me to scale rocks. Now at 49 years old, I am not as young as I use to be. But, I saw the drops in the river and had to get there. I know that those drops probably have fish and now the addiction is kicking in!! So, after about an hour of bushwacking through the woods and climbing up and over rocks and down cliffs I hit the water.

I can honestly say today was not about fishing for me. I got down to the river and stopped. I made one cast, caught a fish, and stopped fishing.  For about 30 minutes I just sat and relaxed. I did not cast another cast. A couple of fish were rising right in front of me. I just sat and watched the river. 

Some days you want to catch every fish in the river. Some days you just want to take in the surroundings. Today, I took in the surroundings.  Today was a great day. I know some people would have thought of this spot as a success if they caught a lot of fish. My trip was successful because I got out, explored a great place and saw some amazing scenery!
 

Small Stream, Big Views and Relaxation

Today was homecoming at Whitefish High School. So, a little work, and some stuff around the house, my honey do list and then drive the kids around for homecoming.  But, turns out, I got done early! I got an hour to play. Ok, most people go to fish. I go to relax.

Good news is that I found a spot to relax.  Other good news is I tied on a fly, and threw it once.  Then I sat or a rock and relaxed and just watched. Fact is, the stream is probably void of fish this time of year. But, I don't care. I got to get out!!

South Fork Of The Flathead River

Sometimes you just have to persevere. Today, was one of those days. I started off with the intent of heading back to the Middle Fork and fish the opposite side of the river I had fished yesterday. As I drove I got a call from a friend that told me that the South Fork was fishing pretty well.  Knowing that yesterday I caught nothing but Whitefish and having heard that the Cutties were super aggressive in the South Fork, I changed my plans. After all, I was driving right by there on the way to the Glacier area.  The South Fork of the Flathead River is a stretch of river that I have floated many times in my raft and I have wade fished several stretches as well. The South Fork is a beautiful float and one of my favorites because you can almost always catch fish. 

So today I decided to hike into a section I had never hiked to but have looked at several times on Google Earth.  True, I have not looked at it for a while, but I thought I had a pretty good idea of where to go. Plus, this was a stretch of river I have stopped at many times while floating and caught some really nice fish there.

The hike in started off a bit ominously.  People in the parking lot had lost their dog.  So as I started up the trail I told them if I found the dogs, I would let them know and yell if I found the dogs. About a half mile in, I found the dogs swimming in the river in a section I thought might be decent fishing.  After I sent the dogs on their way, I continued on to fish the section I intended to fish.  I thought I had a pretty good idea where it should be. Two miles into my hike and I realized I was not going to find the spot I wanted. I had either passed the trail or what looked like a trail was not really a trail. Sometimes where you explore things just do not work out and I figured I had only a limited amount of time so it was time to go to plan B.  So I decided to double back and head downstream and fish a spot I have fished several times before.  As I walked out, a little perturbed that I missed the trail, I came by the stretch I saw the dogs at on the way in and decided just to walk in and look if anything was rising.

I stood there for a second and looked. BINGO! Fish were rising everywhere!!! Nothing big, but lots of fish. I started casting to rises and started catching fish.  Since there were so many fish rising I decided to work on my casting and mending skills.  I stood on the edge of a riffle and made myself make upstream, cross stream and downstream casts. I challenged myself to make mends and casts that I would have normally changed positions to make. After a great couple hours fishing, I decided it was time to pack it up and head home.  Today, I have no complaints. You can’t really complain when you caught a bunch of fish!

What started off as a disappointment turned into a pretty good fishing day.  Like I have said before, a fish on is a fish on!

A Fish On Is A Fish On!!

Whitefish on the Middle Fork

Most days I chase trout. I chase Cutthroats, Rainbow, Cuttbows and Brook Trout where I live. Today, though, I chased Cutthroats but it was not to be. What I found was a lot of Whitefish.  Mountain Whitefish to be exact. While they are part of the Salmonidae species, they are completely different from trout.  You can sometimes catch them on the surface, but most of the time you catch them deep. Most of the people I know consider them a nuisance.  But they can be fun to catch.  In Montana, they are native species and the typical ones caught in Northwest Montana are 12 to 14 inches. The Cutthroat trout follow them upstream in the fall to eat the eggs they are about to lay during spawning. Which means when you find Whitefish in the fall, their is a good chance to catch a big Cuttie as well. 

Today started off as a beautiful day and I decided to explore a new spot I had scouted online several times before. I had several hours to get out before a soccer game I was refereeing so off I went. I decided to fish the Middle Fork of the Flathead River.  I picked a spot along the southern border of Glacier National Park that I had driven by numerous times but had never fished.

I parked along the road and started walking downstream.  I had scouted this piece of water many times and had always thought that this water looked really good. As I walked out to the spot I wanted to fish I noticed some smaller fish rising.  Turns out it was 8 inch cutts and I wanted to see what the deeper holes downstream held. So, on downstream I went leaving the little fish to play around.

One thing I love about the Middle Fork is the scenery. I find I walk a couple steps, then just stop and look.  It probably took me a half hour to walk to the spot I wanted to fish that was probably a half a mile away.

I decided to nymph today because I didn’t see anything rising in the hole I wanted to fish plus it was really deep water.  Big cutties live in deep water. Big cutties live behind big rocks.  And I know the Middle Fork has big cutties and big rocks. Plus, after scouting the water with Google Earth, I know that this stretch has everything I would expect for great fishing.  I was pretty excited to get down deep to see what was there.

So I tied up a double nymph rig and started casting. Fish on! Then it popped off.  Another cast, another fish…that popped off!  I checked the hook thinking that it might have broken the point off.  Nope still there. Another couple casts and another fish.  Another pop off. WHITEFISH!!! They have really small and soft mouths and you need to be really careful to land them with a fly. Getting a good hook set on a Whitefish is sometimes tough.

Finally a hook up and an 8 inch Whitefish. Seriously? This is what is here? I make another cast…and another miss. I decide to move up to the head of the pool and see what is there.  Now, from experience, I know that the big cutts are behind the Whitefish.  But the Whitefish are being super aggressive. This tells me that no matter what I do, I am catching 5 Whitefish per cutthroat today.

Finally, a bigger fish! A nice 13 or 14 inch Whitefish.  Then another…and another.  Sure, they are not the Cutties I wanted to catch, but a fish on is a fish on!!!

After a couple more fish I have had enough of Whitefish and it was time to go home and get ready to referee a soccer game. Today was a win for me.  Beautiful scenery and lots of fish in the net.  Overall, although I wasn’t looking for Whitefish, I had a great time catching them. Just being out hooking some fish, is the reward. I have to work late tomorrow so I plan to fish the other side of the river and see what is there.    You never know what you are going to find! May be a big Cuttie, may be a Whitefish.  Either way, a fish on is a fish on!

Finding Great Spots To Fish In Montana

Almost every conversation I have about fly fishing, fly selection or rod selection ends with “where is the best place to catch fish?”  My answer is usually a bit of a smart aleck answer, ‘in the water’!  In reality, you are not going to get anyone to tell you their ‘top secret’ spots.  Sure, you will get people to give you some decent spots, potentially even good spots from time to time. But you typically don’t get the great spots. But, you can do some work on your own to find those great spots.

I am fortunate to live in Montana for several reasons. One is that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has a great web page to get information from and is where I always start looking for new spots. MFISH, their fish finder section, is awesome to get you pointed in the right direction. You can find MFISH under the fishing tab on the Montana FWP web page or just Google ‘Montana MFISH’. MFISH allows you to search for bodies of water, areas and species in any combination you want. I can search for all tributaries that are part of the North Fork of The Flathead River that have native cutthroats or just rivers that have native cutthroats in Flathead County or just all rivers along the Flathead River.  If a good small streams flows into another good stream, you probably have a great spot to investigate. MFISH allows you to download the information to an Excel spreadsheet to sort as well.

To get started I typically select a ‘Hydrologic Unit Code’.  I pick the unit I want and usually leave the ‘Species’ blank. The next page allows you to pick what you want to see.  The top button is ‘Fish Distribution’ and gives you rankings by the FWP for how many fish are in that body of water. I download that to Excel.

Once I have my list downloaded I delete all the bodies of water that the fish are not considered ‘Abundant’ or ‘Common’, and delete all the fish species I have no interest in, like suckers.  I then turn to Google Earth. Over the last several winters I have spent several hours finding river confluences that have good fishing per Montana FWP, with Google Earth. Some look promising and I make a list of those I want to scout out. Google Earth is great because I can see bends and structure in rivers as well as depth, the darker the blue the deeper the water, and structure in lakes. This gives me a great idea where to start fishing.

The other great thing about Google Earth is that I can see trails, road side pull offs as well as old forest service roads. A pull off gives you an idea of where people pull off the road to park.  They are stopping for a reason.  Some might be because of great hikes. But a quick look at where the trail goes might give you information as to what the pull off is for.

Now the good part. You put in the time studying, now grab your forest service map go drive the road.  I pick five to ten spots to stop at and investigate on a trip. Some require short hikes some have no hikes at all. Sometimes I find pull offs that I did not see on Google Earth.  The first thing I do is roll down the window and listen for water. Then I look for a trail leading away from the pull off. A simple comparison to your forest service map gives you an idea of where the river is and how far away. I have found a lot of new spots purely by accident by just pulling off to the shoulder and listening and looking.

The work I put into finding spots in the winter with MFISH and Google Earth has lead me to some really good fishing spots. Trust me, those are not spots that I disclose to other people.