montana trout

[Kockmandoo]

Living in Montana now, got out and did some fly fishing the other day. nailed a couple nice bows on the fly. this one was about 16 inches, a nice fish. all fish caught swinging streamers with my 5 weight and sink tip.

[urbanangler]

nice work. Thanks for sharing

[oneshot]

sweet! my buddy goes to montana yrly for fly fishing.. always looks fun!

[Bodofish]

That looks a bunch of fun!!! You’ll have a great time whipping those fish till the snow hits! Where are you at? A buddy of mine is floating the Clark Fork this week and next a place out of Missoula.

[knotabassturd]

Beautiful looking pocket water.

Next up for you- dryfly fishing.

Watch near the beginning of 'A River Runs Through It' and you will understand the virtuosity that often accompanies dry fly fishing.

Personally, I'd save the nymphs and streamers for higher water or colder season. Seeing a fish slurp down your dry fly is a ton of fun.

All that said, thanx for the pic and nice job!
That is a pretty rainbow.
What river?

Don't be too intimidated with dry flies if you can't cast well. Just stick with short casts and gentle stalking from downstream to upstream IMO even on the big waters. I miss those Montana trout. Been a long time...

[bigskyx]

Makin' me homesick! Hoppers patterns & big stimmies should be killers now. Match the hatch in the evening.

[OFFDAAHOOK]

awesome job kmd..i lived in livingston montana i have to say one of da best trout fisheries i seen and beautiful country.i actually used ultralight steelhead tactics and worked great most were browns and some beautiful rainbows.

[knotabassturd]

Looks like Western Montana. Whereabouts do you live over there?

[Kockmandoo]

I live in Bozeman. These fish came from the madison river in bear trap canyon. I been using crawdad pattern streamers because theres a bunch of them in the river. should be a great time im hoping to lay into some browns though. I haven't caught one yet.

[RiverChromeGS]

donde esta los brunos?

[racfish]

Freak ,He said Montana not Rupert Idaho or Yakama. LOL I think in Bozeman they still speak english.I have a friend going to college in Bozeman. Hes a hockey player.

[cobrar543]

LOL, Im a grad of MSU!! Go Bobcats!! You know what sound a Grizzly makes?? "You wait till next year" LOL For big browns, drift a live Grasshopper under a casting float about 6 feet with a small splitshot about half way down. The big brown sit in the holes waiting for dinner to come to them. I miss summers in Montana, but not the winters. At least here I have never had to shovel rain!

[knotabassturd]

That is around the area I used to fish the Madison I believe but it's been 20+ years LOL. Is that roughly a couple miles downriver of Quake Lake?

Was fun going to the FFF conclaves back then seeing some of the 'superstar' big names in flyfishing and hitting up all those beautiful waters.

Upriver of there tossing hoppers up against undercut banks ofthe Gallatin.
Hitting the tribs junctions on the Firehole for big fish.
Bushwhacking into the Yellowstone for their big cutts.
The Madsion was one of my favorites though even with the fish getting pressure much of the time.

Trying some dryfly small caddis in Sept (maybe like a size 14-16 burnt elkhair type) should get you some decent trout on the Madison. Wading out to the middle and casting back to shore can work well too.

As for browns I'm with cobrar543.
Go with the deeper holes.

If you want a heart attack, try skating a deerhair mouse across a deep pool around late dusk/just after sunset (sometimes early morning but dusk was better for me).
A lot of times you won't get anything but sometimes it can bring up BIG browns (several pounds).
Those big browns explode on the deerhair mouse when the fly makes that 'V' pattern on the water. Don't need a drag-free drift. In fact drag is good LOL.

When you get good at casting/presentation, IMO you can try dryfly fishing for some of the wary clear-watered Rock Creek rainbows!

5 wt is perfect for those rivers IMO.

You have a ton of streams around you there. Good luck and have fun with them.

PS- has whirling disease been much of a problem?

[Kockmandoo]

Caught a few browns in the gallatin today, biggest was about 12 inches. gonna hit the madison over the weekend and try to hit some big fish. BTW nearly everyone here fishes so I have plenty of buddies to go with lol. Its real weird to strike up a conversation with someone and have them say they really like to fish.

[knotabassturd]

Caught a few browns in the gallatin today, biggest was about 12 inches. gonna hit the madison over the weekend and try to hit some big fish. BTW nearly everyone here fishes so I have plenty of buddies to go with lol. Its real weird to strike up a conversation with someone and have them say they really like to fish.

LOL one of only a few places where you can go into a bar and even have women join in on a conversation sometimes about what bugs are hatching and when. It's a beautiful thing.
Not stuffy like Sun Valley or Jackson Hole either (both those places have very nice fly water around too BTW but tend to draw the high-end crowd more than Montana waters). You get some of the 'real' fly guys in Montana IMO .

Glad to hear you are having fun over there! Enjoy.

[Bodofish]

Caught a few browns in the gallatin today, biggest was about 12 inches. gonna hit the madison over the weekend and try to hit some big fish. BTW nearly everyone here fishes so I have plenty of buddies to go with lol. Its real weird to strike up a conversation with someone and have them say they really like to fish.

That is cool!! It happens more when you get away from the big city, or closer to the Rocky's or AK. I was really suprised with that when I lived CO.

[schu7498]

Spent a few weeks in late july fishing the madison, ALL the rivers in yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons. LOVE Montana! Caught browns, two different (maybe 3 diff cutthroat) rainbows, and brookies. Also saw a group of guys fishing with bait on the madison and one guy caught a monster brown, at least 8lbs, and kept it. Illegal.. Somehow those idiots are everywhere.

[cobrar543]

The strange thing about Whirling's in the Montana trout streams is it seems to have fixed itself. Nowhere else has it done this. We had a few (10) years of it and suddenly it was getting harder to find trout with it. Rainbows seem to have built up an immunity to it after a few generations. Browns never caught it except for the odd exception due to their spawning times being later and fry growing up in the cold of the winter months rather than the spring and summer hot water temps.
I remember the first few I caught with it and it was definatly something you remember. Scary.

[knotabassturd]

The strange thing about Whirling's in the Montana trout streams is it seems to have fixed itself. Nowhere else has it done this. We had a few (10) years of it and suddenly it was getting harder to find trout with it. Rainbows seem to have built up an immunity to it after a few generations. Browns never caught it except for the odd exception due to their spawning times being later and fry growing up in the cold of the winter months rather than the spring and summer hot water temps.
I remember the first few I caught with it and it was definatly something you remember. Scary.

cobrar543, that is a big relief to hear. I haven't kept up with any of that stuff in years.

Ya the pics I saw sure looked scary, almost looks like reeling in one of the infected rainbows would resemble a cut plug herring going thru the water more than an able-bodied fish.

Hopefully, if it has resolved, it will mean the current rainbow trout genes in the river system are immune going forward. One win for the native fish Hopefully.

[bigskyx]

"maybe 3 different cutthroat"

Only 2 that I know of. West slope & Yellowstone. They do hybridize with rainbows to make "cutbows".

"it will mean the current rainbow trout genes in the river system are immune going forward. One win for the native fish"

Rainbows aren't native but are decedents of planted fish.