Future Producer

I've been spending my days at work blending different materials, in my head, in a fashion that i like and now just trying to remember what materials i wanted where. this one looks fishy and hopefully will be getting it wet next weekend

Pounding Pike

4:30 AM sure does come early. my alarm went off at this time so that i could get on the road by 5 and make it to meet dave by 9.we both arrived at our meeting point a little early and i already had the beers going down. i leave my jeep and ride from there with dave to the lake. we unload the boat and cruise on down to where dave wants to start. after i left my jeep i realized that i had forgot my polarized but decided to hell with it i'll be fine. i was fine except for the misfortune, or fortune, i guess how you look at it, that within about 6 casts will teasing my popper through the lilly's a big pike hammered my fly and started bull dogging me. as i thought i was gaining some ground on him he took off away from the boat mowing down lilly pads like a mower through grass and then it happened, my line went limp. my popper was gone and my steel leader was sheared. dave said it was the biggest pike he had ever seen in there and thought it would have gone 10lbs. and i never even to to see him cause i couldn't see into the water without my shades. another crushing fishing moment. we hit a good chunk of the ing.small lake pounding the shoreline and lilly pads. we took roughly 8 or so pike ranging from 12-28". we next made a detour to another lake that has a good amount of tiger musky planted in there to help control the squawfish. we saw several big tiger's hanging along submerged trees but couldn't turn any heads. our time on that lake was short lived and decided to keep at the pike but head to a different lake. when we arrived at our 3rd and final destination it was about 5:30pm and thought that maybe in the last few hours of light the fish would get a little more active. not till about 7 did we finally start hitting fish there and once we did it was pretty consistant till about 8:30 and we were off the water at 9. i still had a 3 1/2 hr drive home so i had had enough. the weather for the most part treated us well and it ended up being a pretty decent day of fishing.

Plan 'B' it is

Myself and scott made the drive north to to hike into some different higher elevation lakes. when we got to the trailhead we noticed still quite a bit of snow on the trail and as we were reading the trailhead board we read a note posted by the forest service that the lower lake was still completely iced up and since we were trying to get to the upper lake so we didn't even try. after some contemplation we chose to head back a little south and make the hike elsewhere. after arriving at that trailhead the first thing i noticed was no snow. a couple of weeks ago there was still plenty. once at the lake we chose to fish our way down the northside since i had had luck there last time. scott landed a couple of nice cutts including one that had virtually no spots, pretty unique. i on the other hand got my ass handed to me this time. we made it almost to the backside where the fishing really took a shit on us so we turned back around and fished our way back. as we arrived back to where the trailhead meets the lake we ran into a lady who is a contractor for the forest service. she and her dog were just making the rounds up there making sure everything was kosher around the lake. we sat and talked to her for about a half an hour gathering info on some of the other lakes along the highway. after she left i started to fish just below the outlet of the creek coming out of the lake. last time i didn't move a fish in there this time i took several including one real nice cutt running around 16-17". i don't know if the weather had affected the fish in anyway but the morning started off beautifully, then it started to blow, hail and drop a little rain on us, then the sun came back out and it was nice again. even though it is now summer, it is still spring at higher elevations.

High Waters

After my father-in-law, who drove into town last night, left for home today, me and tirko headed west for a little small river fishing. i had my mind set on streamers so that was all i brought. the creek is still high which really made it tough to find places to fish. the clarity was really good, but we just had to pick and choose our spots which were few and far between. i did manage to land one small brown and i missed several other fish. tirko tried his hand with the fly rod and came up empty handed. i do believe that this creek is better suited for dries so i will have come with a different aresenal next time.

In Search of Goldens

After doing some research i have found several lakes within a reasonable drive that apparently contain some goldens. me and tirko set out this morning at 0700. along the way we saw the usual suspects, some deer and a few elk. once off the highway it was 11.5 miles up the dirt road to the trailhead.on the drive up we had to maneuver some blown down trees and a little snow. when we got to the trailhead the was a campsite set up already. as we were gearing up two dudes crawled out of the tent. i don't want to speculate but, maybe there was some brokeback mountain shit going on, not sure. i know if i'm camping with another guy, i'm using my own tent. once geared up we set off on the 3.5 mile hike to lake #2 along the trailhead, that's one of the ones that is supposed to host goldies. the trail follows a beautiful stream littered with little waterfalls and some sweet pools only one of which we fished and had no luck. the trail at this point was still covered with lots of snow. the only way we had an idea of where we were going was cause i talked to one of the campers and he said they had hiked back to the first lake so when the snow covered our trail we just followed their foot steps. most of the snow would hold us but there was a couple of spots where i fell through to my waist and some of the trail snow pack i know would have been over my head, lots of it left, which made for some slow going. we finally made it to the first junction in the trail and instead of veering to lake #1 we started working our way around it to get to lake #2. the problem here was still lots and lots of snow and no foot prints to follow. when we did see some dirt we couldn't tell if we were on the trail or not but kept winging it in hopes of getting on it. we made it almost to the other side of lake #1 but felt that we weren't even close to where the trail should be so instead of chancing getting way lost we made our way down the ridge to see what lake #1 had to offer. when we got to it we saw the there was still some ice on it and we were going to be limited to just the one side of the lake. wasn't about to try and hike our way around all the snowpack to the other side. the surroundings were beautiful as most high altitude lakes are. tirko geared up with his spin rod quickly hooked up and landed a nice cuttie. i started with leeches, then went chironimids and then buggers. an orange beaded bugger got me rolling. i got into a handful of fish landing 6, all cutthroat. tirko landed a few more as well. it was definately the best day, fishing wise, that we have had here in montana yet. the weather was great, the scenery was awesome,and the fishing ended up pretty good. it just sucks that we didn't get back to the golden pond. next time!