The Big "Mo"

I just got back from fishing the Missouri River near Craig, Montana.  Awesome trip and I highly recommend it anyone.  My buddy Matt from work has a friend Jordan living in Helena which is a great base camp.  Not that Craig isn't fun but a town of 100 with 150 driftboats has limited night life (tap room scene is doing well in Montana FYI).

We got to the river Thursday morning and had to stop by Headhunter Fly Shop.  Headhunters has probably one of the best report/blogs http://www.headhuntersflyshop.com/blog-fishing-report/

We picked up the hot flies and put in right below Holter Dam.  It is a big dam and they are letting a lot of water out - over 8,500 cfs and the bumped the flow to 10,000 that day (ideal range is 3,000 to 4,000, or so I've been told).

 

I put on my freshly pink painted anchor and we were ready to go.  A little side note - I spray paint my anchors because I have lost them either in the river or by leaving at the boat ramp.  The pink really stands out and I received many complements on it.  If you're in Craig and see pink anchors let me know, I think I started a trend.



Thursday was really difficult with 30-40 mph winds and trying to figure out a pattern.  We did manage some nice fish however.  Friday was lights out - we double floated the river and found the hot sow bug fly.  The 3 of us hooked about 50 fish but had a hard time landing some of the larger fish because we'd put the anchor down to not blow by our spots but reeling a 20+ inch fish into the current has many variables that often go wrong. 

Buffs are fashionable on the Missouri and it beats sunscreen - I even find them cool just to wear.

Really the main stretch with the highest density of fish is the bridge at Wolf Creek to Craig.  It is about 3.5 miles of river but you can really work sections and with lower water wade around islands.

Above is a shot at the Wolf Creek bridge.  In general they call the Missouri the largest spring creek.  It is a big river but fairly easy to fish.  We indicator fished almost exclusively and needed 2 BB split shot to get down in many spots.  Flies are your typical tailwater selection of sow bugs, lightning bugs, San Juan worms, midges and may flies.

Almost all fish were in the 18-20 inch mark with a handful outside the range. 

There are lots of fish, and lots of people.  We got on the river at 7:00 am and did a double float to avoid the crowds as everyone floated down the river.  Overall great trip, phenomenal fish and very good fishing.  I'm sure I'd be amazed to see the epic dry fly fishing mentioned in the Fly Fish Film Tour movie "Sipping Dry" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPWiIvwM1vQ

Get a guide, do it your self, whatever, it's just fun to fish new water.

Musky Maddness

Just got back from our annual trip to Lake Vermilion with the work guys.  The past 2-3 years we have really focused on muskies but have yet to get one in the boat - many close calls.  That changed this year.  This fella bit my black bucktail on the second turn of the figure-8 - 46 inches.

The next morning we started out and decided why not head back tot he same spot - got this girl on the figure-8 as well but I did it for a number of times after she lost the bucktail on the first figure-8 of the retrieve.

This one was about 47 inches.  We saw 4 other fish and Matt had one bite right at the boat and turn but the fish missed - it wasn't Matt.  Basically all fish where moved on double-bladed bucktails - it was great.

We also had some decent walleye action and were a fish shy of limiting out the first day in about 3 hours of fishing and had to throw back 3 19 inchers out of the slot. 

Vermilion is awesome with tons of islands and structure to cast too.  We saw fish in a bunch of spots and it really built our confidence to finally get one in the boat.  I can't wait for next year.

I two weeks we'll switch back to the drift boat for Namekagon and St Croix musky floats.  This low water should really concentrate the fish.

Hot St Croix Fishing

Fished the St Croix for a full day float last Friday and short float Saturday.  The flows had come down from the record highs after the Memorial Day and the fishing was great.

Friday I had Matt and Mitch in the boat - who were both in the casting zone.  We hit a stretch above 70 in Grantsburg and caught fish entirely on top-water.  Mitch casted a Skitter-Prop and Matt a Hula-Popper.  Matt took the oars I had great success on boogle-bugs and JJ-Specials. 

We caught at least 50 and even caught them shortly after a passing thunderstorm.

Mitch caught the biggest fish of the day - right around 17 inches - right after the storm.  There was nothing bigger than that but a lot in the 16-17 inch range.  The real excitement when both Matt and Mitch hooked muskies on their top water lures.  Matt's fish hit and swam right at the boat - we both got a look and he was gone.  Mitch's took the Skitter-Prop right in front of us with an aggressive take.  He got good hooks into him and he jumped straight out of the water.  We estimated him at 45 inches - and after a pretty good battle with the landing net ready he bit through (or the knot slipped - it's still not fully know).

Anyway the following day I hit the St Croix with Donny up by Cty Road T.  The flows were at 1400 (in Danbury) which is about as low as it can be for me to float there.  Donny casted great as well and was rewarded with a dozen SMBs in about 2 hours.  We also finally got some pike.  I hadn't seen many all year and was getting a little concerned.  My thought is they really hide in the grass in the those high water situations.

I have some good video to put together - but next week I have off up at the cabin - hopefully I can get some good fishing and footage in - if Lou participates.

Kinni Sunday

Brittany and the boys took off Saturday to Arizona for spring break while I stayed home and diligently worked to finish up tax season.  Well I guess I took a little break and hit the Kinni with Brian and Matt Sunday.  I didn't want take any pictures so there wasn't proof of me having a good time while my family was gone, but Matt got some great pics - especially since it was probably my biggest trout on the Kinni.

Look at this great panoramic shot - he happened to time it perfect when I set the hook.

That brown took a size 16 olive hare's ear.  All three of us caught fish, hare's ear was the best fly but pink squirrel, sucker spawn, and pheasant tails also worked.  Flows were good and the kayakers were out in full force.  Be careful with the trees in the water - we witnessed one dump.

Matt and I are fishing again the 18th (day after tax season) - but we are going to try to do GoPro footage.  Stay tuned.



Lake Vermilion 2011

We had our annual work trip to Lake Vermilion over the weekend.  The trip is always after the September 15th corporate tax deadline and we stay at Rod's place on Birch Point.  Lake Vermilion is a pretty impressive lake but I highly recommend using a GPS - a map doesn't cut-it because you can get turned around pretty quickly (look it up on Google.maps)

The real story is the trip up there.  We were going to use Matt's Green Machine but there was a trailer part snafu that required us to get my boat late Wednesday night - we took my boat off the lift in Minong at midnight (fortunately the sheriff wasn't called).  Matt and I hung out for 2-3 hours and then drove up to Tower, MN getting to Rod's around 5:30 am.  Got our gear in order and launched the boat for a full day of Muskie fishing.  Since the temp had dropped to 28 degrees, there was little fog. 

As the fog lifted we started moving around the lake trying new spots - we cover a lot of water over the 2 days.

We saw 5 fish the first day and 2 the second (and caught a nice pike).  Some of the follows were pretty aggressive but we couldn't get any hook-ups.  I know it makes for lame blogging when there aren't any fish pictures so I included Gary's 26.5 walleye (he was with the group).

Overall it was a great trip - we Muskie fished much more than past years and it was interesting being up for 42 straight hours but we survived.  Next year will be the year we boat a nice 50 incher.