Montana road trip!! fishing advice??

[Burnham]

so today me and some buddies decided we are probably gunna be goin on a roadtrip to montana in about a month. My buddy has a friend that lives in bigfork, so we're likely to be in that area for a few days. Anyone have any advice on cool campgrounds? areas where i could get into some stream trout possibly? i don't fly fish, just would be using a spinning reel set up. Never been in the mountains out there(i'm a true minnesota flatlander), just wanna see some sweet wildlife, be surrounded by cool scenery and maybe catch a few fish. too much to ask for?? any advice is welcome!

thank you!!

ryan

[Mike_Top]

That's awesome man, you'll have a great time out there. I did a fishing road trip last summer, but we went to SW montana.. I have been to Glacier Nat'l Park before though, its cool country up there and you'll have a good chance of seeing bears, moose, etc, and you'll be constantly rubbernecking at all the scenery for sure.

As far as fishing goes, i suggest picking up a 9' 6 wt fly rod for cheap from cabelas (maybe a 5 wt but not lower than that). I did that the week before going last year and I got plenty of use out of it. The reason is NOBODY spin fishes stream trout out there, the rivers have fast current and are shallow and rocky without many slow pools. It would be tough to drag a spinner through, although you could probably do it. The fish are looking for bugs, so fly fishing is probably your best bet. Use lead weight, a small nymph, and a bobber-type strike indicator. Its easy to cast and easy to fish with.

I've heard that Flathead River is a good river up there...not sure what public access is like. Have fun and good luck

here's a pic of the setup we used last summer. It's two small nymph's tied on tag pieces of line with a split shot dropper, we caught fish all day on this.

[BorderView]

You MUST drive the "Going to the Sun" highway through Glacier Nat'l Park. If you get that close and don't do it, you are INSANE ! ! ! ! ! !

Plenty of info to be had once you get in the area. Lots of guides etc.

BTW you can do fine with spinning gear. Probably better if you have no experience with fly gear.

Roger

[Wallydog]

Burn,

You'll be in some fantastic country. If you are talking early May I'm guessing that most of the rivers and small streams will be running quite high with spring snow melt making them tougher to fish. It all varies based on our western weather in the next month. Spinning gear and the modified drop shot rig will work great as will spinners. The road to the sun is a spectacular drive but it's very unlikely it'll be open in early May.

For a flatlander all the country you'll travel thru will be superb (spoken by a transplanted MN flatlander).

WD