Montana Fishing update

[mjhowe]

The whole state is on fire. End of story.

OK, it's NOT that bad...but its close. There are many rivers with restrictions if not outright closures so check with your local bait/tackle store before venturing anywhere in the state to fish.

Up here in the North West, all fishing for bull trout on the South Fork of the Flathead has been closed for the rest of the season. We have finally clouded up and the inversion that kept the smoke in the valleys up here finally lifted after about 10 straight days. We have had some rain, especially in the higher elevations, with humidity getting upowards of 80% around some of the fires.

God Bless those men and women who fight fire, they are cut from some special cloth!

Now, for the fishing...Flathead Lake is undergoing perhaps one of the best Lake Superior Whitefish bites ever...yes, even better than last year. 100 fish limits are quite possible before the bite tails off in early afternoon. Jig anything green, from 3/8 of an ounce on up to 1 ounce and fish from 30 to even 70 feet of water. Just yesterday, guys were slamming them in 66' of water off the east end of Wild Horse Island. Of course all the usual spots are producing, from the river mouth to Woods Bay to Elmo and Big Arm bays. There are good numbers of lake trout to be had also, just about anywhere there are the whitefish.

Pike fishing has been good at Smith Lake and the high mountain lakes are still kicking out good catches of native west slope cutthroat. The key is, at this time of year, to be on the rivers before 6 AM and off by noon. Give those fish a break when the temps are as hot as they have been.

The weather report for the next few days remains more seasonal, which means cooler days and even cooler nights. If I was a predicting man, I would sau NW Montana just might experience an early (and LONG) winter this year. We have been about 3-4 weeks ahead of ourselves this year. It got hot early, and that meant the fire season got here early, and last night while enjoying a cigar on my deck, I swear I caught an October chill...it was GREAT!

I have had all the 90-100 degree days this year I can stand, and ice in early November would put a smile on my face like few other things can do!

I hope to get out on some more local waters within the next 2-3 weeks, then I am going to get in an archery season trip to Fort Peck, more for scouting out my 400 class bull elk I am going to shoot during the rifle season, than anything.

As usual, I will post on any info I can gather.

[mjhowe]

Labor Day Weekend UPDATE

This should be a great weekend for fishing NW Montana! Most of the rivers are fishing well, bass are biting at Echo, Thompson, Flathead river and the usual spots. The whitefish continue to commit suicide by the cooler full and the macks will soon begin their pre spawn activity. Look for rocky points leading to rocky shallows and you should find fish.

Perch are biting good at Lake Mary Ronan with good catches of nice fish reported.

The Fall Mack Days on Flathead Lake begins on September 7 and runs thru November. Google "Mack Days" and get more info.

If anyone needs more specific info about a particular fishery, please email me and I will find out what I can.

Archery hunters will be taking to the field this weekend as our statewide archery elk and deer season opens this Saturday. The woods are still tinder dry so...use any flame producing device carefully and stay out of the tall grass with your vehicles.

Until later...

[Renneberg]

Mjhowe, what kind of fishing can you find in the Flathead river, just above the lake, right now?

I'm going to be in that area for a few days and was wandering if the Flathead river would be any good then.

[mjhowe]

The Whitefish are staging and getting ready for thier run upriver. Actually, the river is fishing great all over right now with Pike and bass in the sloughs and good action on cutts and rainbows in the river.

Stop at Snappy Sports and talk to Chancy or any of the guys for an up to the minute run down when you get here.

[Renneberg]

Thanks for the info Mjhowe!