Page 114 - North 40 Outfitters

Echo Bad A** Glass Our first stop was to speak with Mr. Tim Rajeff at the Echo rods and Airflo lines booth.  Echo released a new line of "Bad A** Glass" that will be a really fun option for people single hand fishing steelhead or throwing bigger flies to bass and pike. Need glass? See what's available right here. They come in 9' 8wt - 9' 12wt and are a bad a** translucent blue color.  The second most exciting new product from Echo has to be a 3wt TR trout spey.   We will certainly have ready to cast this at next year’s Montana Trout Spey Clave. From Airflo, the product that stood out to us most is the new Scout Skagit head.  This line is following the craze of the super short Skagit heads that OPST paved the way for.  This new line has a slightly different rear taper that, Tim Rajeff argues, could offer a smoother cast to the sh...

Quality material is an integral part of well tied flies. We have been filling up the walls with steelhead mojo. Here are five of my favorites: 1. Spey Blood Quill Marabou: Fishhunter Not your average marabou plume. This stuff is hand selected by the guys at fish hunter. Not only is it the highest quality marabou on the market, the price is right! 2. Dyed Calf Tails: Fishhunter Classic PNW Hairwing hair. These calf tails are available in all the right steelhead colors and go a long way! 3. Oval French Tinsel: Veevus Quality tinsel is a necessity in the world of steelhead flies. No, the fish do not care... as fish usually don’t... but it is wonderful to tie with and adds to "the look" 4. American Possum: Pro Sportfisher No explanation needed here... if you haven't seen it come take a look and you'll know what everyone it talking about... ...

With fly tying season almost upon us, there is no reason not to get excited about Loon's newest products. These visually pleasing yet ergonomically useful tools will bring your fly tying bench to a new level of efficiency. One look is all it takes to see that Loon Outdoors made a point to strive in ergonomics. After studying each individual tool, I found one word that best describes these innovative products, "sexy". Here are a few of my personal favorites. Ergo Hair Scissors $15.99 Streamer season is here, and I could not be more excited. Hooking beautifully spotted browns on the swing is the sole reason why I can't sleep at night. Since the use of deer, elk and ram wool is in my near future, I couldn't help but immediately notice the Ergo Hair Scissors at first glance. These 4.5 inch surgical quality, stainless steel scissors might be t...

Now that fall is upon us, I can't help but want to hit the river, and swing streamers. Honestly, it might still be a little early to hook into something big in the panhandle, but I don't care. I have had the itch all week, so I decided to fish nothing but streamers. Curious how the river is doing? Check out current river flows here In the two and a half hours on the water, we fished hard. Racing against the setting sun, just trying to keep our flies in the water. We mainly concentrated our time just up river from the Clark fork bridge. With every drift, we were at least getting a grab, but nothing was sticking. The trout seemed to like a #6 olive woolly bugger most, and the squawfish wouldn't leave my trout slider alone. There was no dry fly action with the flows being up, so casting me new 3wt wasn't in the cards. Want to try out some n...

Nothing out of the ordinary to report this week. I got out on the water three days and one evening. No criminals, no bananas and no hooks in my hands. Some pretty darn good fishing was all I witnessed. I did get to participate in helping Lori land her very first trout on a fly rod. I always love doing that kind of thing. As the water continues to cool, tiny mayflies and midges will dominate once more. There has been some great dry fly fishing this week on the tiny olives, BWO’s, Pseudos’ or whatever you want to call them. Our little mayflies love cool wet weather. Check out the live flows for the Mo right here If you want to catch a few more fish on terrestrials or large foamy stuff, you don’t have much longer to fish them. You might also find a few larger mayflies out there and caddis are making a brief resurgence. I found a #16 c...

As Stillwater Fly Anglers, we all rejoice when those dog days of Summer finally burn off into the sunset. After spending the last few weeks fishing as deep as possible in quality lakes like Chopaka for shade-seeking trout, we begin to see fish activity in the shallows once again-. Yes, Fall is when an Intermediate sinking, clear/camouflage line can become your best fishing friend. I recently had the pleasure to test such a fly line -- RIO’s "InTouch CamoLux" sub surface line. Why This Line? Okanogan’s temperate stillwaters offer tremendous amounts of food for trout, in and near the shallows. All kinds of fishy proteins are available in our lakes’ undulating waters, giving fish a veritable smorgasbord of bugs. Fishing imitations such as freshwater shrimp (scuds), callibaeitis mayfly nymphs, dragon and damsel fly nymphs, waterboatmen...

When the topic of fishing and rain are brought up together, I like to start with keeping it simple. First, fish prefer water and they are already wet. Second, rainy days do not change their feeling about water in the least. And third, the darker skies that accompany rainy days generally make fish happy and they often party with their mouths open. So, do fish actually bite better in the rain? I think so, but lets find out why exactly and learn how to capitalize in such conditions. Rain Means Easy [Fish] Pickings Do bugs hatch in the rain? Unfortunately for them, yes. Once their time has come, they will go off despite the conditions. Rain and damp weather makes it very hard for them to adjust from aquatic life to dry winged creatures. Many will float along on top, waiting for wings to dry. This may or may not happen, but in any event, the...

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to participate in the annual Spokane River Cleanup on the stretch of river below Maple Street Bridge. It was great to see so many people come out on a rainy day to help pick up trash that accumulates along the riverbank! I scored a sweet raft, a bag full of garbage, a bunch of recyclables, and some other random items in a very short amount of time. I don't know what the final tally was in regards to pounds of litter collected, but the amount of full trash bags in the collection areas was staggering. After the cleanup, my friend Patrick and I headed back to the river with a big dose of good karma on our side intending to catch some fish. Switch rod in hand, we made our way to my favorite streamer run. With the increased flows trout are attacking streamers, and Fred's Mini Montana Intruder was the...

If you haven't been out to the St. Joe or Coeur d'Alene River recently, what are you waiting for?! The reports coming in from our customers make it really, really, really difficult for Jake and I to be stuck in the fly shop right now. We don't mind living vicariously through our customers five days a week, as long as our wives let us go to the river on our days off. Curious how the river is doing? Check out the current river flows here What are they biting on? What aren't they biting on is the better question. Depending on the time of day, you'll find cutthroat eating terrestrials, caddis (even the big orange ones), BWOs, and mahoganies. If the weather happens to be foul and the fish aren't cooperating on the surface, bust out the nymphs. I always pretend my indicator is a dry fly anyway. It's hard to go wrong with a pheasant tail trail...

October caddis are becoming more active now that nighttime temperatures are reaching the 40 degree mark and the days are getting shorter. These burnt orange bugs will become the pumpkin spiced lattes of a trout's diet for about the next 6 weeks. While you'll rarely see a prolific hatch of them on the water, the trout definitely key in on this last big meal of the year. In the morning try using a burnt orange Pat's Stone, Bird's Nest, or Morrish's October Pupa under your favorite bobber to match the pupal stage of this very large caddis. Need to stock up on flies? Check out our fly selection here As temps warm throughout the day and adult insects become airborne, switch to an X-stimulator, elk hair, or slick water caddis. Don't worry about a drag-free drift when imitating these bugs, because they're always on the move and you should be m...

A short while ago, I fished my way into the middle of a manhunt. Today, I have another story to share in conjunction with my fishing report. This report features a banana. Not a day goes by in the shop without someone asking me what the deal with bananas is. Here’s my report. You be the judge regarding the deal with foul, insidious, ill tempered, evil, and sinister monkey pickles. I prefer not to call them by name. If you're wondering about the manhunt, check out Fred's tale here The Bad Omen I recently pulled my big Willie boat out of the weeds. Sadly, he’s been dormant for a while. I really don’t need a 20’ aluminum monster for the typical 2 person trip on the Missouri River, but when I get a request for a three angler trip, it’s time to put him to work. I met my three fly fishing ladies up in Craig. One was holding a banana....

The weather called for blue skies, no wind and temperatures in the 70s. What a beautiful day to hit the Kootenai River, and fish for gorgeous rainbows and cutthroat. The plan was to float from Troy to Yaak in hopes of possibly hooking a couple big rainbows. The water was gin clear, and flows were at 6,500cfs. With every weight rod imaginable in the boat, we were prepared for any situation that may arise. Fishing started off slow for the most part. We stopped to swing streamers through a couple incredible seams off islands with very little luck. Without a doubt, our best stretch was just below the Highway 2 bridge on the residential side of the river. Here, we actually found a series of rising trout that seemed interested in the small PMD hatch. After several drifts and many fly patterns later, I got a couple eats on a #16 PMD Cripple. No...