Page 180 - North 40 Outfitters

Chalk up another one on the bucket list for me. I have always wanted to go to the Ponoi River. After talking with my good friend Barrett, who is a guide over there, I became even more excited. Here is a video on the Ponoi with some action from Barrett! The Incomparable Ponoi from Gin Clear Media on Vimeo.

Do you ever feel the urge to do something different with your life? Are you unhappy because your hard work and dedication only lead you to inherit a time constricting lifestyle? Did too many river days keep you from graduating college in the amount of time it takes a rainbow trout to go from its alevin stage to its death of old age? (Tell me how old I think a rainbows maximum average age is, and you win this weeks trivia.) Both of these routes lead down paths filled with ups and downs. I am one to think that happiness is the most telling measure of wealth, thus I enjoy being one of those 'too many river days’ people. It’s often because of the 'hard work and dedication’ people or the HWADP, that the 'too many river days’ people or the TMRDP have jobs. If it weren’t for the HWADP I would not be selling as many high end rods, wade...

For the past few years, I tried relentlessly to catch Mr. Burbot & Lota lota, the Ling, Lingcod, Eelpout, Cusk, Lawyer fish, Gudgeon, Lush, Maria, Mud Blowers ~ the list goes on and on. Whatever you decide to call this awesome creature, don’t overlook him. With similar resemblance to an eel or snake, the Burbot is often thought of as a fish of low significance ~Wrong. After many, many outings, I was finally able to catch one earlier this year. Fishing for Burbot can be difficult due to the fact that they are most active at night and when they spawn, which happens to be in the middle of winter when conditions are sometimes at their worst. They group up in deep holes in large rivers, and under the ice in lakes and reservoirs. When Burbot spawn, they form what appears as a big mass of snakey fish, wiggling and squirming around in the f...

What does a fish head do when he has a few days off work starting on February 3rd? Tom Isaacs and Justin Carroll prefer to drive up to the world famous Missouri River. They know this river is especially productive during the winter, and only a few other waters in the Rockies can produce as many fish as the Mo. Last week, fish were still nipping big bugs and randomly slurping dries. Nymphs put up outstanding numbers then, and fishing, when the wind wasn't tearing down billboards, was excellent. The past week has been bi-polar weather wise. We have seen huge wind gusts, frigid temps, warm spells, dead calm periods, and everything in between. With the water temps in the mid-thirties, fish can still be found herded up on the slow side, and often times somewhere around the edge of the channel. This usually means 20 feet off the bank in 4-9 fe...

Regal Vise Review: First View from the Bench New England-made Regal vises are simple, durable, well made products. It’s amazing how well they work in tying your favorite flies and holding a variety of hooks. When I started working at the shop, I got to tie on all different kinds of vises. After getting in a Regal Medallion with the swivel insert, I was hooked! We've got the Regal Vise and other options online here. I believe the Medallion to be the best vise for central Montana tiers, tying bugs for freestone creeks and tail water madness! At the base of the head/jaws is a swivel point so you can rotate the vise 360 degrees... and for me having that feature really made a difference in the way my JJs came out. by Erik Haugen Regal Vise Review: Second View from the Bench... errr Table Regal Engineering knows how to make fly tying vises...

"THE ARCTIC" trailer - by Beattie Outdoor Productions | Fly Fishing Movie from The Fly Fishing Film Tour on Vimeo. The F3T website has released yet another film for the upcoming tour this year. The film, The Arctic is the newest adventure brought to us by Beattie Outdoor Productions. As with all of RA's films, the areas fished are captured well on film and always tend to excite the viewer. Be sure you don't miss this one the night of the tour in which you attend!

If you don't already know this, I love fishing drag free drifts under bobbers (indicators for the snobby reader.) I have been criticized for this hundreds of times, and even corked out of my drifts on several occasions in spite of my tactics (TODAY). Growing up, I learned the importance of knowing what your lure looks like under water. It's obvious that many people don't think this way when they are fishing. I couldn't count the times I have seen people lose it because they are not catching fish when using "the exact same thing" as a fisherman that is producing big numbers right next to them. In most cases, the fisher person locking up in the right water, though it may only be one microcurrent away from the unproductive wrecking ball angler. CLASSIC MO' RIVER BOWS NYMPHED UP TODAY Learning the water you need to be fishing at the right ti...

The Fly Fishing Film Tour website just released a new teaser today by Motiv Fishing, formerly known as AEG Media - the creators of the Trout Bum Diaries series. This film, Geofish: A Mayan Prophecy documents a trip deep into the jungles of Belize. The mission: to find undisclosed fishing areas on the other side of the deepest and most rugged jungles. It is the second film in the series, the first was Geofish: Mexico. If you liked this film or any of the Trout Bum Diaries series, I'm sure this film will not fall short in great film, adventure and fly fishing. "Geofish: A Mayan Prophecy" trailer - by MOTIV Fishing | Fly Fishing Movie from The Fly Fishing Film Tour on Vimeo. MOTIV Fishing cuts their own path through some of the most rugged jungles of Belize in hopes of finding out-of-the-way locations with fish, and escaping with captured m...

Sandpoint, Idaho native Megan Johnson grew up spending six months out of the year in Alaska’s backcountry. "I was raised on a family-owned hunting and fly-fishing lodge in Alaska. While most little girls were playing with Barbies, I was playing with fly tying material." Megan says, "I thought salmon-flavored tap water, daily griz sightings and 30" rainbows on the first cast were normal. I’m fairly certain I didn’t even know what a spinning rod was until I was a teenager." While most kids her age were complaining about taking out the garbage, Megan was hard at work at the lodge. Though it was difficult for Megan to leave her friends in Sandpoint every year, she remembers secretly loving her months in Alaska. Her dad was the bush pilot and guide, her mom was the chef and she and her sister were the waitresses and housekeeping. Not a b...

CALVIN FULLER North 40 Ponderay Fly Shop Manager Family, Fishing and Physics I was born into a fishing family. My father loved to fish and would often leave for days at a time chasing trout with a fly rod. I was destined to become a fisherman myself. My first memories of fishing are on a small inlet off the Snake River fishing for panfish with a bobber and worm. He always told me to pick up my slack line. I started fly fishing when I was five years old on the Touchet River in Eastern Washington. Growing up, we would go on camping trips, and I would always bring my fishing stuff. I never lost interest in fishing and preferred fly fishing through my teenage years. For my senior graduation gift my father took me fishing in Alaska at Alaska Sportsman's Lodge. It was an awesome gift that became the initiation into my fly fishing career. After...

This trailer/teaser is from the upcoming Fly Fishing Film Tour. The Kodiak Project: Fly Fishing in the Land of Giants by LDR Media is an intense look into the Karluk River, which has been deemed as a river that is a bit like a unicorn. It is a river that everyone has heard about, but nobody has had a chance to see or fish, which has finally recovered from 10 canneries who devastated and dramatically reduced the salmon population by commercial fishing in the late 1800s. It used to be considered the best salmon run in the world. After years and years and steady recovery, the Karluk has come full circle and produces the second largest steelhead run in Alaska at over 11,000 per year along with a healthy run of 5 species of Salmon. Do the math and this makes up for extremely good chances of catching double digit steelhead and multiples species...

For 2018 Mathews introduced the Triax, labeling it as “Stealth is Leathal.” This bows features a 28” axle-to-axle, a 6” brace height, has an IBO rating of 343 FPS, and weighs 4.4 pounds. The short axle-to-axle makes the bow great of packing in, hiking through brush, and hunting from a tree stand or ground blind. The Triax also features Mathews’ Crosscentric Cam helping this bow achieve and unbelievably smooth draw and shot when compared to other bows. We put this bow to the test and compared it to the Halon 32. The Triax came out on top as one of our top picks from the 2018 ATA show in Indianapolis. The price of this bow is around $1,099.00. This bow is one of 5 bows we picked for best bows of ATA 2018. Check out our top bows from the 2018 ATA show here. Mark Hanes from Mathews Archery: This bow is the result of an extremely ...