Page 91 - North 40 Outfitters

If you are like me and love to swing flies, you understand the importance of sink-tips. Some cast better with faster-action rods, while others are meant for the butter stick, meaning a super flexible glass or slowish-action rod. A particular sink-tip often is the key to reaching those finicky steelhead, salmon and trout that run deep. In the market for a new fly rod? Check these out. If you fish anything other than the correct sink-tip for the conditions you encounter, you won’t even touch them. Like other elements of fly fishing/fly tying, sometimes it is better to make your own sink-tips so that you get the exact results you’re looking for. Here are a few elementary steps I take when constructing my personalized sink-tips. Step 1: Choose your desired sink rate Most fly shops sell raw sinking line, which allows you to cut a tip to...

Image: courtesy Joe Dupont, Idaho Department of Fish & Game On Tuesday, Idaho Department of Fish & Game announced that steelhead fishing on all Gem-state waters will be limited to catch-and-release only beginning today, August 17. For those who enjoy eating steelhead, that is a big loss. But most of us, who would practice catch-and-release whether required by regulation or not, should be slightly pleased—despite low numbers of fish, at least we get to swing a fly if we choose to. Click here to explore our full catalog of spey rods.             These closures were put in place because from June 1 through August 15 just 434 fish had made it over Lower Granite Dam. Historically, these are comprised of “A-run” fish that are headed to the Clearwater River’s cool flows. These fish like to hang in that cool water befo...

(2014 spot and stalk antelope) When I was young, I hunted pronghorn (more commonly referred to as antelope) with a rifle.  That didn't last long.  Being a bowhunting addict, I decided to try my luck with archery equipment.  That very first season some 20 years ago, I was successful with a nice P&Y buck, and I've been chasing them with my bow ever since.  And with archery antelope season opening on August 15th, it gives me a good 2-3 weeks of bowhunting prior to the general archery elk and deer season opener, making it the perfect primer for September and October. See our latest issue of our Hunting Buyer's Guide and check out our game cam deals -- a 2 pack for $99.95, or a camera & viewer @ $99.95. There are basically three methods for bowhunting antelo...

Longer, stillwater-specific rods may put more fish in your net. by Keith Roe Choosing the right rod for stillwater fishing is a topic that garners a lot of discussion. I have noticed that a fair number of stillwater anglers are quite content with the same weight and length of rod that they use for most of their trout fishing, on lakes and rivers. To some extent one rod will do the job. But . . . . Before purchasing a rod I always ask: How will I fish the rod?; What style of fishing will I do?; What size of fish will I encounter?; How much can I budget for a rod?; I also converse with other anglers and ask them which rods they prefer. Asking yourself some of these questions may help with your rod buying decisions. Some tips and trips for fishing stillwater in the fall. Because most stillwater fishing is conducted from a boat I always cons...

We were on the water shortly after 7:30 a.m. and fished until 11:30 .am. The sun was shinning, temperatures were rising, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The lake's surface temperature was between 69 and 73 degrees depending on where we were fishing. A few days prior, the surface temperature was in the upper 70s and lower 80s. At this temperature I prefer to either call it quits, or break out the baitcaster, and drop-shot plastics deep. Water clarity was good, but not great. The lake appeared to be a little green, making it hard to get visibility greater than six feet. However, this could easily be due to that fact that the sun was low when we were fishing. Finding the bass proved to be a challenge for us. We fished a few of our favorite early/mid summer spots only to find a few small smallmouth. I had a few hard grabs on a chartreus...

Small Flies, Light Tippets and Weeds If you want to hook a bunch of fish on the Missouri River this week, covering the water from the dam to the Wolf Creek Bridge is the way to go. If you fish 5X, you’ll hook lots of trout, but likely land very few. If you fish 4X, you will hook some and if you are careful, you’ll land most of them. The standard fly of choice is the good old Zebra Midge. My favorite variation is the Tufted Zebra. Most tiny mayfly patterns also work, especially with copper or dark colored beads. I like the Tungsten Death Metal in #20 and the Two Bit Hooker in #18. The challenge is not so much getting the fish to bite, as it is getting them to the net. The weedbeds are where the fish are hanging out and it’s where the fish charge into once they are hooked. They also have the habit of exploding in the opposite directi...

Spruce moths are a common bug in the northern Rockies, but it doesn’t get the credit it surely deserves. I learned that a long time ago, during the first couple summers of my guiding career. I was on north Idaho’s upper St. Joe River, standing on my tailgate overlooking the river. I was tying on the same nymph rig that I had used for a week with good success. I would stand on the tailgate so I could get a better vantage point and look for rising fish. While doing so I noticed quite a few of these "butterfly-esque" moths, or what I thought to be small butterflies, up high in the pine trees and all seemed to have the same descending flight pattern. I watched them slowly working their way down to the river with naive curiosity as I was witnessing something many other seasoned guides already secretly understood. The first moth made its ...

Who is John Barklow? John Barklow is the Big Game Product Manager at Sitka.  Before coming to Sitka, Barklow served in the United States Navy for 26 years. As a Navy diver, he worked all over the world and eventually began teaching diving to Navy SEALs. In his spare time, Barklow pursued his mountain guiding credentials and began teaching these skills to the military as well. Post 9/11 he was reassigned to Kodiak, Alaska, where he trained special operations forces to live and fight, unsupported, in remote mountain ranges. During the first year following 9/11, the U.S. military lacked suitable gear for modern day mountain warfare—their gear had not been updated since the Cold War ended. This meant that Barklow and other members of the military turned to high-end mountaineering and outdoor companies to provide the technical solutions th...

Photo credit: Jesse Eckley There’s a scene in the movie Lonesome Dove where Captain Call gives Newt a six-shooter on their way to steal horses in Mexico. As he hands him the gun Call says, “It’s better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.” I feel the same way about most of my hunting equipment, including game calls. And that theory proved true just a few years back, at last light, when I was about 10 yards from a bull elk in a wallow. I couldn’t see him, but I could hear every heavy breath and the plop of his hooves when they came free from the gumbo. This was a situation where a lot could have gone wrong, but because I spent a couple bucks on a mouth call and was prepared to use it, the hunt ended in my favor. It had taken me six years and hundreds of boot miles to finally draw on a bull, and the call h...

St.Joe River Fishing Report The Joe has been fantastic of late. Even with the heatwave, this stream produces fish all day long. I fished up there for two days last week and had two great days. Fish were receptive to all sorts of things, including small beadheads, beetles, ants, hoppers of many sizes and colors, PMDs, caddis and even some small streamers. A parachute Madam X with a small Pheasant Tail dropper was a great rig. I ran my dropper maybe 12-18” behind the hopper, but actually got more eats on the dry than the dropper. You might need to expand your tippet selection right now. I fished quite a bit of water ranging from the upper river above Gold Creek and Red Ives all the way down low to Marble Creek. All fished great. This week should be dynamite as we are suppose to get a change in the weather, meaning 70s and 80s and a chan...

Let’s talk about the gun itself before we get into the business side of this firearm review. Why did Kel-Tec make this gun? Kel-Tec is a firearms manufacturer that is known for being on the cutting edge of creation—from foldable rifles that take handgun ammo, to the PMR30, Kel-Tec makes firearms that may be considered, “Out there,” in traditional firearms circles. So why did Kel-Tec produce a .22 WMR handgun with a factory magazine capacity of 30 rounds? To answer that we need to look at one of the most well-known and expensive handguns on the market. “Developed by FN back in 1989, the 5.7x28mm cartridge was envisioned as a replacement option for 9mm submachine gun use. The idea was that a smaller cartridge that was lighter in weight and capable of [high velocity] would be a compelling option for NATO, Law Enforcement, and prot...

Weston Clark, vice president at Duel Game Calls, was born in Riverton, Wyoming, which pretty much means he was destined to hunt elk. In a recent interview, Clark told us he was enthralled with elk by his seventh birthday and he recalls packing elk out of the mountains when he was eight. He was imitating elk calls in third grade. “As soon as the first snow would fall, my friends and I would start to circle up the girls on the playground bugling like bulls,” he said. “That’s the kind of trouble I would get in when I was in grade school.” Click here to see the selection of Duel Game calls that Weston has helped design and produce. A guide for many decades and a lifelong elk hunter, Clark has a passion for communicating with animals. “Communication as manipulation, that’s the height of hunting for me,” he said. “To call in ...