Page 94 - North 40 Outfitters

The Brewster Salmon Derby is one of Washington’s hottest summer fishing contests, and it takes place August 4th, 5th and 6th. This is the 12th Brewster Salmon Derby and it becomes more popular each year. You can win $2,000 for catching the biggest fish and reign “King of the Pool” for the year. There are other age-group specific prizes as well, so there’s fun for the whole family. Adult winner gets $1,500 Youth ages 9-14 can win $550 8-and-unders can win $100 This derby is a lot of fun and lots of money is up for grabs. Plus, even if you don’t weigh-in a fish, you still have a good chance to win on raffle prizes—this year there’s over $20,000 in raffle prizes up for grabs. You can register online until July 31st, 2017 by clicking here. The fishing can be tough; the pool always has a good morning bite, but the toughest pa...

As summer wears on most stillwater anglers target area rivers and spend less time on our local lakes. Water temperature is a key factor in this move. That’s because none of us want to harm a fish, and we might do so if we fight them to exhaustion when the water is too warm. That potential harm begins when the water reaches the 70-degree mark. When it does so, we should move on to cooler waters if we want to get our fly-fishing fix. Fly Fishing on Lakes: Go Early That said, the opportunity to get out on your favorite lake is still doable if you’re willing to work a little harder. This means very early mornings and limiting your time on the water. Most lakes will cool down at night and dip below the 70-degree mark. That’s the time to fish these lakes. But, you still have to monitor the situation, making sure that the lake’s surfac...

Fish are present and taking on the Similkameen. Feeling fidgety when you look at your two-handed rods? Just waiting for summer to end so you can target fall-run fish? Well, the Similkameen salmon fishery could help you scratch that itch, right now. Reports are trickling in that early hatchery kings have reached the terminal fishery in Oroville, and anglers are hooking up. Check out our selection of steelhead flies.  My preferred rig for tangling with an “upriver bright” in midsummer flows would be an 8-weight Spey rod. I'd go with Beulah’s Platinum Spey or Loop’s Opti NXT, balanced with a Loop Classic reel. Lines should be able to dig deep, where kings are the grabbiest, and turn over large streamers, #1/0 and up. That means you may have to throw heavy tips to get a fly down. My favorite fly colors for this unique king fishery a...

Nursing—the profession that launched a thousand shoe designs. That’s because nurses often spend over 12 hours per shift on their feet, and with that kind of mileage you can bet there isn’t a better judge of shoes. So, when we wanted an honest and genuine review of Dansko’s Coral slip-on shoes, which are specifically designed for the nursing profession, we turned to a local nurse and gave her a pair of Dansko Coral’s to try for a couple weeks. Check out the Dansko shoes we have online here. Breanna has been a nurse in Montana for two years. She graduated from Stockton University and moved to Montana to work on Benefis Hospital’s oncology floor. Bre has also worked at a prison in the Great Falls, Montana. When we asked her what she looked for in work wear, she responded simply: “Functionality and comfort.” This is her revie...

Whether you’re throwing sinking lines or fishing leeches under an indicator, you’ll need to drop down to bring fish up at Rufus Woods this summer. Get the accessories you need to make that happen. A couple days ago, Luke McKey and I took a run up to eastern Washington’s Rufus Woods Reservoir to get some much needed time on the water. We started a little late, but as it turned out we weren’t too late. After dropping the Wooldridge in, we made a short run, got the memory set on the trolling motor, and started working the seam water, meaning places where slower or slack water meets faster water. You’ll find these seams around rocks, and in many places within 20 feet of shore. Luke spent some time working the kinks out of his new Beulah 6-weight rod, trying a few different lines to find the perfect match. Once he did, it was smooth...

Conditions have been great on the CF. Flows are at 27,000 cfs, water clarity is excellent, and the trout are willing to eat your fly. Leave the waders at home because 80 degree air temperatures and cool river water has never felt so good. Need hot weather gear? Our primary hatch has definitely been Caddis, but I am still finding a few #12 white Mayflies. Above the Clark Fork bridge, I tend to fish more foam bugs and attractors. #10 Purple Hippie Stomper, #8 Purple Chubby Chernobyl, #12 H&L Variant, #12 Black Moodah Poodah, #14 TFP Party on Top Caddis, and #12 Light Cahill have been my go-to patterns. Our selection of dry flies is available here. As for below the bridge, I like to fish something with a little smaller profile. The flows are a lot slower, so the trout prefer to sip small dries with even smaller rises. #14 Parachute Adam...

Interesting. Revolutionary. Plain, downright dope. North 40 saw it all at the International Fly Tackle Dealer Show in Orlando, Florida last week. —Greg Thomas I’m in the air as I write this, cruising above earth at 25,000 feet and hurtling toward Minneapolis at 516 miles an hour. I’ve already flown over more bass lakes than I could ever fish and I’ll pass thousands more, plus Muskyland, before we hit the runway. After a four-hour layover I’ll be back in the air, flying over the Dakota’s walleye fisheries, and Montana’s trout waters, before landing in Missoula, Montana after dark. As I look down on these varied waters I’ll consider how I might fish each with some of the new gear I just saw and in some cases tested at the 2017 ICAST/IFTD trade show, which ran July 11-14 in Orlando, Florida. That’s the way I always feel af...

At last year’s ICast show in Orlando, Florida, Savage Gear launched the Suicide Duck, a floating, soft-body bird with “Whopper Plopper,” which is Savage’s name for a couple small props on the back of the bait that create a wake that fish can’t resist. This bait created a serious buzz and was awarded ICast's highest honor as Best Hard Lure. This year, Savage Gear is launching a slough of hot baits that should contend, once again, for the hard-bait throne. One of the most interesting of these new baits is the 3D Bat. To create the bat, Savage used a 3D scan of a real bat to create an erratic topwater lure that swims with a fleeing action. We are most excited about the 4-inch size. Slightly different from Savage’s creative bird baits is the new Savage Goby. This is a tube bait that should be a great sculpin imitation. It’s cal...

The Prank Fishing Lure from Booyah Baits Order Booyah crank bait lures from us online today. When Zell Rowland designed Booyah Baits new Prank, he must have confused the inside of the box crew. His design philosophy of blending “best of both world’s” features into one bait is catching on, but mashing a crankbait with a top-water bait must have seemed highly impractical to most people. You can be sure that confusion, combined with Zell’s infinite top-water bass fishing wisdom, led to the Prank’s creation. The Prank is a top-water popper with a twist. It has a shallow- running, square-bill cranking lip below the face of the bait. This allows for multiple things to happen; you can pop this bait like a standard popper, two-to four times in the premium area; and, once out of the prime water you can reel it back as a shallow-running c...

Most of you don’t know me so let me fill you in. I’m originally from Scotland and grew up fishing the lochs and rivers of the central belt. I started with trout and salmon and began tying my own flies when I was twelve particularly traditional Scottish and Irish wet flies, but also streamers and mini lures for stocked fish too. I was lucky to grow up in Ayrshire, not far from Davie Mcphail, who was always helpful when it came to teaching techniques or critiquing flies. I eventually started tying commercially to earn money during university, and in the period after I started, it got a bit out of hand with me struggling to complete orders and shipping them round the world, but I’m glad I did it! I fished twice for Scotland in youth internationals and was British Youth Champion in 2001. Strangely, competitive fishing really turned me ...

The lake is finally beginning to clear up, and the fish are responding to the clear water. Last time I was out, there was 10-12ft of visibility.  I have heard a range of surface temperatures from 75-80 degrees! This is great for swimming, but a little rough for bass and walleye fishing. It is crucial this time of year to get on the water early or late in order to avoid the sun the best you can.   Check out our selection of fishing rods, lures and more right here. I am finding most of my Bass in 5-15 feet of water. Early in the morning (5-ish), they seem to be in 5-8 feet of water cruising flats and weed lines looking for baitfish and crawdads. As the sun gets higher, the bass retreat to a little deeper water, and don't eat as much. You can still catch plenty of Bass mid-day, they just tend to be smaller. Senkos and Shim-E-Sticks are ...

It’s now mid-summer and we are coming into another heat wave.  River flows have fallen to the 4K range.  It’s almost like an entirely different river than it was a few short weeks ago.  The good news is fish are rising regularly in the skinny flows.  Caddis and Trico’s are the primary bugs, though PMD’s are still a player. Caddis hatches and evening egg laying flights have been great. Check out our selection of dry flies online here. Trico hatches and spinner falls are now a standard morning occurrence.  Early bird anglers are getting them on Trico duns and then shifting to spinners during the 9-10 a.m. fall. By late morning, the water is covered with a slurry of tricos, PMD’s and spent caddis. There are lots of bug parts for fish to slurp. PMD spinners, rusty and otherwise can spark some eats.  Spent caddis are always a g...