Page 97 - North 40 Outfitters

Extracting Honey: Spinner Extraction VS Crush & Strain Method Read more

Since the day I moved to northern Idaho, I have developed a special place in my heart for bass, specifically Smallmouth. The way they attack the fly, and dig to the lake's bottom is second to none. Some of my first Lake Pend Oreille outings consisted of fishing Trestle Creek Recreational area from shore with a chartreuse roostertail and an olive clouser. This class is FREE and open to the public and will be hosted at the Sandpoint North 40 Fly Shop on June 10th & July 8th at 5 PM. Whether I was throwing lures or flies, the bass were always willing to bite. It wasn't until a few weeks later that I realized our lake is home to giant bass...and that I was only catching babies. Since then, I have been experimenting with different fly rods, fly lines, leaders, flies, places, and overall technique on how to catch those elusive large Smal...

Read more

The lake level is rising, and the fishing has been great! Smallmouth have just about finished spawning and are hunting for some quick protein. The Smallies I have been finding are eating crawdads, perch, and juvenile kokanee. Stripping flies along sharp drop-offs in 5-10 feet of water has been the ticket. Check out Dillon's special bass fly: Dill's Pickle.  My go-to flies have been Chartreuse Bushwacker, #4 Hot Flash Minnow, and an Olive Creek Crawler Crawdad. I haven't had much luck in terms of topwater action just yet. However, I know that will change any day (if it hasn't already). Now lets talk Pike. The Pike fishing has been hit and miss. Mornings have been slower than the hot afternoons. This is great for the lazy fisherman because you get to sleep in, and have a great relaxed breakfast. In my opinion, the best fishing has been f...

Read more

Spring is in the air and soon we'll be surrounded by the wonderful buzz of our most valuable, favorite pollinators; the honey bees!  Whether you're just starting out or you're a veteran beekeeper, you'll recognize that knowledge is essential for our toolkit in having successful dealings with our bees.  And let's face it, sometimes us beekeepers can be rather, umm, opinionated; so, there's no shortage of suggestions on how to accomplish a certain task in the bee world. After all, it's not surprising to find that this hobby/business can be as complicated as we want to make it with details, facets, factors, circumstances and a whole host of concerns to keep in mind; the more information we have the better in general. We've got a wide range of beekeeping supplies online here. But in the end, it's more important that we just jump in and do ...

Read more

Had a chance to make a run up to Little Twin Lake just south of Winthrop. I had been getting mixed reports about the lake so I thought I would check it out. The day before we had a pretty big thunderstorm with a lot of rain, come through the valley and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees. I was skeptical about how fishing might be, but decided to give it a try anyway. I noticed some shucks from damsel fly nymphs in and round the water's edge, but saw no nymph activity. There were blue adults buzzing around. I went ahead and tied on a size #10 damsel nymph and worked it just off the shoreline out to about 8 feet of water and had a couple of little shakers that popped off once I got them close to the boat. I tried a few other colors and sizes in the damsel nymph selection I had in my box, but nothing to much more then I had already ho...

Read more

If that title sounds familiar, then you know the popular hash tag from Costa Sunglasses (#SeeWhatsOutThere) and it’s a great line. With Costa polarized lenses, you can see what’s out there really well. It’s surprising to me how many anglers don’t realize how important good lenses are. I can’t begin to count the times I’ve said, "Do you see that fish?" The response is usually, "What fish?" Then I say, "Let me see your glasses." Then I don’t see the fish and understand the problem. This year we tripled our stock of the 580 Green Mirror Lens and now it is offered in the 580P lens, with is their poly lens making it lighter weight.  For those that have never worn the 580 Green Mirror it literally makes Lake Pend Oreille look like a tropical paradise. Check out the Costa sunglasses we have online right here. The 580 lens enhance...

Read more

May seemed to fly by, carried along by lots of water.  As we roll into June, river levels have come down significantly and fly fishing prospects are good.  The current flow on the Missouri River below Holter Dam is 8,740 cfs. The water temp is at 54 degrees.  Fishing is fine.  In fact, I’ve heard from some guides that fishing has been stellar recently. For most anglers, it’s a boat show.  Wading areas are limited, but that does not mean that you can’t wade at all.  There are still some areas that fish just fine on foot.  If you need help figuring these places out, just swing by the shop and we can show you some options. Even if the flows spike, you can still use these highwater tactics to catch fish. The primary technique for catching fish is Nymphing with plenty of leader between the indicator and the split shot.  In brigh...

Read more

Do you like to catch big trout?  Does ripping an articulated streamer all day wear you out?  What if you could fish a moderately large fly with or without an indicator, without exerting an excessive amount of effort and provoke predatory trout to eat said fly? If that sounds good, consider the crayfish. Got indicators? A surprising number of trout anglers don’t consider crayfish despite the fact that you will see evidence of them along the river banks and in the water. There are lots of crayfish in the Missouri River and crayfish are basically a shrimp. Everything loves a shrimp. Perhaps many fly fishers don’t think of crayfish because they don’t think of imitating a crayfish with a fly. In the words of fly fishing sage Hank Patterson, "A fly does not need to be a fly to be a fly."  We have crayfish flies. I was out fishing last...

Read more

I was overly excited when I saw these hanging on the shelf of our fly shop in Great Falls, MT.  If you're around 30ish years old like me, you probably lived in the Adidas slides with the little clear plastic "massaging" footbed for at least a portion of middle school or high school (and if you're honest with yourself, you were probably wearing black Nike socks with them). So, at first when I saw these new Simms slides my reasons for wanting a pair had nothing to do with anything practical. Buy these Simms Transit sandals online here.  Now, I may be the only one excited about this new product from Simms, but let me give you some reasons why--because this isn't just another flipflop with another brand name on it.  First, let me explain that I seriously tested these things. I recently purchased these for a 5-day trip to Venice, Louisiana...

Read more

I had the chance to leave the shop early today, and man did I take advantage of it. I hit the pond from 12-5 PM. The weather was sunny without a cloud in the sky. Temperatures reached the 80s, and the wind came up strong around 2 PM. Water clarity was a little disappointing. As the day went on, the wind heavily muddied up the water, and pushed the fish off the shore a little. I started the day along the Long Bridge simply to get the skunk out of the boat early. It produced for me, but not as well as I thought it would. Caught 3 on my Chartreuse Predator Minnow, but nothing bigger than 1.5 lb. Next I hit shoreline near the Memorial Field boat launch. The next couple hours consisted of Smallmouth, Largemouth, and Crappie aggressively chasing and eating my Low Fat Minnow (Bluegill). Check out our streamer selection online here. The bite wa...

Read more

Fly fishing can be easy and fun and it’s not just for trout. Perch, bass and pike are also popular targets. Of course in Montana, rainbow trout, brown trout, cutthroat trout and brook trout are the big deal. If you live in Montana, you are required by law to at least try fly fishing. Maybe not, but you seriously should. Especially if you like to fish in general. What flies will you need to get started fly fishing? Great Falls Fly Shop May 28th @ 10 am $30 per person RSVP: 406-761-7441 or email support@north40.com In our "Introduction to Fly Fishing" class, we talk about how to choose a fly rod and how to set it up. We talk leaders and knots and fly selection. We look at real fishing scenarios and explain fish food, how flies represent fish food and the different ways to present flies to fish. After our indoor session, we go outside and...

Read more

By John D. Malison "Twelve meters, and lay it half a meter in front of the fish", Luis said. Those words were uttered to me by my guide when we were still thirty feet from the lake. I was frantically looking out into the open water for the fish, so that I would not screw up my first shot at what Luis referred to as a European Bonefish. I was still searching the open water when he finally pointed to a fish swimming not three feet from the shore. How To Cast To Barbel From The Shore I have casted a lot in my life, but I have never been asked to lay down most of my fly line on dry land, and to only have three feet of tippet on the water. I put the cast down softly, and the fish did not even give it a look. Luis was quick to reprimand me, "You put it down too softly. Next time make it plop." I did not have long to wait, as another fish posit...

Read more