Not a day goes by in the shop where someone doesn't mention that all the rivers are crowded. It’s usually at this point those same customers are bringing some flies to the register and say they’re heading back to the crowded river! Right now, the trout in our area are getting a double dose of pressure from both fisherman and low water conditions. Many rivers in Montana have been under hoot owl restrictions or are being closed completely. Fortunately for us in the Spokane/CDA area, we aren’t experiencing the same restrictions this year, but until the first cool temps of fall hit, please consider giving the trout a break by trying some of the fantastic warmwater fisheries we have in the region. Dry or Die Are you the "dry fly or die" type? Throw a popper to a largemouth, crappie, or bluegill. I’ll bet you’ll question why you haven...

Have you ever gone fishing and got a nice surprise? I had some time off and made plans to meet up with Rob from the gun department to do a little fishing at Rat Lake. After about a hour delay (partly on my part and the other part complements of our state highway department), I rendezvoused with Rob at the grocery store in Brewster. We were at the lake a short time later. Once rigged up and flies picked, we pushed the boat out. My new favorite rod, the Echo 6wt Glass with a type #3 line was my go to rod for the day. Rob rigged up his Echo Base 5wt with a floating line with a 10' Extra Fast sink Polyleader. With Rob as the captain, he rowed us along the west side of the lake, stopping every 20 yards as we cast and made slow retrieves. We had a few halfhearted hits for the fist 100 feet or so, then the action took off. I hooked up on a fish...

I have learned a few little tips and tricks to help you become successful on the Columbia River for your chinook salmon. To begin, let's talk Brad's Super Baits. A True Believer in Brad's Super Baits Brad's Super Baits are one of the top lures used on the entire Columbia River system for catching spring, summer, and fall chinook. I started fishing with Brad's Super Baits about 4 or 5 years ago and my catch rate went way up. I started catching a lot more fish with a lot more takedowns. The first time I used Brad's Super Baits was above Priest Rapids Dam for fall run chinook, within the first 30 seconds it was in the water, I had a nice chinook on. For the rest of the day we couldn't keep them off. My father and I landed six huge adult chinook and lost a handful. In the end, we did go home with a cooler full! My father and I have never...

Purple, purple, purple! This seems to be the trending color in the Pandhandle for all of our local streams. I am used to hearing purple working on the Kootenai and the Coeur D'lene Rivers, but now the Clark Fork River is catching on... or am I? Regardless, my #14 Purple Keller's Rocky Mountain Mint was the ticket to hooking beautifully healthy rainbows and cutthroat on a calm Clark Fork evening. Want to see how the river is doing? Check out the current river flows here For some reason, the rainbows I did land were on a #12 H&L Variant, and the cutthroat were on the Rocky Mountain Mint. If you have been keeping up with my reports on the Clark Fork, you may have noticed my flies have not changed since the last time I got wet. The answer is very simple, these two flies continue to work. I did try a purple dropper thinking it would be th...

This past Tuesday, I enjoyed a great evening of fly fishing on the Missouri River. After releasing a fish, I glanced at my cell phone and noticed 9 missed calls from my wife. Great Falls was flooding and there was water coming into our basement. Nothing I could do about that, so I kept on fishing. Sam was riding the front of the boat intending to fish dry. I handed him a rod with a hopper ant combo. He whined that hopper fishing blind was like throwing strike indicators. "Why don’t you throw a streamer until we find some risers?" I said. "No." It didn’t take long for a fish to eat Sam’s hopper with a big swoosh. Sam set and left him with some jewelry. "What the heck! Was that 5X?" It was, because I kind of just tied the hopper onto a Trico leader. "Try not to set like you’re bass fishing I said." "Friends don’t set friends up t...

You'll know it's time to wash your sleeping bag a couple ways, the first of those (and the most wholesome) being the loft test. Loft Test: If you notice a loss of loft in your bag since you purchased it this could indicate that your bag is in need of a full wash (and tennis ball beating). The second method to recognize when it's time to clean your bag- the scent test. Scent Test: This one isn't scientific. If you've been falling into your bed in the same clothes you hiked/climbed/fished/rode in, chances are you've packed in bacteria and debris that will cause that camp smell. Those are both easy ways to know when it's time for a full service washing. But how do you wash a down sleeping bag without ruining one of the most important pieces of the camping puzzle? What you'll need If you use the wrong kind of detergent, you could ruin your e...

Ask a beekeeper about splitting hives and you'll probably, if you're lucky and it isn't bee season, get a whole host of techniques and strategies for the best "splits" of the season. When Drew and I sat down with Jason Waite, co-founder of Harvest Lane Honey and 15 year beekeeping veteran, we wanted to get a little deeper into the bee-splitting game. So rather than asking a simple "how-to," we went in for the more personal side of things and asked him to tell us his favorite bee-splitting tactic. Introductions to the Walk-Away Split Last year, when we began stocking Harvest Lane Honey products, we started our own apiary for the company. This included everything that comes with breaking into the "beek" world: intro into antibiotics and varroa mites, brood patties and pollen patties- we got in and got dirty, and it paid off. We were able t...

Rise and Shine and Go Fly Fishing When it's Cool Trout are cold water critters. August can be a cruel month on many waters. Trout often struggle on the borders of existence in our smaller streams and rivers. 70 degrees is considered a thermal threshold; but really, that’s being generous. After a hard fought battle, large fish are susceptible to mortal stress when the waters are in the upper 60s. They simply can’t regain enough oxygen to recover from the excretion. What’s an angler to do? Go early. Thankfully, our nights cool things down considerably. Water temps move well into the safe zone by early morning. Enjoy the sunrise. By late morning, the best fishing of the day is often done anyway. That’s why we have Hoot Owl restrictions on many waters in western Montana. While Hoot Owl regulations permit angling u...