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...

I hit the water after a day in the shop for a little evening fishing on the Clark Fork River. Temperatures were in the 70s, and the wind was slightly breezy at first. Flows were very low, but had been steady for a few days. I suspected fishing would be epic. My first experiment was the faithful pink chubby/dropper, and it did not produce. Want to see the most current river flows? Check them out here After 20 minutes of nothing, I switched to a #14 purple rocky mountain mint and a #12 H & L Variant. With that combination, I hooked several beautiful healthy cutthroat and hybrids. As the evening went on, the fishing continued to get better and better. The trout were the most active from 8:30-9 p.m., eating what I believe to be #16 black ants. Want to check out some new flies? Take a look at our fly selection here The only reason I am n...

I had the opportunity to fish the Spokane River for a few hours this week and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Action was consistent with double nymph rigs, fished below an indicator and Czech-style. When I arrived at the river, I noticed several clusters of midges flying just above the surface of the water, so I put on a size 18 Zebra Midge dropper, which accounted for half of the fish I caught. Want to know how the river is doing? Check out the current flows here Focus your attention on the riffles, pocket water, and the heads of runs. These areas provide a sanctuary for trout during low water, while also giving you the best shot at less selective fish. Hopper-Dropper rigs were also made for this type of water, so don’t be afraid to ditch the indicator and tie on a Morrish Hopper or White Cloud Hopper instead. Come into the shop if...