Why Now After All These Years? I've never been to the Bighorn River before, which to me is sort of crazy. I've fished Montana a lot, but because I live in Great Falls, MT, and the Missouri River is in my backyard, driving four hours to fish a similar tailwater has never been on my list. However, I was recently invited to a meeting by one of our suppliers, Zoetis animal health. Yep... our animal drug company is what has led me to come fish the Bighorn River this weekend. Farm store fly fishing to a tee. If you are considering coming here for the first time, I want to paint a picture why you should consider it... Even if you live on a world class tailwater already. Journey to the Bighorn I left Great Falls at 6:30 am with my Dad and we drove through Lewistown, through Roundup, on to Billings and finally turned right at Hardin, where the ...

Free Fly Fishing Seminar NYMPHS IN THE FILM  "When swinging for success, down and across is best" On Saturday May 21 at 10 a.m., Terry Courtright will present his time proven patterns and successful fly fishing techniques at North 40 Outfitters in Great Falls. His presentation "Nymphs in the Film" will give you great insight into this highly successful fishing method with logic and reason at its inception. Courtright’s flies partake of Gary LaFontaine’s series of caddis ties, combined with Sylvester Nemes’ Soft Hackle patterns. He has been a guest speaker at numerous fly fishing clubs throughout the country. Developed in the late 70’s and early 80’s on western waters, Courtright’s Caddis Purger series are a cross between the aforementioned ties, with some critical added details. They combine the size, color, and ...

It’s been an interesting spring. The weather has been yo-yoing from beautiful to downright nasty. 82 degrees and an epic caddis hatch followed by snow 12 hours later. Fishing success has been yo-yoing as well, from phenomenal to downright marginal. When people ask me how the Missouri is fishing, I like to say, "The Missouri is always good. You can always catch fish. You just can’t always catch as many as you want or catch them the way that you want." That’s fishing. In order to have fun and maximize success, anglers need to be flexible. There are those days where you can catch them any way you want to and they seem to come easy. Streamers, Nymphs, Emergers, Dries, Spinners and Spent-everything is on the table. But not every day. If it was always lights out good, it would get boring. The Mo is not boring. BWO’s and March Browns a...

Every once in a while, I will have a day where all I want to do is swing streamers. The weather was beautiful, the flows were manageable, and the trout were active. Right away, I noticed a small hatch of March Browns with a few sporadic fish feeding. Although the rising fish were enticing, my head was set on swinging. I tied on my favorite #4 rainbow imitation streamer, and hooked up on a fun rainbow 5 swings later. I finished the run, and decided to hike back to the top to give it another go. I tied on a trusty #4 Copper Muddler Minnow thinking it would be the ticket. A few swings go by, and I hooked up on something bigger. Fought him for a few minutes, brought him to the net, and measured him out at a healthy 18. Needless to say, I was satisfied. I continued to swing for a another 15 minutes, and lost one more, then called it a day. T...

    When we sat down with Nutrena this year, we know we wanted to do something different. But there was a problem. In today's society, if you want to learn about chicken farming, there are a million resources available at your finger tips, a million "how-tos" and "best-practices you get with one simple search... "Chicken farming" on Google returns 23,500,000 entries. How could we maintain our position as a cutting -edge farm and ranch store and stay ahead of our competitors and the at glutted market... when chickens have been around and written about since 5,000 B.C. Easy. We bring you content you cant' get from Google. N40 Coops delves into chicken life beyond Google, into the stuff you can't get from a Google search. Human creativity is the only thing that can keep pace with human information, so we went out to find the most...

In episode #14 #AskNorth40, Blake with NuCanoe, jokingly refers to hearing complaints about how two seater canoes and tandem kayaks are called "divorce boats"... because they don't work very well. He is quick to clearly point out that it doesn't have to be that way. Blake is an owner at NuCanoe. NuCanoe, an excellent company based out of Bellingham, Washington, that manufactures kayaks and kayak accessories. On their website NuCanoe explains, "Fishing in a kayak with your spouse, child, or friend is an awesome experience... if you have the right tandem fishing kayak!" The Most Important Issue when Looking at 2 Person Kayaks So, when you are shopping around for a two seater kayak what is the most important thing you need to make sure you have? Blake states, that with two people fishing out of a kayak, the main and most important issue to...

Notes from Bruce on the Leech Pattern Leeches have a long time history in steelhead fishing here in the N.W. As long as I have been tying and fishing, I can easily remember back to Joe Howell’s Starlight Leech. I vividly remember that fly because I had a hard time casting it, yet at the same time wanted to fish with it because I heard all the stories and saw pictures of steelhead caught with the leeches that I had been tying commercially for a local fly shop. Along the way, fly shops saw many different leech patterns to include: Starlight Leech, Double-Bunny, M.O.A.L. (Mother of all Leeches), Articulated Egg Sucking Leech, Miles Davis Leech-just naming a few and there are many more to check out and fish. Problems when Fishing the Leech Pattern My take is that all leeches designed for steelhead have a few things in common: They are al...

Alter Ego - Ginger The main character in this movie from Dreamworks is Ginger. A strong female lead, Ginger is an intelligent, Rhode Island Red hen who is effectively the chicken's shot caller and leader ala resitance de poulet (the Chicken Resistance). Rhode Island Reds are one of the most famous breeds of truly American chickens. They are bred in Rhode Island and lay 5-7 eggs a week... with the right feed. Alter Ego - Cornelius Rooster Kellogg's Corn Flakes, one of the most iconic American breakfast cereals, originally developed in 1894 as a food for patients in a sanitarium, was first graced by Cornelius Rooster in the late '50s. This is a Welsummer rooster, a breed developed in the Netherlands in Welsum. While the Welsummer may be a primarily European breed, Cornelius Rooster is purely American. These chickens are good layers (if th...