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...

On April 15th and 16th, we held our first Spey Clave in Montana. We were pleased with the participation and excitement we generated, but I know that many folks still did not quite get our message or realize the opportunity we provided. Quite a few trout anglers are under the impression that spey casting is only for salmon and steelhead. So, why would we hold a Spey Clave in Montana? [Update: Want to see how the Spey Clave went in 2017?] All The Way From Alaska The idea crystalized during a road trip home from steelhead fishing on a Columbia River Tributary last fall. I love to spey cast and swing flies for salmon, steelhead and trout. So do all the guys I work with at North 40. 2014 marked my last season as a full time Alaska guide. Now that Montana is home, trout spey on the Missouri River and other waters in the northwest region ar...

Its caddis season again. Caddis are nice juicy bugs that often provide top water action for from noon until dark. We are talking nine hours of caddis, caddis, and caddis. You should probably get some. Sam Wike and I got out on the Ruby River last week with a crew from Winston Fly Rods. There were lots of caddis. Everyone caught brown trout on caddis. Caddis make fly fishers happy. Meaning, we were very happy. If you got out and fished on Mother’s day with your mother, daughter or significant other, you might have been treated to this sight. Those are not specs of dust or smudges on the lens. Those are caddis. There were caddis, caddis everywhere on the Mo this Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day Caddis.  Fish food. Bugs. Whatever you call them, the fish were eating them with abandon. Moms who fly fish were smiling big. Kevin Lyons float...