Lot’s happening in the Great Falls Fly Fishing Community this week. Molly Semenik will be the speaking at the Missouri River Fly Fishers club meeting tonight at the Giant Springs FWP Building starting at 7:30 P.M. Molly has been a popular featured speaker and casting instructor for us in the past. Tomorrow, we’ve got the Montana Fishing Film Festival to kick off the weekend. Prior to the films, the re will be a free Mini Casting Workshop hosted by Magnetic Montana and Montana Fishing Film Festival. Time: 5:00 pm to 5:30 pm at 201 3rd St NW, Great Falls, MT 59404 (Behind Staybridge Suites) The films will be at the Do Bar (1800 3rd St NW, Great Falls, MT 59404) starting at 7:30pm. Doors open at 6:30pm and the tickets are only $10. There will be some gear giveaways. You can get tickets ahead of time at North 40 or buy them at the door. J...

As beginning beekeepers, I imagine you all have many questions and concerns. One thing I have come across is this: you can only read and watch so much--you need to get out and "do!" In hopes to give you all a great head start into the bee game, we're going through the process ourselves with some of our local Great Falls, Montana customers: I'm fascinated by what bees can accomplish. This fascination drove me to a point where I said, "I want to have bees." Now I'm to the point where I want to catch wild bees. After a lot of research this winter, I found out that saying is really true: you can only learn so much from reading. So after exhausting my data plan searching bee videos on YouTube and browsing various beekeeping websites, I had to talk to a human about this new adventure I was planning to undertake. Long story short running out ...

The challenged series flies are one of my favorite crippled emerger patterns.  These can be tied for any type of mayfly.  Most common used are BWO's, Green Drakes, Grey Drakes, March Browns, PMD's, and Mahoganies.  By simply changing the color of the dubbing, rib, and size, you can tie several different variations of this fly. When fishing this fly, add your fly floatant to the front of the fly, near the eye of the hook, only. This will allow the fly to sit vertical in the water.  When this fly is sitting correctly, 3/4 of the fly will be under water, making it an easy target for hungry trout. This is, hands down, my favorite go to dry fly for picky fish on any river during a PMD or BWO hatch. Grab the materials you need to tie this fly from your local shop or order them from us online here.

Fishing is a sport of superstition. Personally, I am not superstitious, but in the words of Michael Scott, "I'm a little 'stitious." I have seen too many odd days on the water to not be a little "stitious." Below is a list of myths/superstitions I have personally found to be debunked. If you disagree, please, take it up with me on our Facebook page right here. Post to our page with this headline: "THIS MYTH IS TRUE..." and we'll get back to you within 24 hours with either a concession or grounds for further argumentation. Let the debunking commence. Myth #1 [FALSE]: Fishing with a Bigger fly means Catching Bigger Fish Every month I see a group of fishermen come into the shop with one man that appears to be the most "knowledgeable." As the "expert," walks the group through the fly bins, he explains, "If you fish a big fly, you will catch b...

Involving your kids in your fishing adventures from the beginning is a great way to get them in touch with the outdoors and set them on a course to enjoy fishing for a lifetime. Cutter is doing that right now. It looks like Cutter has his hands and waders full. Fishing with kids will likely change the way you approach the water and the fish. It may not be the best opportunity for fly fishing greatness, but the quality family time is priceless. Word is some fish were caught. Nice work boys. Sam Wike started the North 40 Fly Shop, so it’s only natural that he take his son out on the water early. He was in the shop yesterday morning talking about kid carrying solutions. Looks like he found the right carrier to include Jackson in the game. Somewhere I’ve got an old photo of my wife holding a 50# King Salmon. Back in 1994, my cell phone...

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. With our low and clear water, a big old Thingamabobber or Air Lock indicator is not going to go undetected by our piscatorial adversaries. They will simply laugh, close their mouths and let your stuff drift past. Then they will go back to chomping all the delicate morsels drifting their way. If you are fishing from a boat and drifting the deeper water, fine. You can bobber away and still get into fish. If however, you are wading the juicy skinny runs and riffled water where many fish are feeding right now, you need to lighten your presentation. This chunky brown ignored my JuJu Baetis dropper and ate the #14 Hi Vis Parachute. I’m ok with that. I’d prefer they eat the indicator fly all day long. Depending on water depth and velocity, run your dropper from 8" to 36". 18" was perfect for th...

Weather has been amazing this past week and fishing on the Coeur d’Alene and some of its smaller tribs has been excellent. It feels like July up there and those fish have been eating everything from small streamers and nymphs in the morning to Salmon Flies and Adams in the afternoon. Our favorite patterns have been Hippie Stomper’s, Bloom’s Ant’s, and a gold Chubby Chernobyl! No need to nymph on the smaller waters, unless you really want to make it a numbers game. A small dropper off your dry will help scoop up a few of those fish skittish about eating something off the surface. Adding a dropper on the big river is key however. Most anglers have been doing well with a small mayfly or stonefly hung beneath their dry. A double nymph rig has been very effective as well. In our experience, the fishing has still been a little slow i...

The Missouri is fishing extremely well right now.  BWO’s is all the rage this week.  Make sure to bring a dry fly pattern you can see as your front fly and then bring a bunch of CDC emergers to tie behind it because lots of fish are finning for emergers.  Just ask Joe in the shop as he was with us last night, Fred’s been out too.  Fish are pretty choosy so fish Missouri acceptable patterns.  If you are unsure what that means then visit Joe and Fred in the shop.  A few fish will eat an Adams or one of the parachutes and could be a good lead fly but from our experience, and again last night if you can fish the realistic bugs they are eating them better (ask Joe to elaborate as he had some firsthand experiments going on last night). If you are nymphing try a caddis nymph as your high nymph and a PT or variant PT as your bottom ny...

Below are the latest standings for the Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club's Spring K&K Derby. Remember, derby tickets are available at North 40 Fly Shop and the derby lasts until Saturday. Standings as of April 29th Kokanee Ranking Trevor Walkington - Weight: 0.44lbs. - Length: 11.5 inches. Junior Division Ranking Dylan Moore - Weight: 6.06lbs. - Length: 25.25 inches. Joe Kasperson - Weight: 1.14lbs. - Length: 15 inches. Tatum Hartley - Weight: 0.80lbs. - Length: 14 inches. Rainbow Ranking Derek Blanchard - Weight: 21.16lbs. - Length: 34.5 inches. Vern Scott - Weight: 20.5lbs. - Length: 34 inches. Randy Vanderkolk - Weight: 16.66lbs. - Length: 34.75 inches. Kevin Reiber - Weight: 16.42lbs. - Length: 32.5 inches. Cory LaRue - Weight: 15.6lbs. - Length: 33.5 inches. Mackinaw Ranking Edwin Dickson - Weight: 23.58lbs. - Length: 38 inches. B...