Cornfed and I decided if we are going to continue to spend our weekends chasing steelhead, driving all night, eating unhealthy, sleeping at the cheapest options, and sporting campfire cologne, we should probably see if the girls would like to participate. So we drove to Idaho last weekend with dog, girls, spey rods, and boat for the weekend. I had spent the night tying some patterns with some of the new materials we had in the shop, and had accumulated 3 flies to add to the box by morning (annoyingly unproductive at the vise that night). I initially assumed that spey casting in the cold would be somewhat frustrating, and a little difficult to get the girls charged up about, I was wrong. The girls took it up almost right away, and after a few short river side lessons we were fishing. I couldn't believe how well they were casting for thei...

A few weeks ago we posted on a number of dams going down on some of our Pacific Salmon/Steelhead waters. Here's a Saturday morning explosion that we saw this morning (via Moldychum.com)

Calvin, Erik, KK, John, and the rest of the crew just got back from a few days steelheading on the Clearwater River in Lewiston, ID. I mostly casted while Calvin and Barrett Mattison put on a clinic on actually landing steelhead on the famous stretch of water from Orofino to Lewiston (John Teini also got his first which was pretty awesome!). It was a great trip with a number of guys learning how to use a double hand fly rod for their first time, others getting their first steelhead, some landing multiple steelhead on the fly, and for some it is all about the Effie Burger.  The Effie Tavern is located in old town Lewiston at the bottom of the hill (most of the development has gone up hill), and is not far from the river.  Lucky for us, fleece pants, hoodies, flip flops with wool socks, and stench isn’t too big of a problem at the Eff...

Tonight Toby Tiber from the Blackfoot Reservation delivered a presentation to the Missouri River Fly fishers in a free public meeting all about the state of the fisheries on the different lakes available on the reservation. These lakes include known names in the area such as Duck, Mission, Kip, Fourhorn, Mitton, Dog Gun, Cooper, Goose, and Hidden Lakes. Over the past years 26 lakes have been stocked and 17 lakes are still stocked on a regular basis. Most of these lakes contains rainbows, browns, and cutthroat, and three of the lakes have even been stocked with Grayling. There are a number of streams on the reservation that hold trout as well. The prime fishing season on the reservation is considered to be April and May, however some of the largest fish of the season are caught in September and October, and there are way less crowds in th...

I was sitting on a balcony on Bourbon Street last month with Calvin, KK, Erik, the Trout Shop guys, and who knows who else. I was tired, the night before had been a big evening, and I hadn't even realized the smell associated with the mayhem of the famous street in DT New Orleans. We were there, among many other fly shops, guides, and fly fishing suppliers of course, for the fly fishing retailer show. From the balcony you could see everything happening on the street, seemingly life below the balcony was going by like a time machine compared to our slouched, worn out positions above.  The night before with the same company we swapped stories, talked about good selling gear, argued over which were the best rods, discussed water conditions on the Missouri, but that night we just sat there. So I found it odd that the first time in a long ti...

A couple weeks back now, North 40 Fly Shop was lucky enough to go Bass fishing with Jimmy Houston in Ponderay, ID. He flew in from Oklahoma for the Grand Opening representing Duracell Marine batteries. The fly won that day but if Calvin would have tied a good knots or carried some spinner blades with him it would have been a different story. Calvin, I posted this video for you- Watch and learn. A little something I picked up from Jimmy.

Contrary to popular belief, the flies that you buy from your local flyshop are not always as effective as they’re intended. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of thought that goes into designing flies and most of the time they are intended to be fished during a specific time-frame or hatch. So what is meant by modifying your flies? Fly modifications can be as simple as trimming the length of a wing, to as complicated as adding materials to the fly. I began modifying store bought flies a few years ago while fishing the salmonfly hatch on the Blackfoot River. While helping my buddy, who had very little experience on the oars maneuver through a wave-train, my high riding cat puke had sunken and become a drowned stone. To my surprise there was a 20" brown who thought that was a good looking meal. Instead of turning around and tying on a ...

As the water finally lowers to fishable levels here in North Idaho, I decided to take my family fishing on the upper Coeur d'Alene River. This fishery switched to a Camp R fishery just a few years ago and now the fishing is stellar. Native Westslope Cutthroat reach lengths up to 24'. It is by far my favorite fishery offered near the Ponderay/Sandpoint area. My sister-in-law (Leslie Spohn) became hopelessly addicted to fly fishing during her 5 day stay on the upper river. She landed several fish on dries and plans on continuing to chasing fish on fly with her husband Zach. My son, Landon, who is three years old, caught his first fish on fly as well. Before he was born my father bought him a 6' 2wt rod matched with a reel and line. At first I tried to get Landon to cast without a fly on the end....but he kept asking for his 'lure' so then ...

My dad and I had to make a family trip to South Dakota recently to our family's farmstead near Sisseton, SD. A long drive, lots of window time, and plenty of great conversation later, we found ourselves back across the flat lands of the Dakotas where we could finally see mountains again. In case you haven't driven across eastern Montana and the Dakotas before, it's flat... not kind of flat, like between "Great Falls and Havre flat"... it's so flat that there is no analogy to describe it's flatness flat (A person from Montana their whole life would be impressed by how even the ground is, it's a basketball court or soccer field making paradise). No offense if you lived or live there, I was born there, lived in both North and South Dakota, and proud of it. I will also say that the Dakotas are responsible for a major portion of our countryâ€...