Giant Fish of Land of Giants
Monday I was back at LOG with long-time angler Mark, and his wife Maryke. A big weather change brought much cooler temps and lots of wind today. I had a fleece and full rain gear on when we left the marina and didn’t take it off all day which was a drastic change from the string of high 90’s we have seen.
I’m not sure if it was the strong winds or the big drop in water temps but the fishing proved a little tough early. Mark broke one off on the hook set during our first pass, but we had to search around after that with different drifts and flies because the trout were not nearly as grabby as the past couple of days.
Although the wind was blowing so hard it was extremely difficult to get any kind of drift or control the boat in parts of the river. We finally started to get a pattern up by the dam. Mark hooked a couple and then landed a big, gorgeous bow.
The wind let up a little at that point and we started rolling from there. After that Mark was hooking up at least once on every pass and landed some healthy fat rainbows. It started off a little tough, but we had a nice morning by the time we pulled into lunch.
For the afternoon we made a plan to go out on the lake. Maryke has always joined us on the river over the years, but she doesn’t fly fish. She just enjoys being on the water, reads books, and takes photos for Mark and I.
But she really enjoys eating fish so I told her last year that Holter is a great place to keep a few fish from. The only stipulation was that she would have to catch them herself. So we ran out onto the lake and I rigged Maryke up with a spinning rod and slip bobber while Mark stayed with a fly rod rigged with a leech and callibaetis.
Maryke had a blast with the spinning rod. She was hooked up before I could even change Mark’s flies. The lake was a little slow with the fly rod as Mark only connected with a couple fish in the afternoon, but it was lights out for Maryke.
She didn’t have any trouble bringing a few rainbows to the net for the smoker and Mark and I quickly realized that this will likely be an annual event.
I always have a good time on the water with Mark and Maryke. The wind made things a little tough on us today but we stuck with it and found some great fish.
Giant Fish of Land of Giants
Wednesday was the first of 2 days with returning angler MIck, and this year he brought his son, Sam. It had been a few years since Sam fly fished so we anchored at Beaver Creek and I gave a quick refresher on the basics of float fishing.
After that I moved the boat out into the current and Mick was hooked up immediately. That one got away, but less than a minute later and Sam was tight to his first trout. He did a great job fighting that fish and it wasn’t long before he had a healthy rainbow in the net.
The trout were grabby right out of the gate as Mick hooked 4 and landed one on that first pass. We ran that drift a couple more times and had hook ups on each drift, a brief double along with a couple slab rainbows in the net and a couple smaller ones too.
At that point Sam had a pretty good grasp on what we were trying to do so we motored up to the faster water on the upper river. That water fished very well for us in the morning. Mick landed some beauties up there and Sam tangled with handful of mid-sized fish as we hooked up just about every place that we fished.
After lunch we made a drift through the sunken island and briefly poked a couple. That trend continued in the early afternoon we went back upriver. The fish seemed supercharged for awhile. The guys hooked up on every pass, but the trout were going nuts with long runs and big head shakes.
At one point Sam saw his backing on a fish, but with all those big runs they proved hard to land as fish were breaking off, bending hooks, and just coming unbuttoned on head shakes. It was good action with some big fish, and Mick got us back on track with a bright rainbow into the net.
Then we made it all the way up to the dam with hook ups on every pass before Mick came tight on a very heavy fish. It was a big slob rainbow that probably weighed 6 pounds. Right after that Sam landed one that was shorter but equally as fat.
Late in the afternoon our landing percentage went back up as we boated a few on the last couple passes including a colorful rainbow for Sam.
We finished the day with a long drift through sunken island and Sam tagged one more at the bottom of that run. It was good fishing from start to finish today and Sam might be a little spoiled at this point with his first day of fly fishing in Montana at LOG.
Giant Fish of Land of Giants
Mick and Sam met me a little earlier today and we had to the upper river all to ourselves for about an hour. The fish were eating right away this morning and after we worked out a couple of kinks the guys started putting nice rainbows in the net.
Mick was pretty steady through the morning and averaged a solid fish on each pass. Sam was getting more hook ups but the trout proved a little tough to land in the early going.
He kept working on his hook set and fish fighting skills and started to close the deal on some good rainbows. Then he hooked into a heavy fish that shot straight upriver. I started chasing it with the motor and the fish still ran into Sam’s backing and then eventually wedged the line in a rock.
That usually doesn’t work out well, but we kept at it and the line finally came free of the rock and Sam was still attached to a fish. Then it went to other side of the river and we had to chase it that way. When I finally got a look at it I could see it was a big brown.
Sam made all the right moves and we put a monster brown trout in the net. It was a gorgeous fish, a big female just barely short of 24″. Sam’s day was made at that point. We had plans to do lunch down in the Gates of the Mountains so we ran out onto the lake to check the callibaetis hatch.
There weren’t many bugs, but we fished for about 20 minutes and Mick landed two bruiser rainbows. After lunch there were more bugs around so we gave it another shot.
Mick hooked into a couple more and landed one that went nearly to his backing while Sam had a healthy fish on that just came unbuttoned. The wind had died at that point so we headed back into the river to finish the day.
On our first pass up there we hooked 3 and Sam landed two fat rainbows. There were hook ups on every pass after that, some got away and others hit the net.
We made a long drift to finish the day and Mick capped it off with one more thick rainbow at the bottom of that run.
I’ve enjoyed fishing with Mick for years and it was great to be on the water with Sam. He hasn’t fly fished a lot, but he did very well the last two days and I look forward to fishing with him again.
Giant Fish of Land of Giants
Friday I fished with long-time angler Alan, and he brought his friend, Darrin. Darrin has lived in Helena for years, fly fishes extensively, and it was immediately clear that he knew how to get a good drift.
We started off on the upper river and pretty much had the place to ourselves for most of the morning. I’m not sure how to accurately describe the fishing today because it was absolutely insane! Within seconds of his flies hitting the water Darrin was hooked up and moments later Alan was tight to a fish as well.
And that scenario played on repeat pretty much all day long. Every single pass there were multiple hook ups. I didn’t keep track, but I know the guys were well in the double digits on the number of doubles they had.
A fish would go shooting into the other anglers territory and they would just switch sides of the boat to fish and a lot of those times they would hook up too. Fish of all sizes were eating today.
There were a couple little guys, plenty of those mid-sized rainbows, and some true brutes too. Both Alan and Darrin saw their backing today, and while we had a number of those hard fighters get away, there were a bunch that hit the net too.
The upper river and the dam were lights out good, the slower water around the corner was solid with some big fish and we even tagged 3 down at the sunken island when we slid down for lunch.
Both Darrin and Alan landed several thick slabs that went 20-22″. The highlights were a super fat rainbow for Darrin that had to be close to 6 pounds and a stunning 23″ male brown trout that Alan put in the net.
That brown made a big run upstream, got the line wedged in the rocks but Alan didn’t give up and it all worked out. It was so good that near the end of the day I just switched up their rigs to see if we could get them on some different flies.
Then we focused on water that we hadn’t fished all day and it still produced a bunch of hook ups, a couple doubles, and some big bows to the boat. Alan finished up on a hot streak with 3 solid rainbows on our last pass of the day.
Today was the best fishing I’ve seen at LOG this summer and it was a blast sharing it with Alan and Darrin.
