Monday, June 15, 2009

Drawing for Sheep, Goat and Moose Available

The drawing for sheep, goat and moose are now available on the FWP website. I did not draw. Maybe you'll be luckier than I was. Well you still have an opportunity in the supertag drawings.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Carping Good Time

The Montana Bowhunters annual carp shoot was a big hit with the winning team collecting 162 carp. Man that's a ton of carp. Also think about how many times you have to shoot to come up with that many fish!

I took my canoe and and an electric trolling motor to cruise some of the back bays in search of the elusive carp. I tell you I must have shot at least 100 times. FINALLY, thanks to some help from a bowhunter in Anaconda, I learned to shoot shoot 1 foot to 1 and a half feet below the fish! I shot 3 of them slimy buggers and I earned every one of them. THANK YOU DAVE!

If you're going to shoot carp here's what I would recommend:

  1. Use a recurve You will acutally get more shots with this set-up and shooting a tab or glove

  2. Lighten up If you end up using a compound lighten the poundage on the bow. You certainly don't need to be cranking out 300 plus feet per second shoot at angle into the lake bottom. Not unless you enjoy having your arrow stuck in the mud and trying to wrangle it out.

  3. Give up the Sites The sites on your bow are pretty much useless trying to look through a peep with the glare of the water is very difficult. So bag the sites and shoot instinctively.

  4. Pair up with a Buddy You can take turns on spotting fish gives you a break from time to time

  5. Join Montana Bowhunters It's a fun group of people that enjoy shooting and getting out to the field!



Friday, June 12, 2009

Salmon Flies are Here


Salmon Flies have been spotted on the Lower Madison and rumors are running amoung the tight lipped crowd on the Big Hole that these big bugs have arrived there as well. We'll of course confirm this later this weekend or on Monday! Good fishing.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Tongue River Reservoir Fishing Day 3

It rained hard all night. It looks like it's starting to snow. Temps dropped down to 35 degrees. Definitely put the bite down. I decided to head out and not fish in the snow and sleet.

I checked out the Tongue River Reservoir Marina. It has just about everything you can think of for a well equipped convenience store. It also has minnows, night crawlers, and leeches for sale. They rent pontoon boats too. They also have a varitey of lures, hooks, and assorted fishing gear.

The state did a great job of creating this campground lots of spots including 40 with electrical. If you are looking for more remote camping go below the dam. The spots there are by the river and there aren't as many people around. There was only one camp trailer parked below the dam.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Tongue River Reservoir Fishing Day 2

Woke up last night to a constant rain. The tent campers decided to call it quits. I can't imagine that they got away without getting wet. The water must have come up 4 inches last night. Wow.

I fished today below the dam with my fly rod just to check it out. I only managed to catch 1 walleye. I came back up to the lake and grabbed my bow to shoot some carp in the back bays. I rigged everything up and found a great back bay loaded with carp. You can simply wade into the shallows and shoot them from the shore or in 1-2 feet of water. On my first shot my arrow hit something and broke the nock off. Urrrgh. So my bow fishing is over for the day.

I did fish the lake later that evening. I caught 3 crappie, 2 small mouth bass, 2 sunfish. The bite was very slow! Windy today too.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Tongue River Reservoir Fishing Day 1

This is the first time I fished the Tongue River Reservoir. What a fishery! I caught 10 fish from the bank the first time I had fished this place. I caught 4 Crappie, 3 Sunfish, 2 Bullheads, and 1 Walleye. The water is very high and fishing from the bank is challenging as there isn't really a flat spot where the water meets the land.

Due to heavy rains the water is coming in very fast here and going out very slow. I think someone told me that over 4,000 cfs is coming in every day and they are letting about 400 cfs out of the reservoir. So conditions the conditions you'll find at the lake will be high water with the back bays flooded and high.

The bite for crappie is slow. Due to the recent colder weather the water temps are going down not up. Bummer.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The Lakes Are Fishing Hot

Many higher mountain lakes are beginning to lose their ice and the fishing on them is very, very good. On Sunday I fished Hyalite Lake above Bozeman. I caught 7 cutthroats and 1 grayling.

The grayling that I caught was 18 inches long and I couldn't get both my hands around the girth. It was a great fish unfortunately I didn't have my camera. Bummer!

All the cuts were about the same size from 15-17 inches. They were biting below the surface on some soft hackles and san juan worms.

So look around at some lakes in your area and get out and it em!