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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Good Bear

I saw this bear up close and personal last week. Nice bear looks like a mature boar with wide feet, long legs, blocky face and straight back. I got up to 30 yards on this guy. Unfortunately he was on the Blackfeet Reservation. I could hunt him for $1,500.

Blackfeet Nation Fishing Trip

In the nearly fifteen years I’ve lived in Montana, one of the things that’s been on my to-do list was: “I should go up north and fish on the Blackfeet Reservation.” Like many of you, I’ve heard of the monster rainbows that inhabit the lakes on the Blackfeet tribal lands. As the years have gone by, I just never got it done. During this past winter, I vowed this year was going to be different, so I contacted Joe Kipp of Morning Star Outfitters.

Joe is member of the Blackfeet tribe and guides both fisherman and hunters. Yes, non-members can hunt on tribal lands, too—contact Joe at 406-338-2735 or Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife at 406-338-7207. Only members of the Blackfeet Nation are allowed to guide on tribal lands. Joe was one of the first guides when the program was set up in 1985. He has a lot of experience and knows intricacies of fishing the lakes that will put you in the right place to catch these monster fish.

The Blackfeet Fishery took a hit during the drought years that led to many lakes being unfishable due to low water conditions. The drought kept pressure on the few lakes that were open and impacted the amount of trophy fish in the lakes.

However in 2007, a full time fisheries biologist, Toby Taber, was hired to more closely monitor the Blackfeet Fisheries. There are more than 1,200 miles of streams and 11,000 acres of lakes occurring on the tribal lands, so Toby has his hands full. One of the items on Toby’s agenda was to conduct a fishery population survey on thirteen of the lakes on the Blackfeet Nation. As a result of this survey, many popular lakes such as Duck, Mitten, Mission, and Kip were stocked in 2008 to much higher levels than in the past years, in some cases doubling the number of fish that were stocked. This should pay off handsomely in the future given the fish growth rate is approximately one inch per month for the first two years in the fishery.

The day I fished with Joe I landed four fish, ranging somewhere in the 2-3 lb. range. As Joe said to me, “You don’t travel this far to catch 2 lb. fish. Let’s go look for some bigger ones”. This fisherman was very happy catching fish in the 2-3 lb. range!


One of Joe’s clients who fished the day before landed 50 of these rainbows! Why do I always hear, “Should have been here yesterday!” He had a tough time casting as his arm was still fatigued from fighting those big rainbows.

Hiring a guide for one or two days can be a great way to learn the lakes and how to fish them. This can also save you time and in the long run, money. It may also send you home with some fish instead of a stringer of frustration. I know the day I spent with Joe Kipp will be a memorable one for me. The fishing was great, but so was the opportunity to explore the Blackfeet culture and visit some beautiful parts of the nation. Thanks Joe!

If you fish without a guide, be prepared to bring all your gear—tippet, leader, weight, hooks, etc. as the local IGA has a very limited amount of fishing equipment. There are no fly shops located in Browning. However, Duck Lake Lodge has a good assortment of locally tied flies and is located three miles from Duck Lake. Visit their website at http://www.montanasducklakelodge.com/ . Be sure to allow for time to purchase a tribal fishing license. These can be obtained from guides, Teeples IGA and Duck Lake Lodge.

If you plan on fly fishing take a sinking fly line. Not only will it help get your flies down to the fish, it will also help you cast easier in the ever present wind. For flies, look at bringing black and brown leeches in sizes 2-6, scuds, and wooly buggers in an assortment of colors.

One thing is for sure: this country is wild, open and beautiful. It’s hard to find a better view than when fishing in one of 20 lakes that this area has to offer. So take the time to head up north and spend some time fishing on the Blackfeet Nation. I’ve never fished someplace I had a harder time leaving.

Blackfoot Reservation Fishing Report

We've all heard of the MONSTER fish that the Blackfoot Reservation holds. So I thought I'd up date you on what is happening up north. It's not too late to catch the big fish in the shallows!

Joe Kipp of Morningstar Outfiitters filed this fishing report to SportsmensAccess.com.

I will be fishing with Joe on Monday, so check back here to see how we do!

Fishing Report

Mission Lake
Fishing is slow but consistent. Water is good color and fish are +5 lb. This is Joe's recommendation for the best place to catch a monster. He also cautioned that you will get few hookups, but the ones you do hook into will be big.

Kipp Lake
Kipp is full for the first time in many years. The water is the color of tea. The bite is on with fish in shallows. The average fish here are in the 3-1/2 lb. range. This is also a place where you can hook into a monster.

Hidden, Dog Gun, Mittens and Four Horns Lakes
All fishing fair. The water quality is good with some fish in the shallows.

Duck Lake
Fishing is fair now with most fish still off the color change. Water quality (visibility) is the best of all the lakes and sight fishing should start in a few days.
The fish will be smaller than Kipp or Mission but the clarity of the water will allow for more fish to be caught.The average fish here are 2-1/2 lb. The biggest fish tend to "only" be in the 4-1/2 lb. range.

ONLY 4-1/2 lb. Really? What a bummer, huh!