MONTANA PLACES AND PEOPLE - SERIES 3 - FISHING

Obviously, for me, the closest place to search for trout is Georgetown Lake where we rent! Montana stocks the lake heavily, like 250,000 rainbows to satisfy the anglers. Most are taken during ice fishing I am told. These 10-12"er's grow to 16" average pretty quickly on shrimp and plentiful bugs. You can fish the lake by regular boat, float tube or just walk the shore line like I like to do to cast to a cruising "pig"!
This a decent "Bow" who took a damsel fly!! The trout go nuts when the damsels are doing their mating dance on the water. Fish fly out of the water trying to inhale one!! This when Louie calls them the "Goofy Bastards" since we haven't come up with dancing dry fly yet! Can be maddening!!
The other fly that comes after the damsels is the "Callebaetis" - a pretty 1/2" mayfly that hatches from the weeds and comes to the surface to dry its wings before flying off. They are most vulnerable during this time as cruising trout sip them in before they can escape! After mating, they flop to the lake surface to lay their eggs and die and become "spinners"! Again, an easy meal for cruising trout!
These are 2 of my hand tied patterns to imitate the 2 hatches!! Ant patterns and the old "Humpy" are good too!!

Lake fishing is my least favorite as you just kind of hang around and hope a cruising trout finds and likes your bug!! Kind of like watching paint dry a lot of days but when the trout are on, it can be a lot of fun!!

Next, large and small stream fishing!! I had a good day today on the Clark Fork hopper fishing!

On the way home, I stopped at "Uncle Bucks Bar" to wet the whistle! A grasshopper somehow followed me in and hopped up on the bar! The Bar Tender finally noticed the bug sitting there and said, "You know we have a drink named after you!" "You have a drink named BOB" said the hopper!!! OH!!! TROUT