For The Love Of This Sport

I had a great day of fishing with good friend Mark Baker. We spent the morning switching between the nymph and Hopper rod until I was convinced the fish were looking up. We spent most of the day casually discussing his science experiment. Recently we have toyed with several different shades of Hopper patterns and until today I was not convinced there was a king.
Mark has taken different Hoppers, placed them in a fish tank with different colored back drops, with light at different angles and then from below under a glass table, photographed the results. Tomorrow he will produce the end results. I will share this information with his permission of course. This sort of effort takes a serious fly fisherman to have patience for the love of this sport. I found it interesting what he had discovered in his findings.
The Hopper fishing continues to be strong as is evidence from Marks Brown (one of many) caught and released safely today on the Upper Madison. ***Warning*** If you are fishing with Baker, don't let him give you his fish for a photo op!
Gentlemen, and you know who you are, Mark has two weeks left of Spring training so bring your A game to Montana in September. We are moving over to the Yellowstone for the next few days and will keep you updated on all of the action.

It was the hat!

Spent a fun day on the river with Jim and Kendrick. Upper Madison was kind to produce this fish for her. Heading back very early in the morning to cash in on some solitude. Will keep you posted on all things relevant to fly fishing Southwestern Montana with CK Outfitters

Quality Time At The Vise

After spending the last few days in the scorching heat, I took the day off to spend some quality time indoors at the vise. Today is much cooler with a few rain showers. This next week looks to be comfortable on the river with temps back down in the high 70's. With cooler weather and fall approaching, I can't help but think about those big browns chasing streamers!

Hopper fishing continues to be good on our area rivers with fish looking for a big bite trailed by either an ant or beetle. As always we will keep you up to date with current fishing reports as we begin to make the transition into Fall.

Locust explosion!

I don't know if any of you have kicked around the grasses near the Upper Madison R. recently. Holy hoppers! I had to be careful driving the back road to Varney bridge this morning. There is a slick greasy layer of hopper guts covering the roadway. *Use caution when racing to the river! When we got off the river the grill on the Tundra looked like a hopper eating machine. OK, here goes. The hopper fishing is epic! We didn't catch anything huge but what we lacked in size we made up for in numbers. We had consistent action from ramp to ramp.

Crawdad Feast

Yesterday was hands down the best "Big Fish" day I have had on the river this season. By the looks of these two of several fish caught it is no surprise we are back on the Lower Madison. My brother Barry was rockin' straight out of the gate. Baker eased into his day and kept adding to his stats with a fat 19" rainbow and then nailed a 22" brown. This fish inhaled a size 2 copper zonker but most fish had the crawdad on their mind. The sun was out which was a pleasant relief from the soaking rain on Friday. What a great weekend of fly fishing!

Smokin'!

I had the great pleasure of fishing with my brother Barry today. For a guy who has spin fished a lot but only touched a fly rod a couple of times, he did a fantastic job on the river today! Barry just gets it. Not only does he get fishing and what it's all about but what's important in life. I'm looking forward to fishing with him again tomorrow and good friend Mark Baker.

Anna Hoppers

We fished another well rested favorite piece of water yesterday with positive results. Nymphing produced in the morning and then the Hopper bite turned on! The other two guide, Blaine and Ben did well fishing a Hopper dropper combo right out of the gate. Fish were crushing a large grand hopper in the afternoon. We got a few on the dropper but the fish seemed to be on the lookout for a big bite of food.

Baker's Dozen

The Upper Yellowstone has been great as of late. Fish that are not native are crushing hoppers. The natives are slow rollin' on terrestrials. Monday we fished down low in the way of Grey Bear > Otter Creek. We had a slow morning with one big boy hooked but never seen again. The afternoon picked up for us fishing a hopper and beetle. Looks as though this beautiful weather is going to hold out for awhile.

Open up and say ahhh

New moon? Two days after a new moon this fish crushed a copper zonker very early in the morning. It was a fun day with many laughs and I'm looking forward to our next outing.

Rockin' The Rivers 09"

It's Rockin' the Rivers weekend here in Montana. Instead of checking out the headlining band Tesla, we opted for some fishing on a well rested favorite section of river. The rainbow bite was on and will continue to get better from here on out. As the moon begins to close up I anticipate the Big Brown bite to improve as well. This next week looks to be beautiful with sunshine and temps in the low 80's.

First Time Fly Rodder!

Just got off the water with friends Frank & Sandy Eggars. This is a Grandmother of 5 and her first time to touch a fly pole (rod). I was giving Sandy some casting instruction when the shuttle Nazis showed up. We had to hurry and hit the river to keep the peace. After the shuttle driver finished his morning bloody he nearly sank my truck in the Yellowstone by throwing it in reverse. It was now time to move the instruction to the river. Hands on training is always the best anyway. I got Sandy dialed in and she caught a few bones of the Stone before she hooked this beautiful rainbow. It was a pleasure fishing with these two and cannot wait until we do it again!

21 Mile Marathon Float on the Yellowstone R.

I had a great day fishing Tuesday with good friend and ace guide Blaine Ballard. I'm not going to down play Blaine's performance. He flat out tore them up! I on the other hand did not exactly wear them out but will be back with Blaine's articulated swimmer of a Sex Dungeon. No big browns to speak of to the net but they were definately chasing the streamer. Hopper fishing was good early in the day then died off. The rainbow bite was strong for the rest of the day. We floated Grey Bear > Otter. When we got to the ramp at 3:30 and discovered my rig had not been moved yet, we decided to continue on down to Pelican. We ripped streamers and beers for another 10 miles. What a great guide's day off.

Whiskey Ditch

This gem was caught in a no name creek West of Bozeman on Sunday. Fish gobbled a hopper and was quickly released safely. This weeks weather looks to be beautiful and Hopper fishing is gaining steam! This is a great time to be fishing in Southwestern Montana.