Dry fly season came early to Montana this year, and there’s not doubt it’s kicking over in Washington State, too. One of the best hatches of the year is near, that being the Mother’s Day Caddis and one of the best places to fish it is on Washington’s upper Columbia River.
This fishery came on the radar a couple decades ago when Jack Mitchell landed in Northport, Washington and decided to check out the river. What he found on the upper Columbia was an overlooked trout fishery with some monster rainbow trout included in the mix. In addition, the massive Columbia, flowing out of Canada and into northeastern Washington—about two hours north of Spokane—offered stellar aquatic insect hatches, trout that fought as hard and leapt as high as any others, and nobody was working the water.
Mitchell quickly threw down on several acres near Northport and constructed a spectacular four-bedroom lodge just yards from the Columbia. Fact is, you could pitch Continue reading
Ran across this photo yesterday and snapped a shot of it with the phone. It definitely takes me back in the day.
Note: Not sure when I wrote this or for whom, but I found it while searching my files and thought it would be worth posting. You’ve got a couple months before this hatch hits, but it’s worth thinking about it now and getting those flies in order, or tying some to supplement what you may have lost last year. GT
Ok, there are flakes falling today and the high will be 35, and it doesn’t look better for the rest of the week. But, things are changing here in Missoula, Montana, with the snowbanks slowly creeping away from the edge of my driveway, exposing a little brown grass and everything else that accumulated there this winter, including a few IPA escapees.
If you’ve been around a bit and you fancy yourself a permit junkie, you may recall having seen this a time or two during your escapades. If you haven’t stood over this piece of art you are cheating yourself out of the real deal. Got permit on your mind? Get to this spot. Hints: it’s a permit ok; it’s made out of bottle caps; it would have been fun to help build that supply of caps.
I live in Montana where trout are king. When I travel to Alaska I usually do so for salmon and steelhead, which I can’t find in Big Sky Country. Oh, I’ve leeched up some big fall rainbows on the Kenai Peninsula and the Naknek River, but I’d never really fished early summer around Bristol Bay . . . until last month.