Montana Fishing and Hunting Blog

Spring Fly Fishing

dranny — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:11:09 +0000

We went fishing on Friday, the weather was nice about 58 degrees and a little windy. We caught a number of fish and some with some size. we had one rainbow at about 3 pounds. We found a honey hole on the way back, but we were already preparing to quit. Caaught a few there and broke off as I was releasing a fish, so I decided to quit. With the light color spots in the gravel bottom of the river, it is apparent the rainbows are starting to spawn.

First Fly Fishing trip of the year

dranny — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:06:07 +0000

Fly Fishing for Trout

We went fly fishing on the Ruby yesterday for our first fly fishing trip of 2011. It was cold, but we had a great time catching fish. This was the first time for Emma fly fishing and she caught 2 or 3 early in the trip. Guide, Erwin Clark shared his expertise to help her natural talent along. Nevaeh, 4 years old, surprised her Nanny with a cast straight out and no tangles. She throws the line up and down stream and all of a sudden she decided she wanted to be out further.

Spring fishing is always good with the Rainbows preparing to spawn. The trout are healthy and strong and the browns held down to the bottom as long as they could when they took the little midge.

Looking forward to a great fishing year, there has been a good snow pack which will provide a good flow of water for the year.

We have openings the end of June, a few spots in July and one week open in August. We hope to have the opportunity to have you come stay with us and FISH.

Elk in February

Sherry Clark — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:02:44 +0000

Elk grazing

We’ve been watching two huge bulls across from the lodge. We see them from the porch in the morning grazing. We still have space available the week of… View our hunting trips now.

Fly fishing on Saturday

dranny — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:45:52 +0000

We only saw a couple sand hill cranes on the way down. We were joined by Erwin’s sister, Edie, and one of her beautiful labs, Tootsie. For me, first cast had a fish. What a great start! I had trouble landing fish, must be my hands were too tired, I cleaned my house the day before. The weather was great, we had some rain showers, but we were under a bridge fishing so this was not a problem. The rain stopped and you would never know it had ever rained. The rest of the day was fabulous weather. We caught a lot of fish, but not as many of the bigger fish. They mostly ranged in the 14 – 18 inch range. Had one nice fish up to the shore ready to pull the hook and he jumped and took both my hooks with him and no picture. Nevaeh is gettting really good, she knows the midge hatch and the mayfly hatch. There was a really good hatch, but we didn’t try any dries even with the fish coming to the surface. We did really well on emergers. Toward the end of the day, they let some water out of the dam and brought the level up. Some moss was floating down, but the fishing remained good. Had to use less weight and not fish as deep. On the way home , we checked the horses and they were all there and looked good, except for the hair that is shedding off. Nevaeh wanted to pet her horse, Jose , but he wasn’t in the mood to put his head in the truck window. The mules, Lucky and Nell, on the other hand would have gotten in with us if we would have opened the door for them. Looking forward to riding. At the horse pasture we saw more mule deer than we have seen in years. Herds of about 50 and there were three of them. On the way home , we found the elk. They have started to move back up the valley to the higher country. There were at least a couple hundred strung across the hill.

Sunday April 11 fishing

dranny — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:15:35 +0000

We started out our day with cloud cover, but good temperatures. As we started down the road , we saw deer, big horn sheep, and antelope. The sheep was with the antelope. We got to the river and we were catching fish. This was a good start. Nevaeh fell in the water and needed to change clothes, so we improvised with

Erwin’s rain coat and an extra shirt we brought. We got to stay and flyfish all day! Erwin would catch fish ever time he casted. He caught so many fish, I got tired of taking pictures. Most of the fish ranged 14 inches with some going 17 and a couple 20 inches. I caught a couple whitefish, which we ususally don’t get. Nevaeh always wants a rainbow fish. The majority of the fish are browns. There was a hatch of mayflies and midges. The fish were coming to the service to feed, it was awesome. We didn’t put on any dry flies , we stuck with emergers and nymphs. After fishing, we went to check the horses and saw a herd of about 30 mule deer. It was a great day in the Ruby Valley of Montana to be fly fishing.

Sunday Fishing

dranny — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:11:51 +0000

As we were leaving the lodge, there were some deer in front of us. We were turning up to the last gate to the main road when we saw some geese in the field in front of us. I took a picture to show the view as we turned onto the main road. A little farther down the road we saw a good herd of deer and then domestic buffalo. As we neared the end of the gravel road , we saw a Big horn sheep. We reached the river about 11 or so and headed to one of my favorite fishing spots. Erwin caught a few and decided to head upstream, but I stayed back to catch a fish before I moved on. I caught a really nice rainbow. Erwin and Nevaeh were catching a few here and there as we headed upstream. I was not connecting, but that was OK it was a great day to be fly fishing. I have another favorite spot and when I reached it, I started catching more fish. One was a big brown. A great day for me. Erwin had headed back and was fishing just below me when I caught the big brown, and he caught a really big brown that was over 20 inches and I had the camera. When we got in the truck to head home, Nevaeh was asleep in 5 minutes. We stopped to check on the horses at winter pasture and the mule named Lucky came over for a snack. He has quite a personality. We saw another herd of deer while we were in the horse pasture. The water is still low and the wind was blowing, but there is no day better than a day on the river fly fishing.

Family Fishing Day

dranny — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:55:58 +0000

We went fishing for the first trip of 2010. Before we left the lodge. the kids had a little snowball fight to start the day. The weather was good, but the fishing was a little slower than we are used to. The water levels were a lot lower than normal. We caught several fish and had a wonderful day. All the kids had a turn reeling in fish and the oldest took on the task of netting the fish. It is a great opportunity to get the kids started with fly fishing and enjoying the outdoors, and best of all, quality family time. When we left the lodge we saw a couple Big Horn Sheep on the way as well as deer and antelope. By the time we started fly fishing, the kids were ready for lunch. We waded upstream a couple miles fly fishing some really great holes along the way. The morning fly fishing was a little slow, but as the day went on and some bugs started to hatch, the fly fishing got better. As you can tell from the photos, the trout , browns, rainbows, and even a cutthroat ranged from 12 to 20 inches.

We are home

dranny — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:20:55 +0000

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are home now. If you have any questions, we are here to answer them. We have a good snowpack this year, so the rivers should fish good all summer. Our first fishermen will be here in April. April is some great flyfishing, even though the Ruby out front is not open yet, we have some great options. This is the time Erwin & I go fly fishing every day we can get away. The rivers are at great levels for wade fishing and rainbows are spawning. The spring and fall are really good fly fishing. July seems to be the prime time and we still have some openings. Hope to see you this year!

Wilderness Pack Trip

dranny — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:54:36 +0000

We are excited about this year’s Ride a Rama pack trip. We will venture off into the Snowcrest mountain range for a week on this exciting wilderness pack trip. We camp out in wall tents, ride over 100 miles. Lots of wildlife to see and the scenery is breathtaking. The dates are August 1st through the 8th. Hope to see you there!