Salmonfly (Pteronarcys californica) from the Big Hole in June
Wapiti Waters spent a lot of time on the Big Hole River this spring and early summer. Jack began his guiding career in the early 1980’s on the Big Hole with the Complete Fly Fisher. He loves the high valley and clear, beautiful Big Hole River. It is one of many rivers he fishes and he knows it well.
See a slideshow below for a few photos from this spring and early summer. Something you should know, if you fish the Big Hole River in June, bring potent and ample amounts of mosquito dope and cover yourself well with clothing. The mosquitoes are plentiful and BIG. But, the fishing and scenery is worth putting up with these pests.
This post is going back in time a bit, but worth it. Derek Goldman and Joe Goertzen floated the Smith River May 29 through June 2 and, in spite of rain, had a great time. The two main wrinkles were: trying to stay dry and fishing was not so good.
Derek said, “the Smith was blown out (1,800 cfs!) and not fishing well; same for the tributaries. Oh well. It rained three of the days, but not all day so we were able to dry things out. Still a great trip and Joe caught some fish.”
Derek took the photos of Joe on the Smith. Joe Goertzen, pronounced GURT-zen, is a Missoula artist, businessman and owner of Goertzen Adventure Equipment – “handmade in Missoula.”
Goertzen Adventure Equipment combines vintage appeal with modern creativity. Like your favorite pair of jeans, Adventure Equipment gains character with use and is rugged enough to pass on to your grandchildren. His company takes great pride in the design and construction of their products and strive to produce one-of-a-kind and ultimately useful equipment.
An added advantage in buying from them is the excellent service and product support. If you have any problems or need alterations, they will repair all of the products in a timely manner.
Joe welcomes custom orders and ideas you may have for innovative products.
This blog entry has many topics. Enter Frontier Packaging, Inc located in Seattle, Washington. Providing excellent products with hard work and dedication merits a Montana fishing get-away. Add, a small corporate meeting at a comfortable lodge. Last ingredient, the Bitterroot River and trout fishing. The result is a successful corporate retreat that was also casual and fun.
Wapiti Waters has fished with company personnel from Frontier Packaging before, but this June a larger group came to the Bitterroot and stayed at the Chief Joseph Guest Ranch in Darby, Montana. The ranch is historic, beautiful, well-managed and, to top it all off, located south of Darby near the banks of the upper Bitterroot River.
Frontier Packaging was established in 1985 and is a Seattle-based manufacturer and distributor of quality packaging materials throughout Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and beyond. They specialize in providing innovative and efficient packaging solutions to the Northwest region’s internationally-renowned seafood, food, beverage, and agriculture industries. Visit their website to learn more about them – www.FrontierPackaging.com.
Now, when you are staying at Chief Joseph Ranch near the Bitterroot, you have to fish. Not only was the retreat successful, so was the fishing. See the slideshow below for photos.
Jay Evans donated a bass fishing trip to Bitterroot Trout Unlimited. Doug Nation and Jack Mauer “bit” on the trip. Jay, Doug and Jack fished the Noxon Reservoir on the Clark Fork River in early May of this year. The water temperatures were in the mid 50 degree range and the water was clear (no big run-off yet). Both smallmouth and largemouth bass were well into the pre-spawn stage. A few weeks earlier Jay and a friend caught about 40 bass staging on main lake points (mostly 2-3 lb males, both small and large mouth) and saw a few big females starting to move up shallow (4-5 lb smallmouth and a 6 lb largemouth). The larger fish were very spooky and would not bite and according to Jay this is often the case when they first come up to the shallows.
Jay also spotted a couple areas with a bunch of 15-25 lb pike. It would be fun to fish for them with a fly rod! But that didn’t happen on this trip.
Jack visited his mother and sister last week and had the opportunity to fish with Kyle on the James River. Visit Kyle’s website to see more about him, his rivers and his fishing outfitting business. If you don’t know about longboats, give Kyle a call. Jack really enjoyed his day. Check out www.longboatoutfitters.com and you will see why; professional, knowledgeable, experienced, organized and the list goes on. Jack, as an outfitter himself, sets high standards and he thinks very highly of Kyle. Thanks! and we hope to see you up here one of these days!
