Month Long Trip To Montana

[ozark trout fisher]

In the summer of 2006, my family decided to take a one month long trip to Montana mostly, with stops in South Dakota and Wyoming as well. Our first real destination was the North Tongue River, which is located in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. Small Mepps spinners and panther Martins were the key to duping this stream's cutthroat trout. Several small (extremely wild) tributary streams also fished well, with some pretty large cutthroat. Then we rented a Forest Service cabin on tiny Canyon Creek in the Pioneer Mountains. The cabin had no running water or electricity. The creek was full of brook trout, and more than a few cutthroat, and some pools were beyond beautiful, and produced very satisfactory trout action. The next stop was Middle Thompson Lake, a lowland lake that holds both warmwater and coldwater species. We caught pike and yellow perch, but couldn't land any of the Kokanee or rainbow trout said to be in the lake.

Next, we headed to Cabinet Gorge Reservoir and had much better luck. Fishing mostly from inflatable kayaks near the inlet we caught tons of Yellow Perch and Mountain Whitefish, and some brown trout were caught also. We did keep some whitefish and yellow perch for the frying pan. With some corn meal added, they were very good. All in all, the perch and whitefish provided almost nonstop action on nightcrawlers, and the fact that some trout were mixed in made it all the sweeter. Next, and last fishing stop was Crazy Creek. This particular brook is full of cutthroat trout, as well as some brookies. They are pretty easy to catch, and they liked spinner-flies pretty well. I also landed some endangered Bull Trout, the largest was twenty inches, and closed to three pounds. This was all the sweeter due to the fact that Crazy Creek isn't stocked, and all the trout are wild.

This was a great trip. No, we didn't fish the famous rivers, but the mountain creeks and lakes provided a lot of fun for trout and other species. Every trout angler should make a similar trip in their lifetime.