Mike Livingstone
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Zach,
I absolutely agree with your point. Very different over there right now. High water is good for the health of the fish, it’s us, the predator, who has to adjust to conditions. I knew it would be a challenge, but that’s always been a lot of the draw to the sport in the first place. Had a great trip anyway…. by chance , did you get to eat at Club 178, in Bull Shoals ? I’ve been a couple of places where they served Walleye, and it was the bomb there. Reasonable too.
Next trip out to the White may be in the earlier part of the year. One of the locals there recomended that time frame. I agree on the picture gallery there….. I’ve been around a little, and there is not hardly a location that can brag like them.Mike Livingstone
Zach,
just saw your post here about Arkansas. I assume you fished the White. How did you do ?
I was there the week before you went. Worst trip I’ve ever had over there. Fished the White and the Norfork.
We knew the water was high and it would be different than what we were used to. Reports made it sound like fishing was good
and improving as far as the hopper bite went. NEVER had one fish eat a hopper or any other dry the entire week. In fact,
streamers were the only thing we really caught anything on, save for a couple of nymph bites. September had always been
good to us over there, but not this time. It wasn’t just us, the guides were having a tough time with their clients. We caught
a few fish each day, but very few and no size what so ever.Mike,
The Missouri is a fantastic fishery. I’ve been lucky enough to fish it on four different trips. By far the best time we had was during tha caddis hatch in July. The guys at Cross Currents are great. Enjoy the food at Issacs if you go.Zach,
The Missouri river below Craig owns my old Sage rod and, a Bauer reel. We were out about four weeks ago. Two days into the trip, we’re fishing, I hook a nice brown, land him, buddy rows up next to bank, gets my camera out, takes pic, start to release fish, notices he needs extra time to recover so we pay extra attention to the fish. We don’t notice that my slack line that is hanging out of the rear of the boat has grabbed a bush. Not a big deal except that we didn’t anchor and we were concerned with reviving the fish. Don’t remember if I heard it or just noticed that my rod was floating behind the boat as we got caught up in swift current. Talk about pandimonium…My buddy can’t back row quick enough to get to it, I don’t remember what exactly happened to the fish as I thought about swiping at the rod with the long handled net, Watched in horror as it sank out of sight in a deep, dark hole.Probably real lucky my buddy does’nt throw my Nikon out of the boat trying to back row while I’m screaming. Talk about a sick feeling. That’s a real lesson though….pay attention to rod tips hanging out of the boat. I knew that, but we had a distraction that usually does’nt happen.I was determined not to let that ruin the next two weeks and we wound up having a good trip. but I miss my z-axis.Mike,
I really appreciate the response and the maps. Once we are in the area, that will be a nice option to have. The biggest obstacle will be my buddy who may not be in for rowing the drifter across a portion of lake. That would be my idea for fishing that section, going up from the lake at the mouths of the creeks. An early start to the day may be in order here. Once again, thankyou.Mike Livingstone
Thanks Mike,
That’s an interesting tip below Ennis there.Last time I floated the Madison, we did Varney bridge to Eight-mile ford (and turned the canoe over) and enjoyed that stretch although we did not catch a lot of fish. Is there much in the way of foot access on the stretch you mentioned?Hi Mike,
nice pics. I’m coming out on Sept. 20 for a couple of weeks. We are starting out on the Missouri and then heading over to the West Yellowstone area. We were hoping to float the Madison near Ennis. I am a little concerned about water temps. I see your current weather, but I suppose things could spike back upward. what is your take on that?Great report Mike! Looks like you had a great time. Slough Creek is a neat place, I will be through there in late September on our two week trip out west. The bear shots are great.
A collection of music while traveling and fishing is indeed a must for me. John Hiatt, Allman Bros., Eric Clapton, Doobie Bros., North Mississippi Allstars, Dwight Yoakum, Pat Metheny, just to name a few. Sing on.
Dan,
I suppose you have to decide what type water you are mostly going to fish. Sounds like we are in the same part of the country. I have a 15 ft. wooden skiff that we use on the Clinch, South Holston, and some parts of the Hiwassee. Also, the Tocoaa in N.Georgia and looking foward to the Tuckaseegee in N.C. The open design of the boat seems to give more room than a 16 ft. standard drift boat with high sides. I do miss standing up casting sometimes , but of your anchored up, it’s not a problem. This particular boat is very light and manuverable and will not catch the upstream breeze that can come along because of the low profile. While wood has way more character than fiberglass, it is not without it’s problems. After I log off here, I am headed to my buddys woodshop where we replaced four foot of gunnell yesterday that had rotted due to moisture. Hope to be on the South Holston with it on Tuesday for the rest of the week. Hope this helps.Mike,
is there a pretty decent population of pheasants in that area most years? I know it runs in cycles. I’m sure gaining access to some good areas may be tough around there ?Mike Livingstone
That’s what I’m talking about. Great photos and some nice fish. If I lived out there Mike, I would not be worth anything. Bird season,the fishing……what job? But, getting to come out once a year for now keeps my blood flowing. I’ve got some interest among a few buddys about a cast and blast next October. so I’m already looking forward to that. Here at home in East Tennessee, the tailwater fishing is starting to turn on and we’re trying to finish the duck blind, so life is good and getting better every day.
Mike LivingstoneZach, the reports from the White indicate that they are almost back to power pool.Sounds like there will be some wadeable water soon.The flyshop over there says hopper fishing has been good. It looks like I will be over there the last week of September or the first week of October.Gonna pull the boat no matter what though. That is the COE over there afterall!
Thanks Mike, I was taking for granted that it was the East Gallatin.We discussed going to the MZ ranch and accessing it that way, but never had time. Maybe on a future trip.Always fun fishing something new.
Mike Livingstone
Thanks for that report Mike.Love the pic’s. The Ruby is one river I have not fished, nor the East Gallatin. We drove up near the East Gallatin a few weeks ago when we were out, but did not have a chance to fish it. As we passed it at the interstate, it looked very low.I hope you guys get some much needed moisture in those parts.I knew it was pretty dry there before we came out this year and that’s why we chose other places to fish.I miss the area around Dillon.
Mike Livingstone
Mark,
the only reason we expected any hatches is because the local shops talked so much about them.The bad thing about that is, I’ve been at the game long enough to not really believe what those reports say. At any rate, we had a good time there and would go back. We took the time to fish there because of someone we knew well that had fished it before. So do the fish usually leave the river for the lake, or is that something unusual? What time of year would you reccommend next time? We only fished the South Fork for a short time a couple of evenings. Small browns and a few small rainbows. Also, we wanted to do the float through town and did not have time.Would like to rent a boat if possible next time and fish that stretch.Mike Livingstone
Zach, my pic card has around 300 shots on it. I am going to put some of the better ones on here if I can find the time. It’s back to work tomorrow. I have never had much luck posting pics, but will get some help.
Just got back from the two week fishing vacation. Although we fished a lot , it was still relaxing. I appreciate the replys about the North Fork of the Shoshone. That seems to be a moody river. The first day started off with a bang.We walk in to a spot and the fish start gulping hoppers like it’s their last meal. Then the second half of the day gets slow and we notice there are no bugs like we were told we would see. We were above the lake fishing by the way. Spent one more day on same section of river and it was very slow, the low point of the trip. Did manage my nicest Cuttbow though, around 17″. Trailing a nymph off the hopper just invited small fish. The landscape here is beautiful and I would fish here again. We made a trip over around Meeteese on National Forest land to fish a high mountain stream full of brookies and cutthroats. Very few people and some awesome scenery. Spent two days up in the Bighorns fishing for brookies, cutts, and cuttbows.Caught my biggest brookie ever. We actually had more bug hatches up here than we did on the Shoshone. I just remembered that we started this trip with a half day on the lower stretch of Slough Creek in the park. Had some rising fish there and caught some really nice fish. The parking lot up by the campground was very crowded, but we had no one around us for the most part. We ended the trip with four days on the old reliable Bighorn at Ft.Smith. Strange year there as far as timing of the hatches. Pmd’s, midges, and some black caddis. We were treated to a Pmd spinner fall one day. A guide with clients pulled up to a shoal we were on and wanted, believe it or not, to trade some flies. He said if we had some Royal coachman’s or an H&L Variant, that he had some spinner patterns that would “catch every fish in the river”. I believe at that point that every fish in the river was eating. It was a sight. He told us that this did not happen very often. A number 12 spinner pattern he had was deadly. Later after the spinners quit, they fish were on emergers and some duns. Allsaid, we spent five hours on one shoal fishing a hatch. Too much fun.The only nymphing we tried was a number 20 red zebra midge under a hopper and it was hot. The overall size of the fish seemed to be down just a little, but we were very pleased with our time spent here.Hats off to that guide, I believe his name was Eric. What a good guy. He and his clients were a hoot.As always, looking foward to getting back out there.
