Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing Recent "Hopper Fest" In Montana High Lake

On September 15th my longtime friend and former workmate (who lives in Arizona much of the year) was travelling past my home here in SW Montana and he stopped by and we decided to "go fishin".
I am glad we did.
I had heard a "tip" from a trusted fishing friend about a high lake that had great fishing of recent.
The hurdles were, it was an hour and 40 minutes of "hard driving" and a bit of 4 wheeling to get to this remote un-named 30 acre lake at 7,500'+ elevation.
We loaded up the VarmintMobile with our pontoon boats and much fly fishing gear, our lunch materials and cold beverages, and off we went.
We saw a "ton" (literally!) of Antelope on our trip to the lake along with lots of Deer and a single Coyote - this kept us entertained on the long trip.
Once to the lake, and my friends pontoon boat inflated and assembled, we headed for the water - my friend with a leech type streamer and I with a well crafted Grasshopper (store bought!).
My friend was into the water first and had his streamer dragging behind his boat by a yard or so and "bango" a 12" Cutthroat Trout hits his streamer and the fight is on right in front of me in the shallows.
I kicked off in my 8' pontoon boat and headed for the far side of the lake where the wind would allow me to cast my dry fly better in a protected bay.
First cast first fish for me.
It was nifty 12" Cutthroat as well.
I had forgotten my net but the release was simple as we had squeezed down our barbed hooks.
It was non-stop action for the next three hours with literally a strike every cast on my Hopper flies.
I was using 2.9 pound leader tippet and lost several flies (poor tying on my part mostly with just one clean break?). I did retrieve one of the lost flies as it came floating to the surface after a minute and I rowed over and got it back.
Lunch was enjoyed to the utmost as we made Turkey and then Ham sandwiches with ice cold beer to help with digestion.
Many topics were discussed starting with the incredible number of fish in this high mountain lake - another topic was that the Cutthroats were not especially thick of body at all - in fact we thought they were on the slender side.
The largest fish brought to net (in my case "lap"!) was 14" but I am certain I had at least two fish on the line that were in the 16"+ range. And I saw several fish strike at my floating Hoppers that appeared also to be in the 16" plus range.
After lunch we headed back out and my friend was now also using floating Hoppers and the bite REALLY went crazy there at 1:00 PM and after.
We fished for two more hours and were "sated".
Plus we had to break-down our gear/boats and begin the long trek back to home for a planned dinner.
For the 5 or 6 hours of fishing I am certain I caught and released about 100 fish and lost another 50+ due to the barbless hooks.
I eventually had to start using the "foam" bodied Grasshoppers as I was out of the more traditional hand built body Hoppers. The foam Hoppers worked every bit as well on this trip as the traditional hand tied body Hoppers did.
My friend also caught several fish on an Elk Hair Caddis - those high mountlain lake Cutthroat Trout were just plain hungry!
Great day in the mountains, great day of fishing and a great day of visiting with my old friend and work partner.
Retired life is GOOD!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VG sounds awesome.. We were in Dillon a couple days, but the smoke was so bad it was miserable.. Great trip you had there..

Sounds great and envious here. Found a new to me stream here recently with 5 ft tall grass probably overhanging 30% of its width. One of those meadow streams that's 6 ft wide and of the same depth. Did not have any hopper patterns along, but was stripped of flies by 4 of the 6 large rainbows I hooked with Gold Ribbed Hare's Ears. Landed numerous smaller ones. Going back in a couple days with some dry hopper/stonefly patterns where I'll drop them over the grass and mostly listen for strikes. Taking a neighboring kid along in an attempt to get him hooked on fly fishing.

Also, how about pics next time?

WyoCoyoteHunter: Sorry you missed the 3 days of "clear" sky - ending a couple days ago. Sadly the smoke is back now and has been for two days.
Sorry I missed you.
I wake up with headaches (I NEVER get headaches!), I have nausea most all day and my eyes burn to no end with the smoke!
Whilst the VarmintWife has no symptoms at all - whats that about? Maybe I am a pussy?
Travel careful.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

1minute: Good for you on mentoring the young fisherman!
And I wish you had not lost those flies/bigger fish!
Big Rainbows in small waters is great sport.
I love central and eastern Oregon - when I was a teenager I worked every summer in the mint and hay fields around Madras and Bend, Oregon. When my cousins and I got a day off we fished the Deschutes and Metolius Rivers.
All of my parents and their kinfolk are from the Baker City and Sumpter ares of eastern Oregon. Take care of your wonderful outdoors there in Oregon - first of all keep the transplanted Canadian Wolves to a MINIMUM!
Good luck when you get back there.
I left my cell phone at the truck while fishing but I have cell phone (E-mail'able) pictures of the lake and our boats I could forward.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Hope you get to doing better VG.. Was nice here, but a tremendous fire broke out south east of here.. Burned 10,000 acers in one night... Next time around.. Have a great fall!!

I'm envious.

The last week of August my hiking buddy and I did our annual trip. Last year we stumbled over a lake that had hundreds of brookies swarming the intake either after cooler water, oxygen, food, or some mix thereof. I heaved panther martins over them and Bill fished bait .. both to no avail. They studiously IGNORED us. This year I took my 6 piece 4 weight pack rod and a clear lake line my GF got me for my b-day last year. I used a red/black leech pattern. Got 8 trout 10-11 inches long in about 30 minutes, then the bite abruptly died. These were my first trout on flies from lakes and it was cool to use the line my GF gave me. All in all, a success.

I hope to go back to that lake during deer season .. throw in a rod of some sort when I go hunt nearby. See if a month and a half and some cooler weather change their appetites.

Tom

VarmintGuy:

Have a good supply of Gold Ribbed Hare's Ears tied and am headed out with the kid tomorrow (Sat). Will try to get some pics if Cookie will let me borrow a camera.

1minute: I bet that will be an expensive camera (judging by the pictures I have she she's taken) so be careful with it.
I was afraid to take my IPhone out in the lake with me for photos of the trout but do have one picture of the lake - I could have sworn I took three pictures of the high mountain lake but only ONE is in my "gallery".
I am still new with that pricey little rig.
Best of luck with the youngster.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

T O M: Best of luck when YOU get back after those Brookies.
And I am happy about your taking up the fly fishing game. I am in my 50th year now and consider myself an avid beginner.
I love to fish the flies (dry and wet) - it seems so much more relaxing and more like "stalking/Hunting" than spin fish or bait fishing of which I find myself doing less and less of the older I get.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
P.S.: I am also happy for you in that you have a thoughtful and outdoors minded girlfriend - you are blessed.

Well, just to be clear, in case I didn't say it right, I'm not at all new to fly fishing. I've been at it 50 years, almost 51. I paid for most of college guiding fishermen .. mostly, though not exclusively, fly fishing. I know what I"m doing but that was all stream fishing with wet flies. Dry flies are something I've only been fussing with the last 10-15 years and only intermittently. What is truly new to me is LAKE fishing with flies.

For the most part, the lakes here don't lend themselves to fly fishing. They're up high, surrounded by heavy brush often hanging over the water, with no opportunity for a back cast. This one particular lake is an exception .. or at least a small fraction of its shoreline is. It's got a band of grassy shorline on one corner. Mostly pretty muddy, hard to get out to where the fish are. But right at the inlet there's a slightly raised ridge jutting out into the lake with strip of open shore behind and off to the side at exactly the right angle to launch a fly past the fish that are schooled in the inlet. It's a unique situation for this area.

In theory you could backpack in a float tube, waders, fins, life jacket, etc. Gotta lug it 5 miles into the wilderness. It's a 10 mile round trip with that stuff on your back to do it as a day hike or you've got to add that to 20-30 pounds of other hiking gear to camp. It's just a bit much. The only people I know who use float tubes, etc there do so quite successfully but they use horses and mules to get their gear / camp into the location.

Generally when I head for the lakes, I pack UL spinning gear. No backcast. For some of the streams that drain the lakes, I'll do tenkara. That works real well for hunting .. I have a tenkara rod that collapses down to 9 inches long. That, a spool of line, a spool of 2# test leader, and a handful of flies tucks in the small side pocket on my day pack absolutely unnoticed 'til I want it. If I find a spot that lends itself to traditional fly fishing when I"m out exploring, I definitely make note of it and return later, but it's not the best for the exploring itself.

Thanks, yes, I am blessed. She's amazing. Don't know what she sees in me, but I've more or less given up on trying to convince her I'm a mistake, now I just try to live up to her delusion.

Tom

I have done quite a bit of float tubing in the state of Montana, from the beauty of the Blackfoot Reservation down to Yellowstone area. I like the way it's like fishing from your easy chair. Used to carry a standard tube for up to 4 miles in to experience some of the wonderful fishing in the areas. I have had a few days where I got skunked, usually going after big trout, but never a bad day even if it rained all day.
You can take a float tube on a lake where you can't get a boat, you are quiet, and if there isn't a big wind very relaxing. Haven't done too much lately even though I have a couple sitting out in the garage. This thread kind of jacks me up to get out there again. Thanks

My response a bit dated, as I just saw this post for the first time, but ,,,,awesome story!