Dark Tuna:
My daughter and I are looking for a camp site near some kayak fishing lakes in NW Montana. We're not looking for deep water, but a possible trout/bass/kokanee site surrounded by places we can explore by foot or truck...
First place that pops out in a basic search is Lary Mary Ronan State Park, if that's any help slimming down the million and a half options.
Any suggestions for "must go" or "must not go" places in that part of the state?
Thanks in advance!
bb2fish:
I wish I would have paid more attention as a kid growing up in NW Montana, then maybe I could recommend some places to fish. All I can remember is that we went places and caught fish!! ;D :banjo:
I think Ashley Lake was one: https://www.visitmt.com/listings/general/lake/ashley-lake.html Another might be Little Bitterroot Lake. https://www.fishidy.com/map/us/montana/little-bitterroot-lake I did quite a bit of dock fishing on Flathead Lake -- there are a million places to go just on that body of water alone!
Good Luck and have a wonderful trip.
pmmpete:
If you will be in Montana in the second half of July or the first half of August, the lake whitefish should be biting on Flathead Lake. This involves anchoring and jigging in 55-70 feet of water, often only a short distance from a launch site. Lake whitefish are fun to catch and very tasty, and you can hope to catch a bunch of them in the 20 inch range and bigger. The limit on Flathead Lake is one hundred fish per day or in possession, because there are a lot of lake whitefish in the lake. You may pick up some lake trout while jigging for lake whitefish. Good places to fish for them from a kayak are from Big Arm State Park and the fishing access northwest of Elmo, and in the narrows area, because you can fish pretty close to a launch site.
Flathead Lake is a big lake with reaches of up to 28 miles, and wind and waves can brew up quickly on the lake. So avoid Flathead Lake on days which are predicted to be windy, and have a game plan for fishing other lakes in the area if Flathead Lake is predicted to be windy. For example, if you enjoy lake whitefish fishing, and Flathead Lake looks bad, I have heard that there are lake whitefish on Echo Lake, which is located north of Bigfork. There are bass, perch, and other fish in various reservoirs to the south of Flathead Lake. I have not been fishing the lakes in the Kalispell area.
Dark Tuna:
Next week is July 4 week, and being is July 4 is a Wednesday, everybody and their dog is going out.
And so are we (with the dog, even).
Reservations for camp sites were hard to come by which limits our base of operations, but we found a site at Logan State Park on Middle Thomson Lake for 5 nights. Write-ups say it's good for bass, rainbow and brown trout. My Navionics maps show a deep hole > 150 feet in the middle, and a couple others in the 80-100' depth elsewhere in the lake. Anything wonderful patrolling the depths I should seek???
Ashley and Bitterroot are not far away. I'm sure we'll be exploring the area. The lake whitefish sound awful fun to go after, but there's so much in the area I wonder if I would have enough time! I've never sought either whitefish or lake trout, having been weaned on salt water fishing, so if they're on our target list, pointers to info is welcome so I'm carrying close-to-the-right gear without taking the whole garage with me. And my daughter's even more a novice that I and she looks to me for guidance! Lol!
Thanks for the wonderful info!
pmmpete:
It's a bit early for really good lake whitefish fishing, but here's how to fish for them in Flathead Lake: Buy a Zimmer Rattle-D-Zaster about 1.5" long or a similar vertical lead jig. Dark green or light green are good colors. I prefer a pretty heavy lure so I can clearly feel the bottom when jigging. Rig a fly 12"-16" above the jig, either on the leader to the jig or on a separate leader. Bait isn't necessary, but you can put maggots, Berkley Gulp maggots, pieces of worm, or other bait on the jig and the fly. Dick Zimmer at Zimmer Tackle in Pablo can get you set up. Good places to fish in Big Arm are (a) From Big Arm State Park, straight out from the boat ramp and left (north) all along the campground, off the point to the left, and around the point along the north-facing shore, or (b) From the Elmo boat ramp, straight out from the launch site, or left along the shore. Paddle out into 50-70 feet of water, just outside the weed line, and follow that depth, looking for large fish right on the bottom, which will be lake whitefish with some lake trout mixed in. When you find fish, anchor over them or point yourself into the wind and paddle or pedal gently to hold yourself stationary over the bottom. If you see a group of motorboaters jigging, head over and join them. Whitefish fishing is a social sport, motorboaters won't mind if you fish near them, and you can talk with the motorboaters and get advice. Jig gently right above the bottom, tapping the bottom regularly. Occasionally you may want to jerk the jig up 3'-4', which may produce some snagged whitefish. Lake whitefish bite gently, but when you set the hook, they fight like crazy. Bring them in carefully and slowly, as they have delicate mouths. The whitefish will really be biting in a couple weeks when there are lots of baby perch for them to feed on, but I am told they are out there now. You will occasionally pick up lake trout while jigging for lake whitefish. It's predicted to be pretty windy for a couple of days, so I'd wait until about Tuesday, July 3, to try jigging for whitefish. The best fishing is for a couple hours after first light.
There are many other places where you can fish for lake whitefish on Flathead Lake, but I suggest the two I mentioned for kayak fishing because you can catch a lot of fish within a couple hundred yards of the launch sites.
Lake whitefish are very tasty either cooked or smoked. When I fillet lake whitefish, I remove the pin bones by cutting off a strip of meat above the pin bones, and then removing a sliver of meat with the pin bones. You can leave the skin on for smoking, but I remove it from fillets for cooking. Unfortunately there aren't any fish cleaning stations on Big Arm. Here's a couple pictures of Amik fishing for lake whitefish in front of Big Arm State Park.
If you want to try jigging for lake trout on the bottom in 180-230 feet of water, the rig and jigging technique are similar, but you'll need a bigger lure to get down faster, and you'll want to put a small piece of cut bait, perhaps one inch square, on your lure. Again, Zimmer can set you up.