New from Montana!

Hey everyone,
I have been lurking on here for a little while and decided to finally join. It has been hard to find a forum with a decent Montana section! So, a little about me. I got into kayak fishing last fall and started off with a Jackson cuda 14. After wanting a Hobie for a little while and getting the most ridiculous deal ever, I purchased a pro angler 14 and love it! Right now I mainly catch rainbow trout and pike, but want to try to get into Lake trout in the spring, my goal is to catch a 30+ inch Lake trout from my kayak. Well, that is pretty much everything about me!

Where do you live, mtmountainman2?  We should hook up for some fishing.  There are surprisingly few kayak anglers in Montana.

I live in Great Falls, but am more than willing to travel and would totally be game for some fishing! I also think many Montanans don't know how to use the internet, there is not a whole lot of information on fishing in Montana. I see you live in Missoula, is there many places to fish for lake trout around there?

I see you live in Missoula, is there many places to fish for lake trout around there?

There are lake trout in Flathead Lake and most of the lakes above Flathead Lake, including Swan Lake, Lindbergh Lake, Whitefish Lake, McDonald Lake, Bowman Lake, and Kintla Lake.  I haven't fished for lake trout on the east side of the mountains yet.  For lake trout fishing, you'll need to mount a downrigger on your Pro Angler.  And a downrigger is a great way to fish for other fish such as kokanee.  For a description of how I mounted a Cannon Lake-Troll downrigger on my Revolution, and why I mounted it that way, see http://www.yakfisher.net/smffiles/index.php?topic=9918.0 .  That is a spiffed-up version of a posting I made earlier on this forum.

About a month ago I was visiting a friend in Libby, MT. So, we fished Bull lake, Lake Koocanusa, Savage lake and the Kootenai river. We used dipsy divers in Koocanusa and caught several Kokanee. We were going for the Kamloop Rainbows, but didn't have much luck, it was still a little too early in the fall for them. I quickly learned that I wanted a downrigger. When I get around to ordering one, I will probably find a way to mount it to the h-rail system. When we were fishing the Kootenai, we snagged a ton of them while they were spawning. It isn't my favorite method of fishing, but it was nice catching really nice sized Kokanee. I also heard the Mcgreger lake had good lake trout fishing, we just went there to catch their huge crawdads.

Sounds like a fun trip!  I haven't fished those northwest Montana lakes yet.  Let me know if you're coming over this way for some fishing, although I'll be somewhat distracted by the big game hunting season, and not too long after that the lakes will start icing up, and it'll be time to switch to ice fishing and other winter activities.

Will do! Maybe we can plan a lake trout fishing trip in the spring. Most of my friends have switched over to big game hunting already. I would love to get out and do some hunting, but I broke my ankle this summer and it has taken a long time to heal, so I will probably take it pretty easy. Are there many kayak fisherman in Missoula? I always have people make funny comments when I am out on the lake in my kayak and I have a bigger fish finder than their larger boats.

Are there many kayak fisherman in Missoula?

Nope.