Archery Kickoff Coming Soon! BEST OF Captain’s Columns
By angelamontana

Posted: August 17, 2017

If you’re excited about archery season opening, then you will love this BEST OF Captain’s Columns article from the end of August back in 2012 where the Captain talks about how hunters are probably excited about the archery opener and the turkey opener.  Just as it is now, things were pretty dry the five years prior when the Captain wrote this one.  This is the Captain, though, and we all know that the Captain is going to keep fishing for as long as he possibly can in addition to hunting!  Here’s a comparison of that time of year’s fishing opportunities and now:

So while some folks turn to hunting others will have good fishing opportunities to take advantage of on the rivers and the lakes. Lake trout fishing has started to pick up recently on Flathead Lake. The Great Montana Mack Attack/Whitefish Jigfest was held last weekend on Flathead Lake and it was a success according to Gen Fincher. “We had 138 anglers entered and the fishing was pretty good despite the choppy water conditions that anglers faced early in morning on Saturday and Sunday,” said Fincher.  The largest lake trout was turned in by Ron Catlett of Kalispell, the fish that was worth $1000 weighed 19.43 pounds and was 38 ¼ inches long. Randy Gembala caught the heaviest lake trout under 28 inches it weighed 7.91 pounds and Hunter Roderick caught the largest pike minnow it weighed .72 pounds. Fincher said that most of the successful anglers were trolling for the lake trout.  Maybe the biggest story during the two-day event came out of the whitefish category. “We had close to 40 whitefish turned in both days with all the winning fish entered on Saturday”, said Fincher. Most of the anglers turning in whitefish were fishing in 60 feet of water and most of the activity was on the river delta on the north end of the lake. Marlene Tucker caught the largest whitefish it was 23 inches long and weighed 3.83 pounds. So yes there are anglers catching whitefish but not in huge numbers. (Read full article here)

Either way, there are a lot of happy hunters and anglers, even amidst the smoke.  Many forego the horrible air because their addiction to fishing, hunting and/or trapping is unstoppable, and either way, we wish all of you the best of luck!  Get out there, and try to find a place without smoke!

Check back to MontanaOutdoor.com for up-to-date fishing reports in various lakes, rivers and reservoirs across the state and for hunting success stories from fellow Montanans and beyond.

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