Bourbon, Flies, and Lies: Montana Big Sky Country Pt. 1

Days 1-2 On September 15th I headed to my friend’s house to load up the rental truck for our Montana adventure. This vacation had been in the planning stages for a year and now it was time to execute names plan. We left his house at 0400 on 9-16-2022 and headed south first to then begin our westerly direction.

We would travel through Indiana, Illinois, Iowa (the state I thought would never end), South Dakota, Wyoming, and then into Big Sky Country also known as Montana. Our weather was fair until we entered Montana. The rain started at midnight and then the mule deer started coming out to feed along the roadside. I don’t know if it’s the mule deer thing to do is hang out and graze along the road. The number of mule deer was saw must of been at least 100 if not more than that. Then for an extra fun factor like my Maine trip in 2021 the fog rolled in. So, we decided to try and get some rest. At this point in the journey, we had been driving for nineteen hours.

When planning a vacation, I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a great travel companion. My great friend we will call him Jack to protect the innocent. Jack and I had worked together for years in sanitary and industrial wastewater. We would work with anything that could be pumped and do it well. We would put each other lives in each other hands. We entered a lot of confined spaces and in a plethora of scenarios’ where one could get severely injured. I can’t stress enough the level of trust one must have with your traveling partner.

Jack and I had so many laughs and funny stories to tell along our route already at this point we kept each other entertained for hours at this point.

We would get a few hours of rest and then power through the rest of our trek.

One not so funny moment I need to share with you. So, Jack and I found a place to rest. Let me digress a moment about the truck he rented. It is a 2021 Dodge 1500 crew cab, and it is loaded with features. One of the features it has is a rotating knob for your gear selection. There is no shift lever handle on the steering wheel column. This would prove to be annoying and funny as heck throughout the trip and provide many monuments of laughter.

So, back to my delirious moment I was explaining to you about. I am backing up the truck and I thought I had pressed the brake and threw the truck into park. No, what I had done was after I backed up the truck into the parking spot had let me foot off the gas and out of delirium thought I had placed the truck in park by using the gear selection lever on the steering column. As, you already guess we began to slowly roll forward. With the rain still coming down Jack looked at me and as he did, I realized what I had done. I then looked at him and said, “I am so dam tired I am delirious”. After I applied the brake, he put it into park, and we attempted to sleep. I could not get comfortable in the truck and being restless that did not help either. After trying again and cleaning off the windshield several times we arrived in Eureka, Montana.

Day 3 - 9.18.2022 Kootenai River Dam Part 1

After a much-needed shower and sleep I was awoken by my first Montana Sunrise! We would go and fish the dam at the outfall of the Koocanusa Lake. This outfall boasts some big a$$ Redband Rainbows (information found here Redband info).

Today I saw Dall sheep rams 3 large rams, mule deer by the dozens saw two large mule bucks. these two were a solid 8 points.

I'm amazed to see how they seem to hop and jump run. lol it's one of the funniest things I have seen.

the koocanusa lake is beautiful. This area has steep rocky banks and is not conducive to the fly fisherman. We choose eggbeaters instead. Now, you’re going to scoff but we used Gulp minnows as the bait of choice. When we could bottom bounce using ½ oz to 1 oz of lead we would connect with these majestic beasts. Three fish snapped my 18-pound test seaguar like I was using 4-pound test. This is not my favorite way to fish, but sometimes one must make the best out of the situation. Jack and I hooked into a few nice fish. The small tank I hooked into was an extremely feisty 5# Redband Rainbow Trout. These fish would pull the scales off of the Great Lakes Steelhead. This would be the first time to fish this dam.

We arrived at the dam at 0900. We rigged our eggbeaters and headed down the nasty large, rocked shoreline. Now, I understand the local’s fish this at night! Well, no thank you its just too dicey for this flat lander. I used to fish the Niagara River with some regularity, and this is worse!

After we picked through less than a dozen fish, we picked up stakes to see some local sights. The photos do not do this area justice and I hope that you enjoy them as must as I have.

Day 4 – 9.19.2022 Flathead River

This is the first time I have been in a need of a Guide. I choose to float the main section of the Flathead. We met our guide at True Water Fly Shop they can be found here at True Water Fly Shop . We loaded up Rods truck with our gear and headed out to the Flathead. When anyone hires a contractor, you never know what you’re going to get! You pray that this person is going to be worth his or her weight in salt. You hope that said person will meet your expectations.

Well, we birdied every hole with our guide Rod. He was professional and rose to every occasion to give us the opportunity to hook up with fish. His coxswain skills are top notch on the main stem of the Flathead River. He demonstrated to have a great understanding of what kind of people he had in his boat for the day. He was extremely patient with Jack who does not have a lot of experience with a fly rod. His uncanny ability to know when he needed to help Jack was spot on every time. The fruits of the labors came in the form of my 4” Cutthroat (Cutties) and the 3 Cutties ranging from 18” to 14”.

Day 5 – 9.20.2022

We would head out to Kintla Lake north of PoleBridge, MT. Well, this would be minor nail biter outing! First off mother nature decided to bless us with 2-4 swells with white caps with 20 mph winds out of the east northeast! The 250-grain full sinking line would be a no go today! We had to switch over to the eggbeaters. We needed to use 1oz spoons to just cut through the wind! We made the best out of it. The shoreline was clean and free of mud. It was killing me because I could see all these super sexy drop off and could not fish them correctly because of the winds!