Anyone go to Montana Anymore?

[Brandonkop]

I remember Reading on here years ago of guys going down to Montana for the Big Bows on the Reserve land down in Montana and others heading to Fort Peck. Not sure many go down to Montana for Perch.

My brother lives in Whitefish Montana now so I have another area to explore with tons of lakes and the locals do all the fish biology and stocking... so lets just say every fish seems to be in every lake, haha. Never know what you will catch from perch, crappie, lakers, pike, small mouth bass, largemouth bass, whitefish, kokanee, rainbows, browns, tiger muskie, cutts, brookies, sunfish.... list is pretty long and not too far if anyone looking for some more variety.

https://youtu.be/gWuJ4ces8y0?feature=shared

Got into some great Mountain Jumbo Perch when I was down a couple weeks ago and spawning kokanee.

I tell you this Patagonia Chartreuse colored jacket has some magical attraction power for Giant perch. You may not think so... but my brother has a way of popping the giants and making bright photos with this setup.

He was using the circle tackle PANFISH 36" ROD with the KY-1000 reel.

These perch have big appetites, and we found that they were interested in both tungsten jigs and jigging spoons. We used 7mm Tungsten Jigs on the Jigging Jaw Jacker and Stationary Jaw Jacker.


On our jigging rods the most success was on the Northland Tackle Rattle Buckshot Flutter Spoon.

While we located a large amount of spawning kokanee along the bottom we also found a few Jumbo Perch mixed in with the salmon. The perch are big eaters consuming minnows, crayfish and salmon eggs.

Our biggest perch of the day was a hair shy of 14" and a great specimen from a beautiful mountain lake south of the border. My brother Dallas is fortunate to live in an adventure paradise. When I'm along, we get to explore some lakes in the area.

There really is no shortage of places to fish and fish to catch.

The perch in this particular lake seem to be roaming alone, hunting bigger food items. While it is challenging to find these sparse fish, it is possible. Using a combination of Jaw Jackers and hole hopping we slowly dialed them in.


Good luck out there this year!

[Sundancefisher]

Originally Posted by Brandonkop

I remember Reading on here years ago of guys going down to Montana for the Big Bows on the Reserve land down in Montana and others heading to Fort Peck. Not sure many go down to Montana for Perch.

My brother lives in Whitefish Montana now so I have another area to explore with tons of lakes and the locals do all the fish biology and stocking... so lets just say every fish seems to be in every lake, haha. Never know what you will catch from perch, crappie, lakers, pike, small mouth bass, largemouth bass, whitefish, kokanee, rainbows, browns, tiger muskie, cutts, brookies, sunfish.... list is pretty long and not too far if anyone looking for some more variety.

https://youtu.be/gWuJ4ces8y0?feature=shared

Got into some great Mountain Jumbo Perch when I was down a couple weeks ago and spawning kokanee.

I tell you this Patagonia Chartreuse colored jacket has some magical attraction power for Giant perch. You may not think so... but my brother has a way of popping the giants and making bright photos with this setup.

He was using the circle tackle PANFISH 36" ROD with the KY-1000 reel.

These perch have big appetites, and we found that they were interested in both tungsten jigs and jigging spoons. We used 7mm Tungsten Jigs on the Jigging Jaw Jacker and Stationary Jaw Jacker.


On our jigging rods the most success was on the Northland Tackle Rattle Buckshot Flutter Spoon.

While we located a large amount of spawning kokanee along the bottom we also found a few Jumbo Perch mixed in with the salmon. The perch are big eaters consuming minnows, crayfish and salmon eggs.

Our biggest perch of the day was a hair shy of 14" and a great specimen from a beautiful mountain lake south of the border. My brother Dallas is fortunate to live in an adventure paradise. When I'm along, we get to explore some lakes in the area.

There really is no shortage of places to fish and fish to catch.

The perch in this particular lake seem to be roaming alone, hunting bigger food items. While it is challenging to find these sparse fish, it is possible. Using a combination of Jaw Jackers and hole hopping we slowly dialed them in.


Good luck out there this year!

Lol

I stopped buying fishing magazines when they just became one long sponsor advertisement.

In all seriousness. How long was the drive to get there from Calgary? Did you find a cheap place to stay for our horrible Cdn dollar? Was access easy?

[Dewey Cox]

I'm going to Missoula in June, and might be able to squeeze a little fishing in on my way there and back.
Anyone have any suggestions as to where I should fish for bass?
I've never fished for bass, and I'd like to...

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by Sundancefisher

Lol

I stopped buying fishing magazines when they just became one long sponsor advertisement.

In all seriousness. How long was the drive to get there from Calgary? Did you find a cheap place to stay for our horrible Cdn dollar? Was access easy?

Well Google says 5 hours from Calgary to Whitefish Montana.

Yeah I have a really cheap place to stay... price is right. Brother has a cabin on a lake... I stay for family rate, free. Haha.

Gas is cheap. Was like $2.70USD gallon.

Access to most of the lakes is super easy with roads right to the lakes and sizeable parking lots. Most of the lakes have no limit on perch. A few have a 10 perch over 10 inches and unlimited under 10 inches.

We fished another lake that I can post the video here once I make it, but had to snowmobile into that one. So much less fishing pressure down there with all the lakes around the Flathead Valley and Thompson Chain. I love it down there.

I was down 4 times in the last year, haha.... going to wear out my welcome.

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by Dewey Cox

I'm going to Missoula in June, and might be able to squeeze a little fishing in on my way there and back.
Anyone have any suggestions as to where I should fish for bass?
I've never fished for bass, and I'd like to...

Lots of bass lakes around there. Not sure if you'll be going through the Flathead Valley but ECHO lake has lots of big small mouth and Largemouth bass.

[Sundancefisher]

Originally Posted by Brandonkop

Lots of bass lakes around there. Not sure if you'll be going through the Flathead Valley but ECHO lake has lots of big small mouth and Largemouth bass.

That lake looks cool. Now to find cheap accommodations lol. Lake front rentals are pricy.

[Sundancefisher]

Originally Posted by Brandonkop

Lots of bass lakes around there. Not sure if you'll be going through the Flathead Valley but ECHO lake has lots of big small mouth and Largemouth bass.

Is the lake belly boat able?

[JohnB]

Another good video Brandon, watched it on my lunch break.

[SNAPFisher]

Nice video Brandon!! My brother lives in Salem, Oregon so doubt I'll be going to Montana to meet him
That said, I could see myself making a trip to Montana with some buddies.
Question, when was the video taken, and, how much ice was there? Doesn't look like a lot of ice so would want to time it well.

[TROLLER]

Used to travel down to Duck Lake not far east of the east glacier entrance

On the reserve so you neede to pick up a license at the store and could launch your boat by the camp.

Always caught some great rainbow fishing but it has slowed off quite a bit the past few yrs so not worth the drive down IMO

Also had some great fishn in the Missouri with flies.

Flathead lake has lakers like you cannot imagine, daily limit last I checked is 100 under 34 inches.

I might be wrong about the limit because have not fished it in several yrs.

[Fradaburidi]

Originally Posted by TROLLER

Flathead lake has lakers like you cannot imagine, daily limit last I checked is 100 under 34 inches.

I might be wrong about the limit because have not fished it in several yrs.

Lake trout: 100 daily and in possession, only 1 over 36 inches, and all
fish 30 to 36 inches must be released.

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by Sundancefisher

Is the lake belly boat able?

Are we talking Echo lake? It's fairly large but you probably could. Usually pretty calm in the valley.

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[Sundancefisher]

Originally Posted by Brandonkop

Are we talking Echo lake? It's fairly large but you probably could. Usually pretty calm in the valley.

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Yes sorry. Thinking about a cool fly fishing belly boat trip to catch bass. Never done that before.

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by Sundancefisher

Yes sorry. Thinking about a cool fly fishing belly boat trip to catch bass. Never done that before.

Maybe... I've never belly boated in a lake before. Echo is pretty stacked with fish though. Whitefish, Pike, Smallmouth, Largemouth, Perch, Crappie.... Should be no shortage of fish to catch.

[fishpro]

Duck Lake isn't what it used to be, but there are some big fish in other lakes on the reserve. I did 4 weekends down there last year...

Licenses are now available online, but will cost you and arm and a leg lol

[Sundancefisher]

Originally Posted by fishpro

Duck Lake isn't what it used to be, but there are some big fish in other lakes on the reserve. I did 4 weekends down there last year...

Licenses are now available online, but will cost you and arm and a leg lol

Worst part down there is needing to get regular boat checks as zebra mussels are growing concern as is other invasives.

Duck was fun when there were lots of 20+ inchers. Now they are 16 inchers.

[slough shark]

Originally Posted by Sundancefisher

Worst part down there is needing to get regular boat checks as zebra mussels are growing concern as is other invasives.

Duck was fun when there were lots of 20+ inchers. Now they are 16 inchers.

I was at duck 2 years ago and ended up with a couple 16-20 inchers in a few hours fishing, didn’t spend much time there as it was just a stopover on the way home from flathead lake where I caught a number of lakers just trolling around in the kayak.

[Bushleague]

Quitting my job to spend the summer road tripping around Oregon this summer. Originally picked Oregon just cause the kids like trips with mountains and coast, but looking at the fishing opportunities I'm starting to get pretty stoked about this trip.

[Dom4]

That was an awesome video Brandon! Thank you very much for sharing. It opens up everyones eyes that there is way more fishing out there then what is at home here in Alberta and every new place that you go is a challenge.

Sometimes the new places can be frustrating though... HAHA

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by Dom4

That was an awesome video Brandon! Thank you very much for sharing. It opens up everyone's eyes that there is way more fishing out there then what is at home here in Alberta and every new place that you go is a challenge.

Sometimes the new places can be frustrating though... HAHA

Thanks, you are correct there. If you are willing to travel a little bit there is a lot of places to fish out there. These mountain lakes are quite challenging to fish for our usual species as they are not always in the typical locations. Just makes things interesting and challenging.

[Brandonkop]

https://youtu.be/49xhyb5I7Og?feature=shared

Just edited the Second Montana Video hot off the press.

My brother has these KHAOS mountain sleds... overheating issues with the NO SNOW this year. Yikes. But we made it out there. Had a little competition with all the species supposed to be in the lake. I suspect the primary are perch and lake trout from our day... but we got one more, haha.

It is amazing how many lakes down there have these lake trout in them. I'm used to them inhabiting large lakes that are very deep. Down in Montana with the deep mountain lakes they often show up is quite small lakes. In surprisingly great numbers. These lakes are quite productive, and the main forage seems to be perch minnows.

[Fradaburidi]

Originally Posted by Brandonkop

https://youtu.be/49xhyb5I7Og?feature=shared

Just edited the Second Montana Video hot off the press.

There is a quite noticeable volume difference between music and voice especially when someone is using headphones. I'll keep watching it but usually I stop watching when this is happening. I hope you don't take my comments the wrong way.

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by Fradaburidi

There is a quite noticeable volume difference between music and voice especially when someone is using headphones. I'll keep watching it but usually I stop watching when this is happening. I hope you don't take my comments the wrong way.

No offence taken at all. I'm no professional in the video editing department.

I also never listen to my videos with headphones on, so to me I haven't noticed that. Since the audio is just taken off the GoPro, it's never that great when compared to good audio like recorded music. So the volume intensity may seem higher. It's like commercials on radio and tv, always seem louder.

Usually most of my videos don't bounce back and forth between music and talking, but this one was a bunch of interrupted travel segments. Trying different things. Some people like the longer videos with the Journey and adventure part, not just popping fish one after another.

What I have noticed over the years is... always someone who likes the video and someone who hates it. Can't please them all.

I'll try to keep that in mind next time and bring the standard music volume down during editing. I appreciate feedback, helps me out.

You can adjust the volume a bit lower if its too loud. Use the little speaker icon and slide down, so the whole video will have a lower volume if its too loud. I can't go back and change it now on this one but the volume adjustment on your device should still control the volume.

[Dom4]

Just watched the head to head video where traveling in on the sleds. I really enjoyed that type of video.

The only thing I am not enjoying about watching your videos is I am really liking the look of that 36" rod that you're using and it might end up costing me some money for next year so I have a longer one for Pike and Lake trout. I am even surprised how well it works for Perch. Is yours the Dead 36?

Thank you very much for posting!

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by Dom4

Just watched the head to head video where traveling in on the sleds. I really enjoyed that type of video.

The only thing I am not enjoying about watching your videos is I am really liking the look of that 36" rod that you're using and it might end up costing me some money for next year so I have a longer one for Pike and Lake trout. I am even surprised how well it works for Perch. Is yours the Dead 36?

Thank you very much for posting!

In the Video you probably saw the Panfish 36 and DEAD 36 in action. The actual pike/lake trout/walleye 36 rod is a much stiffer rod and I wouldn't really use it for perch. But I have caught pretty good sized Lakers on the panfish and dead 36.

Thanks for the feedback.

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[Dom4]

Originally Posted by Brandonkop

In the Video you probably saw the Panfish 36 and DEAD 36 in action. The actual pike/lake trout/walleye 36 rod is a much stiffer rod and I wouldn't really use it for perch. But I have caught pretty good sized Lakers on the panfish and dead 36.

Thanks for the feedback.

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I don’t need them right away do you by chance know if they ever go on sale?

[Brandonkop]

Originally Posted by Dom4

I don’t need them right away do you by chance know if they ever go on sale?

Yeah they do sometime go on sale. Not sure when that would be though.

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