I fished from the bank at Canyon Ferry Lake on the Missouri (MT) yesterday.
Still water fishing is new for me. God what a fool I’ve been. I could have been
doing this (still water fishing) for 50 years now. And I didn’t.
It snowed all morning. My open fishing bag was filled to the zipper with wet snow by noon. We didn’t catch a large number of fish. But oh my the size of those fish. My buddy Willy caught the biggest, a 22" rainbow that was like a salmon–so much heavier than any river fish of the same length. Some of those lake fish (on other days) get 24-25" long. Some fishermen spend a lifetime fishing and never see a river trout that big. On some of Montana’s lakes they’re darned near common.
Black Leeches seemed be what they wanted. Woolly Buggers with a thick, purple tinsel band lashed down each side worked well for Willy. Black versions of my tied-on-a-snelled-hook Slinkies worked well for me.
You don’t need a bobber to detect the strikes. They hit like a freight train. But if there is a slight chop on the water the bobber jigs the fly for you. They were hanging along the edge of a drop off 30-40’ out. And that’s not so hard to reach. Cast. Twitch pause. Twitch pause. Twitch pause. Set.
http://montana-riverboats.com/index.php?rpage=Lathe/Snell-a-hook.jpg&layout=robopages
