Montana trout fishing

[Ladobe]

Found a couple of scans of old slides from a 1984 trout fishing trip in Montana.

Quick limit near Pinky's Cabins on the Gallatin River (a regular overnight stop on frequent business trips through eastern Idaho, western Montana and western Wyoming.


Missouri River near Giant Springs in the Great Falls area.

[Poopers]

Nice! I just moved to Missoula and Im told this is fly fishing heaven. Im looking to do trout fishing on the rivers with a normal spincast reel setup. Any tips on what I should use for a bait setup? Im from the midwest and have never done trout fishing. Im unsure how people fish them on these fast moving rivers without fly equipment...

[Ladobe]

I don't use spinning gear to fly fish, and can't imagine living in western MT and not getting into fly fishing with at least basic gear.   I'd suggest you stop by the Missoulian Fly Shop and talk to them.    Maybe they can suggest what to do with what you have.   When in Missoula on business I fished right in town sometimes when I didn't have much play time, by the college mostly since that's where my business was, but also by the Red Lion where I stayed until the Sheraton was built. 

I did sometimes fish even the big, fast waters (where legal) for big trout with spinners and they work well.   South of Great Falls along the Missouri around Cascade is a place I fished many times with spinners and I caught some nice big fish there.   They liked a big Mepps Aglia Long dressed white with Redbo scale there best, fished down stream below obstructions.   But any medium to large Mepps caught fish.

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  Ladobe, do you get back to that country often today??? My girl friend and I are planning a long fishing,camping, varmit hunting trip in that country this summer...spent quite a bit of time up there over the last years..Fishing is very good..better than Wy....

[Ladobe]

No, not since I retired in 1990.   I do miss UT, ID, WY and MT especially.   I spent a lot of my life around the Island Park/YNP to NW MT areas from when I was s kid until then.   My family still has cabins in Island Park east of Mack's Inn they've owned since before I was born (and at Fish Lake where I was born).    Hiking into the back country, fishing, hunting, canoeing and camping were a way of life. 

W WY has some good trout fishing, but it can't match W MT, E ID, UT and SW CO. 

When I retired  I moved to the Mojave Desert... a HUGE difference from growing up and living in the Rockies.   But it's a great place too with lots of wildlife, is very beautiful in a different way and it doesn't snow here except rarely.    In fact I wear T shirts and shorts all year here, seldom wear shoes unless I go to town and don't even own a coat anymore.   Despite spending over 30 years of my life in deep snow country the coldest I've ever felt was on one business trip to Missoula when it was 30 below and the 35MPH wind chill took it down to about 70 below.    None of my trips to AK and YT ever felt that cold.