Montana Fish Bum Blog

Well run off is in full swing and aside from some of the local lakes and a few tailwaters there’s not much fishing to be done around here. So a couple of us from Montana Fly Fishing Guides, Sweetwater Fly Shop, and our friend Bob Bergquist are headed to Acklins Island in the Bahamas. Acklins is an out island of the Bahamas about 100 miles off the eastern tip of Cuba. It’s very remote and in our past experiences on this island we’ve yet to see another angler. With a population of only about 450 residents, tons of wadable flats, and lots of Bonefish and Permit it’s definitely a special destination. We’ll also be doing some blue water fishing for White Marlin, Blue Marlin, Tuna, Wahoo, and Dorado.

Our friend Bob owns and operates a small fishing lodge near Salina Point and he and his local guides have a great knowledge of the local waters. We’ll be fishing here from June 6 to June 13 so stay tuned for some great images when we get back. We are also working on a couple of hosted trips to the Salina Point Bonefish Lodge this winter so feel free to email Eric Adams if you would like to learn more about this great location.

We’ll run off is pretty much here to stay for the next 5 weeks, however some of the tailwaters are still fishing well. Dr. Smith came out for his annual spring trip with Montana Fly Fishing Guides and we manage to catch a few trout on Armstrong’s Spring Creek despite the tough conditions (few bugs and bright sun shine). The next day we headed out early and got some good fishing on the Lower Madison River. The early morning found us fishing to trout chasing caddis emergers. Dr. Smith did a great job of working the pods of fish and we landed a number of trout before lunch on a sparkle caddis pupae. The afternoon proved tougher with the high winds but we managed to slow the boat down and work a number of deeper holes which produced several fish. We even had a huge Madison Brown on that ripped across the water reminiscent of a bonefish – that one will have to wait till next year as the hook pulled before we could land it. The highlight of the day however was the Brown Dr. Smith caught on a dry fly at lunch. I noticed a large fish randomly feeding on the surface under a bridge. There were several black stone flies around, but not on the water. We decided to give it a try and making a great cast Dr. Smith landed a very nice 18+ inch brown.