Take advantage of longer daylight hours

In case you were wondering, last week in this space Keith Brown’s monster kokanee salmon photo was mislabeled “rainbow trout.” And the good thing about it is, Brown’s fish gets a second mention this week.

Area anglers, especially those people who spend all winter on the ice of Little Bitterroot Lake, should be duly impressed by a kokanee salmon a quarter-inch longer than the world record and barely a half pound under the Montana state record.

Congratulations again, Keith. You’ve given us hope there might be even a bigger koke still swimming in Little Bitterroot Lake.

One of the few things I find frustrating about Northwest Montana is spring weather. As a tennis coach, I know our outdoor on-court time is limited. Usually in long-underwear. I’ve learned to deal with it.

When lake water temperatures move from mid-40s to mid-50s, trout are hungry and fishing is good. Unfortunately, this time frame coincides with horizontal rain and cold front after cold front.

And by the time we get some stable weather (including do I dare say sunshine?), the water temps are headed for the 60s and lake fishing slows.

Late June tips for catching ‘bows and cutts from area lakes include fishing early and late in the day, fishing deeper and fishing slower.

One morning last week I noticed the eastern sky showing light at 3:30 a.m. I’ve always said the only reasons to get up that early are fishing and hunting and catching a plane from Glacier Park International Airport.

Take advantage of longer daylight. Fly fishers should fish a sinking line, switching to an intermediate or sink tip as water warms and insect activity increases.

Another trick is to vary the speed of retrieval of fly or spinning lure. And although it makes sense to fish slowly to keep the lure in the fish’s zone longer, sometimes quickly speeding it up will provoke a strike.

One thing’s for sure — when water temps get into the high 60s / low 70s, we’ll all wish we’d spent more time fishing earlier this spring.