Spring break fishing adventures on home waters

In late February, my brother from Iowa sent me a video of a fishing show featuring spring walleye fishing on the Rainy River. The Rainy River connects Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods on the Minnesota-Ontario border.

Walleyes up to 10 pounds, spawning in shallow water. One-hundred fish days. Looked like the perfect spring break trip until I checked airfares and learned up to 150 boats waited at each launch. And motels were already booked last year. So, I stayed home and fished.

• Flathead North Fork — Cutts to 13 inches, mostly on small beadheads. A few mountain whitefish. Some guys were catching fish on tiny Griffith’s Gnats dry flies. Yes, I said “dry flies” in early April.

• Mission Lake — Headed to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in pursuit of elusive 10-pounders. I counted 44 anglers on Mission Lake that sunny, calm day. Saw one 7 1/2 pound rainbow boraxed, for mounting, in the back of a pickup. No other fish. That makes my fifth consecutive trip to Mission Lake without catching a fish — or even getting a bite.

• Kipp Lake — About a dozen anglers, mostly on west end. As I was putting my rod together, a tribal warden stopped and wanted to check my license. He pointed out Toby Tabor, the tribal fisheries manager, so I spent some time jawing with Tabor. “Hot one day, cold the next” was Tabor’s assessment of this year’s early season fishing on both Mission and Kipp lakes.

• Bitterroot River — Spent three days at Angler’s Roost, just upstream from Hamilton, in pursuit of fabled big brownies and ‘bows gorging themselves on early season stoneflies called Skwalas. Lots of boat traffic and lots of “beautiful day” comments, but few fish. Only fished dry flies and caught a few cutts and ‘bows. Probably would have scored more fish on nymphs.

• Da “Mo.” Oh, ya. My size 20 Ray Charles fooled a bunch of rainbow trout in the top half of the section of river between the Wolf Creek Bridge and Craig. Unfortunately for me, most were 14-inchers that had been washed through Holter Dam two years ago during high water. Stubby fins indicated they were planters, not wild fish. The following day I wade-fished below Craig. All fish were over 16 inches, including two ‘bows and a brownie — all up to 20 inches — that broke me off in midair.

• Browns Lake — Stopped by Browns Lake near Ovando on the way back from the Missouri River. Counted over 40 shorebound anglers, all casting flies to very large cruising trout. The trout were tail-chasing, not interested in feeding, but watching them cavort within a few feet from shore was a treat.

• Rainy River — Didn’t go, but the ‘Net showed it was snowing.