It was an epic day of fishing for yours truly and my friends Mark "The Captain" Ward and Scott "The Painter" Arnold.

We made the decision late Saturday morning to make it a Sunday of fishing for whitefish on Flathead Lake. And we were not disappointed. The morning started out pretty slow, but once we found them, there was no keeping them off.

We began the morning on the water at 7:30 near Big Arm. While it was okay to land the biggest perch and biggest sucker I ever caught, that wasn't why we were there. Captain decided to shoot across the water to near the shores of Rollins, where we anchored and let the frenzy begin. Not only were we landing more fish, they were larger and more aggressive.

Once fishing conditions started to cool, it was off to another point not far away, where we anchored for close to three hours. There was rarely any lull in the catching all the way till 3:00 p.m. When all was said and done, we had landed at least 70 whitefish along with several decent-sized lake trout.

HOW WE FISHED/WHAT WE USED
Naturally, it's always nice when your captain has sophisticated electronics for tracking your water depth and fish in the area. Favorable weather conditions with very little wind were an added bonus, because when jigging, it's nice to be able to keep that lure as vertical as possible. We had most of our success in 45-50 feet of water. If there were fish in the area they weren't shy about going after our Zimmer Rattle D Zastor jigs. But a big factor was a small fly tied about a foot above the lure. It was amazing how many we landed on that fly rather than the jig, including my ornery 7-pound lake trout. Those lures and flies are available at Bob Ward's here in Missoula.

All in all, a fabulous day. That whitefish bite on Flathead usually can be strong until almost mid-September.  If you're looking for a relaxing, low maintenance fishing trip with kids and out of town visitors, I highly recommend giving it a try. And all that incredible scenery is free!

DB

 

 

 

 

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