Bass in the Flathead

Dylan poses with a solid largemouth caught topwater on a recent trip

Our fly shop manager Ryan Koch has been out catching pike and bass. Here is what he has to say –

If you have never targeted bass on the fly rod, now is a good time of year to give it a shot. Summer crowds will soon be dwindling, waters will be cooling off. Echo Lake, river sloughs, other small local waterbodies… there are plenty of bass lakes within an hour to choose from.

Stop in and grab a few popper patterns if you are headed out in the morning or evening. If you can’t get out early or late, try some streamer patterns on either a floating or a sink tip line. Crawfish or minnow imitations are hard to beat. A slow, twitching retrieve seems to be fairly productive, but just last night I stuck a decent largemouth just ripping a woolly bugger as fast as I could.

Northern pike are always a fun option to mix it up, too. We seem to catch most of our pike on streamers, but they will certainly smash poppers and other top-water patterns (…mice, anyone?).

Get out there and chase some local warmwater species before our lakes freeze up; winter is coming sooner than you think!