Late Report

Made my first trip to Montana last weekend and visited my cousin in Marion. Real pretty country and it was great to see the Rockies from ground level rather than 30,000 feet.

Fished Little Bitterroot and was hoping for one of those 4-5 pound kokes guys at the store and launch were talking about. Pretty lake but the fishing could have been better. Wind was blowing and most people were having trouble catching. Experienced some boat motor grief every day, bad kill switch, stuck carb float and then a broken throttle cable. It was still good to see family even with the mechanical issues and uncooperative fish. Next time I may have to drag my boat over.

So much to do in the area that a return trip is highly probable down the road. Heaven is not as far away as I had previously thought. thumbsup

Hi Splash!

I am glad you got a little taste of our piece of the Big Sky. Don't feel bad tho, fishing has been tough as of late for even the most habitual offenders!violin

Those big Kokes in LB are not ghosts tho, I can assure you, it is just that the majority of them are on the bottom in 200 feet plus water gorging on the Mysis shrimp. You need an absolute perfect jigging presentation to catch them consistantly and that is why so many are caught ice fishing.

You will get one every now and then while trolling, but that is the exception, not the norm. FWP thinks those big Kokes have a genetic predisposition to find those shrimp, as many of the big 4-5 pounders are the same year class as the 10-12 inch smokers...More testing will show if that is true, but if so, we should have a lot more lakes producing that strain of fish. Or we will lose the whole lot, as seems to happen when we start meddling. I hope for the former!!!

Take care

Mike