Helena Valley Regulating Reservoir 2016

[mticeman]

I was out on the ice today from 9 am to 2 pm and managed one small 8" salmon. Started in 20 FOW and moved to 30 FOW after 2hrs of not seeing any suspended fish. Still did not see any suspended fish except a few perch near the bottom. The 8 incher appeared to be a loner. Talked to 4 other fisherman and one party had caught two. Beautiful warm day with lots of Canadian geese(migrating?) on the ice. Spring was in the air. Air temp 48 degrees. Maybe a dozen groups of fisherman on the ice today.

[mticeman]

I fished HVRR yesterday and managed one 10-12 inch koke after 3 hours fishing and 3 location changes. Still about 12" of ice but I think I am done until ice goes off. We fished from the dam east, 20-40 fow and never saw a school of Kokanee, although there were tons of fish on the bottom. At times my flasher was red with fish on the bottom. My partner kept catching 3 inch perch on the bottom. I caught the salmon roughly 15-20 ft off the bottom. It was a young female with eggs starting to develop and a totally empty gut. I just hope there is enough zooplankton left for the salmon to eat. Hopefully the incredible perch population doesn't impact the salmon population if it hasn't already.

There were 5 other fisherman on the ice.

[SuperDaveMT]

BuRec is filling up HVRR and there was enough water to launch a boat Saturday morning. I managed to scratch out a limit of 10 in about 4 hours. Landing 11 out of 12 hook ups helped. The fish were all between 14 & 17 inches. A pink scale blade and an orange splatter blade behind a ford fender at 1.2-1.5 mph at 10-15 feet accounted for all my fish. Tuna and Anise scented corn seemed to work equally well.

[mticeman]

Fished the HVRR yesterday and managed 10 fish 12-17" from 8-11am. Reservoir at its capacity level. Water temp was 50 degrees at the surface and 46 degrees at 30 feet of water. Fished the surface but had no takers. Most of fish were 15-20 feet deep. Trolled at 1.2mph with leaded line, snubber, Luhr Jensen 4-000 dodgers with wedding bands and spinner glow hooks, with or without scent, with single or double hooks. Hook ups were about the same with either rig. Used unscented corn and a maggot or two. Kept the rod tip low to water and managed to net every fish hooked except one. Tried putting the rod tip underwater as suggested but did not like the loss of feel of tension or of the fish. Great day to be on the water, sunny, no wind, lots of migrating birds. geese, pelicans, cormorants, loons, diving and puddle ducks, eagles, you name it.

[SuperDaveMT]

Went 16-18 on Saturday. Shook off 6 dinks and kept a limit of 10 14-17 inchers. Biggest fish on a fire tiger apex, the rest on a mix of pink and orange/chartreuse spinners 12 feet behind the ball trolls at 12-15 feet and 1.3-1.5 mph. No real concentrations of fish. Water temp was 47-48

[Canada]

Thanks for the update, SuperDaveMT. I’ve finally decided to give the HVRR a shot this week, but I’m unclear of where and how to launch my boat. Is there a boat ramp that will suit a 16 foot boat?

[SuperDaveMT]

Sent you a PM

[MTblueback]

Does anyone know historically how long into the summer you can launch a boat on ramp before the water level gets too low? Or is it random based on what BuRec does...I love to ice fish the Regulator with my teenage son and he is wanting to do some trolling here...been tying up gear last month to get ready...grew up fishing the heydays of Holter and Hauser, wished I lived a bit closer-3 hour drive for us....SuperDaveMT I enjoy your posts throughout the forum...

[SuperDaveMT]

Some years BuRec lets the lake get a little low for launching but last year I was good all summer. I can usually launch my 16.5' crestliner canadian at 3814 of elevation - at 3813.5 it gets a little dicey and I have to back in further than I like. Here's a link to the BuRec site that shows the water level - http://www.usbr.gov/gp-bin/arcweb_hvr.pl. I hear stories of how great the kokanee fishing was on Hauser back in the day, but I moved here too late for that. It's unfortunate the FWP hasn't been able to restore that fishery - I heard it was one of the best kokanee fisheries anywhere at the peak. I saw a spawner kokanee in Holter last fall, so there are a few residual fish kicking around.

[Canada]

Four pound koke pulled out of Holter last year. Story and photo here: http://www.montanaoutdoor.com/2015/07/kokanee-in-holter/

[SuperDaveMT]

I'm going to have to put out a koke rig when I troll Holter for trout and walleye this spring and summer. Took a buddy out the RR last evening and we landed about 20 and kept 15 in 4 hours after work. Keepers were in the 14 - 17 inch range. My hook to land rate is going down as the fish are a lot spunkier with the water warming up. Action is generally slow and steady, 4 or 5 hook ups an hour and the fish I marked were pretty spread out. The only doubles seemed to be from groups of smaller kokes we shook off. Caught most of our fish on a fire tiger apex and a orange/chartreuse splatter spinner rig with a green/orange crappie tube tipped with corn and gulp maggots. The fish were 12 - 16 feet deep and we were able to catch them 20 feet behind the ball trolls, so no extra weight to diminish the fun of the fight, speed in the 1.3 - 1.6 mph range. Had the lake all to ourselves and enjoyed the fresh snow on the mountains around Helena.

[SuperDaveMT]

I was an Apex predator this morning - caught a limit of 10 13 - 15 inchers on the apexes in the picture. 1.5 - 1.6 mph at 12 - 15 feet. Got humbled though. After a hook to land ration of about 90% so far this year, I was more like 60% this morning. They have definitely woken up and are a little more feisty. Took me an hour to find the fish, but then put a limit in the boat in an hour and a half. Why do all my doubles come when I'm one short of a limit?

[Gastriclavage16]

Got on the ice and got a limit of Kokes today. Got off before the wind hit. they liked the pink patterned hali today, and red maggots. fished in 45 fow and fish came in suspended at 20 to 30 feet.

[Bduck]

Nice batch of some silver bullets. 101ok101 The first 4 appear to have some good size to them.

[SuperDaveMT]

BuRec started filling the reservoir this week. Had to give it a try last evening. The water was just high enough for me to launch and will continue to get higher until it reaches full pool. The water is still pretty brisk - about 42.5 in the main lake, and 44 near the inlet. Lots of grass, sticks etc. in the water which is typical when they are filling it up. I marked a couple big clouds of fish which I'm guessing were perch. The kokes seemed pretty scattered. I ended up hooking and shaking off 4 smallish kokes and landing a 27" burbot in a couple hours of fishing. It's the 3'd burbot I've caught while trolling for kokes. It's disappointing how little meat there is on a long fish like that and it's interesting how different the meat is along the loins versus back along the tail. Should eat good though. No real pattern developed. Caught the burbot and one of the kokes behind a ford fender with a orange and chartreuse splatter spinner, one behind a gold flashlight and a gold spinner and two behind a pink and chartreuse kokabow dodger with a pink spinner and crappie tube. All tipped with corn and gulp maggots. Nothing on an apex which was my go to lure last year. 10 - 15 feet deep and 1.2 - 1.4 mph.

[jfive]

Anyone having luck this winter?

[SuperDaveMT]

Looks like they are starting to fill the reservoir - should be able to launch in a couple of days. Early fishing usually means dealing with a lot of debris in the water, but I'm itching to get out there and give it a shot. Hopefully the wind lays down enough to make a run at it sometime this week.

[SuperDaveMT]

Got out on the lake this weekend. Started about 6:30 and had a limit of 10 by 9:30. I had 4 rods rigged (fishing 2 at a time) and it didn't seem to matter what I put out. Caught fish at 10 - 14 feet deep 40 feet behind the boat at 1.3 - 1.5 MPH. Caught fish behind dodgers (pink and copper, cracked ice, chartreuse and pink) and a cowbell. Most on spinner rigs, one on an apex. Corn with anise and krill scent with a pink gulp maggot. Fish are running a little smaller than average so far this year - 12 - 15 inches, maybe the result of 2 years in a row with snow covering the ice for most of the winter. I'm really liking the new Garmin depth finder and I'm getting the lake mapped using the quick draw feature. I can custom shade the map by depth range and color which I think will be a useful feature. I haven't used the down imaging or side view too much yet.

[SuperDaveMT]

I took my 3 year old grandson out on the regulating reservoir this week. He had fun and we managed to catch a limit of 10 in about 4 hours. Lost at least that many plus a bunch of hit and runs. Color didn't seem to matter, shoe peg corn and a gulp maggot at about 1.4 mph and 10 - 14 feet deep seemed to be the ticket. I'm not sure which he liked more, reeling them in or playing with them in the live well.

[Bduck]

Getting the proper schooling at this early age is what I see. Reeling in or playing with the livewell occupants is a very good way to get those tykes acclimated to the sport. Next you will hear "grandpa lets go fishing". 101ok101

[SuperDaveMT]

My grandson headed home to Oregon so I had to fish by my lonesome this weekend. Hit the water early and had a limit of 10 by 9:30. The action was steady and everything seemed to be working. I caught fish on spinner rigs, spinners with hoochies, apexes and wee tads behind dodgers and cow bells. Seems to be more of a time period bite than a color thing right now. 1.4 mph and 10 - 15 feet deep was the ticket. I just picked up a fish hawk temperature sensor, so I will try that out this weekend. I'm hoping it helps me find active fish when they move deeper later in the summer.