Meet Patrick and Nick!
Meet Patrick and Nick! Patrick and Nick are two new members of the Headhunters Team for the 2017 season. Derek and Jared have also joined the team. We will feature Derek and Jared on the blog soon. You will meet…
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Happy Mother’s Day!
Happy Mother’s Day! To all the Mom’s out there we salute you. This is a New Breed Chicks Rule Mother’s Post today on the Headhunters Blog where we love all women fly fishers! You are the glue that holds many…
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2017 MF3 Film Teaser. In Helena Friday May 19th!
2017 MF3 Film Teaser. In Helena Friday May 19th! Matt Devlin rolls out his annual Montana Fishing Film Festival this Friday night in Helena Montana. Doors open at 7pm Grandstreet Theater. Lots of fun, swag, fly fishing films, and the…
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Higher Ground Missouri River Water Rising
Higher Ground. Missouri River Water Rising Coming up today, this morning (order not shown) to nearly 8000 cfs and tomorrow morning to the 8500 cfs range. Yep spring in Montana with some snow in the hills. I predicted it would…
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Friday Foto Missouri River Net Job & Weekend Tips!
Friday Foto Missouri River Net Job Guide Ben Hardy netting this one up with guests Mary and Kevin straight outta Michigan. Their first trip to the Mo with friends Betsy and Charlie. Both families are in the golf business. They…
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New Breed Chicks Rule Peggy and Trish Edition
New Breed Chicks Rule Peggy and Trish Edition Peg, Trish, Lynnett, and Skip on today’s New Breed Chicks blog. These women are all volunteers with the Casting For Recovery program. They fished with Whitney and Kurt a week and a half ago. During…
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Try the Dry Dropper Rig
Try the Dry Dropper Rig Tired of chasing the bobber down the river? Don’t like deep nymhping? Want to break out on the edge? Like the looks a Parachute Adams drifting along peacefully next to the bank? Then a Dry…
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Izaak’s looking for a few more summer staffers!
Izaak’s looking for a few more summer staffers! Chef John said we need a few more summer employees to get us to that perfect level. Want to fish all day and work all night? Sounds good to me. Squeeky was…
Read More Hangman Spey Video – Mike McCune
Here’s a valuable casting video Mike McCune and I recently shot. Valuable because it is the spey cast I see Mike executing more often than not when we are trout fishing. I have had a number of customers ask me…
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New Breed Chicks Rule Barb Edition
New Breed Chicks Rule Barb Edition Barb caught this beauty recently with Headhunters Guide Shane Wilson. Nice work Barb. What a good looking fish. We can’t wait to see her again on the Mo. Although the fish might not like…
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Headhunters Weekend Quick Hits
Headhunters Weekend Quick Hits An up to the minute, at least when I wrote this, report and Headhunters Weekend Quick Hits blog from the information leaders in Craig Montana. Water is up. 7310nat time of press. Water temps 47F. Fish…
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Friday Missouri River Lower Canyon Foto
Friday Missouri River Lower Canyon Foto My buddy Shaun hooked up Thursday in the lower canyon. Pretty bright out yesterday with air temps getting into the 80’s for the first time this year. Today? Mid-80’s. Cinco-de-Mayo. Have a Tequila for…
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May 4th Missouri River Fishing Report
May 4th Missouri River Fishing Report Water levels falling a bit to 7.3K and wear temperatures rising upwards to 48F. So some movement yesterday in the action. Along with the water fluctuations we now bring you summer air temperatures for…
Read More Troutspey Reels and Running Lines
There is always a lot of talk about running lines for trout spey rigs around the shop. Some like mono, and some like a coated running line. I think were at about a 50/50 split among our customers and staff.…
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New Breed Chicks Rule Beverly Edition
New Breed Chicks Rule Beverly Edition One of my favorite gals today on Headhunters Fly Shop New Breed Chicks Rule Beverly Edition. I lived with Bev and Brian for a couple winters in the early 2000’s before John and I…
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Attitude and Effort
Spent a great couple of days with Joe and his 9 year old son Brooks. Brooks had tried a little Tenkara fishing near Mammoth, CA and a bit if smaller stream fishing in Utah, but this was his first trip…
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Missouri River Brown Trout Mug Shot
Missouri River Brown Trout Mug Shot Sunday here in central Montana. Cooler and windy. Maybe some snow tomorrow morning too. BWO’s going good. Midges good as well. But Jeff Parker told me that “Midges don’t matter.” On the surface he…
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Spring Streamer Fly Tying Contest Photos
Spring Streamer Fly Tying Contest Headhunters hosted a streamer fly tying contest on our Facebook page this past week. The objective was to submit a home-brewed streamer pattern that would work well on the Mo this spring. Tyers sent in a…
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Friday Foto Rainbow Trout Image
Friday Foto Rainbow Trout Image TGIF. It’s on. Good to great BWO hatches with midge on the water all day long. A good weekend ahead. Water levels stable for the time being. Nymphing all over the river including some of…
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Ninch’s Fish Finder Worm
Ninch’s Fish Finder Worm needs to be in your box. Fish like worms. Rising water flushes worms from the banks and bottom of the river into the current. Last week the flows increased from around 5,000 cfs to the current…
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Late April Fishing Report from Headhunters
Late April Fishing Report from Headhunters The water levels are holding just below 7K. Water temps are in the 45F range. Both real good. May see some movement in the water column this week and will let you folks know…
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Spring Streamers / Streamer Fly Tying Contest
Spring Streamer Fishing Spring is a great time to fish streamers on the Missouri River. At the time of this writing, the river is flowing at 6,880 cfs and temps are around 45 degrees F. These higher flows and increased temps…
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New Breed Chicks Rule Peg Edition
New Breed Chicks Rule Peg Edition Peg over the divide with row boy Jay this last week and they got into a few. “Not a ton”, said Jay, but enough to keep the fires burning. Tough sledding this past fortnight…
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Saturday Missouri River Fishing Update
Saturday Missouri River Fishing Update Flows stable at 7020 cfs. Higher water means learning for not only the trout but anglers too. Some have state that the fishing is not too good. Not consistent is the word from us here…
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Friday Foto Headhunters Fly Shop
Friday Foto Headhunters Fly Shop Water levels should be stable this weekend. Currently 7070 at time of writing Thursday night. Don’t think they will be coming up today. But not really sure. No faxogram from the DNRC. Looks like good…
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Stalcup’s Cluster Midge
Stalcup’s Cluster Midge Needs To Be In Your Box Stalcup’s Cluster Midge is one of my favorite midge patterns. I always have some in my box during the spring and then again in July when the tricos start to hatch. This…
Read More George Harrison Sings Today Headhunters Blog
George Harrison Sings Today Headhunters Blog Love this tune. A good one to sing at work today. And George looks like any river guide we see these days. Bearded with guitar, dog, Tundra, Adipose, part-time girlfriend wanting to go to…
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Missouri River Tax Day Fishing Report
Missouri River Tax Day Fishing Report Mid April and today we bring you the Missouri River Tax Day Fishing Report. The water is rising per the predictions and statements of Stephanie Micek of the DNRC. More rain, snow, precip means…
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RIO, Scientific Angler, and TroutHunter Tippet Comparison
Tippet Brands Headhunters stocks tippet from RIO, Scientific Anglers, and TroutHunter. All three companies make great tippet. I’ve used all three and they have all performed well. So what kind should you buy? Cost Cost is a primary consideration. It…
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Missouri River Midge Mania in April
Missouri River Midge Mania in April Fish on top. Fish on the bottom. Fish in the middle. Missouri River Midge Mania in April has begun. BWO’s too. Saturday and the wind monster has arrived. Gusty and windy on the river with…
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What I did for Spring Break: Watch my wife and daughter catch fish on Dry Flies
Everyone at Headhunters fishes. Some more than others, and some not as often as they once did. Our GM Julie falls into the latter category, but still loves the sport. She and I always try to catch one of the first BWO days…
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Rowing 101
Hire a guide then take out a rental boat. This is the natural progression, as Mark as has described it, for learning the Missouri River. Hiring a guide and asking him/her a bunch of questions allows you to learn the…
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Hump Day Brown Trout
Hump Day Brown Trout JP with this nice Brown Trout Sunday in the snow. Fishing a streamer. Directly before the boat ramp. Maybe last cast, or second to last cast before beaching the Adipose. Bam. Brown Trout. Lesson? As in…
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Monday April 10th Missouri River Stats
Monday April 10th Missouri River Stats Bugs are coming. Saw a pretty good BWO hatch yesterday on the lwer river. They will show more this week. It is near! Water Flows are in the 5K range. We should see this…
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Riverside Eats
Riverside Eats New lunch game in town as Kelli Wilson has got a new business in Cascade rolling this spring. Riverside Eats is your lunch source on the Missouri River near Craig MT. Check out her website MoRiverEats.com for a…
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Why Get Guided?
Why Get Guided? We hear this question a lot in the shop. Mark has written about the subject here and here. If you’ve wondered the same question, I’d recommend that you read these links. The following is a short and timely…
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Friday Midge Image
Friday Midge Image Rain and wind for th weekend. If it calms down, at all, you may find more of these today. Not a great midge spring at all. But, it is not over yet. Maybe the BWO’s will save…
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Please Leave Redds Alone!
Please leave trout redds in the river alone! Rainbow trout are actively spawning in the river now and will continue to do so for the next couple months. The Missouri River is one of the best wild trout fisheries in…
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April. Craig Montana.
April. Craig Montana. All is well in downtown Craig Montana. Fishing? Some good days and some not as good. Catch rates is what I am speaking about. They are all good days…just some days you catch more fish. But thankfully…
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Missouri River Bugs – April
Last week we collected our first sample of bugs from the Missouri River below the Untouchable’s Bridge. The bugs that we collected were about what you would expect for April. Sows and scuds composed the majority of the biomass, but midges and…
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April Sunday Morning Scenery
April Sunday Morning Scenery We are here. Arrived. Sunday in April. Totally forgot about April Fools yesterday. Bummer. Enjoy the week ahead. Warm. 70F. Opening day of baseball. Today. Everybody has a chance for the series in October. Almost. Love…
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New Breed Chicks Rule Chelsey Edition
New Breed Chicks Rule Chelsey Edition Chelsey and Mark were over from Missoula yesterday taking advantage of the $350 Spring Special guide trip pricing. And Chelsey clearly rules! She hooked and landed a ton of fish including a few in…
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Hump Day and all is well
Hump Day and all is well 4240cfs and a stones throw from 40F water temperature. More precipitation this week with moderate temperatures. A chance of snow showers in the forecast for the coming weekend and beyond. Don’t forget your foul…
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On The Brink
I think the river is about to explode. The water color has changed a bit in the last couple of days, I’m finding fish in some unusually fast and shallow water, and yesterdays streamer bite was like in the olden…
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Monday Morning Fishing Report
Monday Morning Fishing Report Headed into the final week of March. We are looking forward to leaving March. Just like February, just another annoying month as we wait for the real action to start. Not that we don’t like the…
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Sunday Fishing Update
Sunday Fishing Update Looks like a mix of sun snow and rain for the week ahead. Today? Some sun, 52F, and light winds from the SW. Yesterday? Pretty good out there. As far as the nymphing goes. The dry fly?…
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Saturday Swing Scenery
Out doing a little spey fishing with Missouri River first-timers Greg and Sam yesterday. The swung fly was not incredibly productive, but we did manage to score a few times. Thats Greg landing a nice Brown above. These guys are…
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Paper or Plastic?
Paper or Plastic? Soon, you might be hearing this question at your local fly shop as well as the grocery store. AFFTA has announced that they are making recycled paper fly boxes available to fly shops as an alternative to the…
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Get Those Kids Out There!
Spring has pretty much sprung around here. We still need the water to warm a little to kick off the BWO, March Brown and Mothers Days Caddis hatches, but it’s not far off. Spring offers some of the easiest fly…
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New Scientific Anglers Spey Lite Lines
A couple of months ago, Scientific Anglers sent me a few prototypes of some new “Trout Spey” lines they were working on. I’ve been fishing them regularly and have been really impressed. They cast extremely well, and feel right (not…
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Casting Range
TRY BEFORE YOU BUY! For many anglers springtime means “gear time”. Lots of things on the to-do list. Cleaning lines, tying flies, cleaning out that mess you call a boat bag, and for many it means some new equipment. In…
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Sunday Scenery
A packed house yesterday as the weather topped 70° in downtown Craiglandia for the first time this year. Seems early to me, but most folks don’t mind shorts-and-flip-flop weather in mid-March. The parking lots were full and the Headhunters Crew spent…
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Weekend Advice
There’s going to be some folks out on the water this weekend. With temps near 70’s, and minor flooding shutting down a few streams around the state, we expect to see plenty of folks on the Missouri. We’ve had plenty…
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Missouri River Weekend Fishing Report
Missouri River Weekend Fishing Report Looks like, fishes like, we are heading into that first big spring fishing transition. Many Headhunters out this week with both the staff and guided trips fishing a number of days. Consensus? Change is happening…
Read More Mussel Update
Proposed Rule Changes Last night, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks hosted a public hearing on new rules aimed at controlling the spread of invasive mussels. The new regulations include the following: All out of state watercraft would need to be inspected…
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