Tight Lines in Red Lodge Montana.
The first time I hooked up with a really large fish on the Bighorn I was chest high in my waders bobbing down stream after him trying to keep up before he blew past my backing. This was in the early 1990’s and the river had just re-opened after years of closure by the Crow Indians and the fishing was absolutely nuts. Back then it was our secret, today it is everybody’s secret. So, you ask, where are some of the other great places that aren’t as well discovered? Here are a few in south central Montana near Red Lodge, Montana, one of the best Montana real estate secrets left. In fact it is one of the very best mountain real estate and vacation properties left anywhere in the country.
Two years ago we moved to Red Lodge, Montana to pursue a Montana real estate development called The Spires at Red Lodge because Red Lodge real estate is still some of the best priced resort real estate anywhere in the entire Rocky Mountain region.
Really going in to great detail and giving you the stories that go with each of these streams isn’t possible in a short article. As my fishing buddy Randy says, “If I told you everything then I’d have to kill you.”
Just a short walk from anywhere in downtown is Rock Creek which is a free stone stream feed by the waters of the high Beartooth Plateau. The fish are eager and don’t get much pressure and as you move down stream they get bigger and bigger.
“Where The Hell Is Roscoe?” is a slogan on a t-shirt at The Grizzly Bar just 15 miles west of Red Lodge. Just the drive out there takes you past some of the finest Montana real estate available. Several miles south of The Grizzly you cross over East Rosebud Creek. This stream has been know to produce an occassional 20 inch plus fish, so don’t be surprized if you get one. Buggers in the deep holes or little dries and small nymphs in the slow stuff.
If you are in really good shape and want to catch some huge lake bound cutthroat then you can hot foot hike out of East Rosebud Canyon up to a lake known as Arch Lake. Of all of the dozens of lakes in the million acre Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness this is perhaps the finest and with the largest average size of trout. Of course this is a 2,500 vertical foot hike straight up out of the East Rosebud valley so it is not for the faint of heart and you are scrambling on large boulders and scree fields a lot.
Take 78 west for another 14 miles past Roscoe and you arrive in Absarokee. Go west out of Absarokee along the Stillwater River. It is best to fish it from a raft and pullover to fish the runs, but you can do alright wading from bridge areas as well. It is great grasshopper and terrestrial fishing in late July and all of August. In the spring and fall it’s back to streamers and nymphs. This river gets a lot less pressure than the western Montana streams.
In the spring time head 60 miles south to Cody and Newton Reservoir for some great big fish stories. Little flies on top and leeches down below, whatever they are hitting on. The surface activity can be a ball. Try the far side in waders all the way away from the parking lot and wade out in the weeds.
In one hour and one-half you can be at one of Montana’s most legendary tailwaters - The Bighorn River. Thirty fish days with a couple of fish over 20 inches are not unusual here and the only people that think it is crowded are those of us whiners who have fished it forever and live here in Montana.
A lot of the high mountain lake stuff always has the word exercise attached to it. Of course you can fish lakes right along the highway at over 9,000 feet but since everybody and their dog can access these lakes then they are nearly as good as the lakes that are tough to access. That is what makes Glacier Lake so great. It is a 5mile dirt road off Highway 212 to get to a parking area. From there it is about a one hour hike up to the lake, which at 9,681 feet is often not even free of ice until mid-July. For the fortunate few who time it right there are some real big fish waiting. Go as deep as you can and retrieve slowly.
This is one of the reasons that owning a second home or a piece of Red Lodge, Montana real estate is so appealing. The vast amount of recreational opportunity that is right at your doorstep is unbelievable and Montana’s largest city is under one hour away.
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