Well it’s just as I thought, the rivers are big and very difficult to fish, and the lakes are right in the middle of the spawn. 

Salmon Lake

The water is off-color, but not unfishable. Water color is better the further down the lake you go. A fair amount of deeper weeds are present and there were several cattail break-away islands that were floating around loose. Water temps were from 46 to almost 50 degrees F. Not one follow, but did catch a 5.4lb Northern Pikeminnow that was very full of eggs.

If you head that way, be forewarned that there is a major road project going on from the south end of the lake to just past the state boat launch on highway 83. It is extremely rough. It looks like it will be going on for at least the next several months, as well as it looks like parking out on the turn outs is a no go. If you go on the weekend, better go early because once all the boat trailer parking spots fill up, you won’t be able to park.

Seeley Lake

Same water temps as Salmon. The water is pretty high, clarity on the south end is ok but water by the outlet was chocolate milk from runoff. We didn’t get to explore the whole lake as we got chased off by an afternoon thunderstorm, but I’d say it’s probably a bust for now. It also looked like the buoys were out across the north end of the lake for nesting loon’s, so keep in mind if you only wanted to go up there and fish that end of the lake that you might not be able to.

Fly Selection

In case you do still want to head up there and give it a shot this week, I would pick either very dark colors (black mamba, hellboy) or very bright colors (big bird, firetiger, dirty perch, pink tiger). Flies with bulky heads such as the Monster Cones patterns will also give you an advantage as they have a lot of bulk up front to push water and the fish can feel that.

With warm weather ahead in the forecast for the foreseeable future, fishing across the whole chain of lakes should hopefully start to pick up soon.

A side note for those of you living in the Seeley Lake area, Rovero’s now has Bite Me Flies available!

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