Capt. Rick Grassett’s Crane Meadow Lodge, Twin Bridges, MT Report for 8/14/2016
 
LynnSkipperBeaverheadbrownI hosted a group of friends and clients on a destination fly fishing trip at Crane Meadow Lodge (www.cranemeadow.addr.com) in Twin Bridges, MT last week. This is an annual trip for me and was my 15th year at the lodge. We fished the Beaverhead and Madison Rivers and a couple of creeks and lakes in southwest Montana where we caught and released numerous brown, rainbow, brook and cutthroat trout during the week. We fished streamers, nymphs and dry flies on 3 through 6-weight fly tackle. The dry fly action was with a variety of grasshopper patterns, sometimes with a nymph dropper, callibeatis and a few other bugs.
 
Tim Siegel, from IN, Nick Reding and his son, Nick, from St. Louis, MO, Chad Wandler from Washington, DC, Lynn Skipper, from Apollo Beach, FL and I met up in Bozeman on Sunday afternoon, 8/7 and made the 90-mile drive to the lodge in Twin Bridges. Mike Perez, from IN, met up with us at the lodge after fishing a few days before the rest of the group arrived.
 
Nick Reding, son Nick and Chad Wandler waded every day with several different guides and had some good action. They had a couple of good days; on the Madison with some nice brown trout and with brookies on a small creek. Chad caught and released a 27” brown on a wooly bugger on a lake!
 
Lynn Skipper and I fished the Madison one day and a high altitude lake another day with guide Dan Allen. We caught and released a few browns on the Madison and had good action with cutthroats on dry flies on the lake. We fished the Beaverhead, where Lynn caught and released a big brown on a nymph, and a lake where we had good action with big rainbows on callibeatis dry flies with guide Tom Caffrey. Lynn also fished a couple of days on the Beaverhead with guide Dan Allen and caught and released browns to 21” on a variety of flies.
 
Mike Perez and I fished a lake with guide Dave King and also had good dry fly action with big rainbows. Mike and Tim Siegel also fished a few days with guide Dave King on various stretches of the Beaverhead and caught some quality browns and also had good action with cutthroats on dry flies in an alpine lake. Tim Siegel and I fished a small creek with guide Matt one day and had good action with brookies on dry flies.
 
Just like fishing in many places around the world, there were a few great days and some slower ones, but the variety of fishing available is one of the best things about Crane Meadow Lodge. The fishing there is by either floating or wading and the weather and scenery were outstanding. Temperatures ranged from a very comfortable low 40’s in the morning to the mid 70’s in the afternoon with low humidity, a welcome relief from southwest Florida’s heat and humidity in August. In addition to beautiful valleys surrounded by rugged mountains, the wildlife is amazing! We saw whitetail and mule deer, moose, pronghorn antelope, hawks, eagles, ducks, geese and sand hill cranes and enjoyed outstanding meals back at the lodge every evening.
Back in Sarasota, catch and release snook fishing around lighted docks and bridges and trout, blues and more on deep grass flats should be good options. There should still be some tarpon in the coastal gulf, in upper Charlotte Harbor and areas of Sarasota and Tampa Bay. Juvenile tarpon in canals and creeks or around bridges are also good options.
 
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
IFFF Certified Fly Casting Instructor
Orvis-Endorsed Fly Fishing Guide at CB’s Saltwater Outfitters
Orvis Outfitter of the Year-2011
Snook Fin-Addict Guide Service, Inc.
www.snookfin-addict.com, www.snookfinaddict.com and www.flyfishingflorida.us 
E-mail snookfin@aol.com
(941) 923-7799
 

 

Capt. Rick Grassett
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