Hubbard’s Lodge Montana – Story Lake

We spent a few hours of our time in Montana at a small lake tucked into a hillside above Paradise Valley. The idea was to take on the rainbows in hopes of spotting them and enticing a few dry or dropper eats. Our hope was to target cruising trout and capture some of the eats on video. We got way more than we bargained for! The session started off incredibly well, spotting cruisers and getting a few to take the dry and dropper as we worked the shoreline drop-off from shore and from drift boat. As noon ticked past the daily callibaetis event began at the same time as cloud rolled through, making camera work a little challenging. We were able to successfully target several individual cruisers. Then our host, guide Dave Force, took us in to a back bay. Well, good luck on aligning the rod and camera work! As you’ll see the rainbows were everywhere and criss-crossing feeding and cruising paths. Catching and camera work slowed right down as we struggled to identify which “that one” and where “right there” each of us were talking about. It was insanely good. And intense. And fun. This video isn’t perfect but it does share the chaos of such an incredible callibaetis event and why even the most ardent stream fly fisher should really consider targeting the masses of rainbows that come alive in such an incredible mayfly event. :)