Glacier Outdoor Center Blog

What a great weekend it turned out to be in NW Montana! The first-ever Great Northern Brewing and Glacier Anglers Cast-Off event was a huge success on Saturday. In the morning, we all met at Glacier Outdoor Center’s Ridgetop Retreat for informative clinics from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Glacier Anglers Pro Staff and Travis Morris, a gear expert and sales rep with Winston, Ross, Lamson and Scientific Angler.

Thanks to Montana Coffee Traders for posting up outside the meeting center and whipping up free espressos to keep everyone caffeinated and warm. Backwoods BBQ cooked up some amazing breakfast burritos.  (Don’t forget, they are now up and running next door at the Glacier Campground.)

After a great morning session, we all moved outside to practice casting under the tutelage of certified casting instructor Jerry Smalley.  After learning new skills and honing old ones, the group hit the pavilion lawn for the All Cast competition.  Competitors hucked line for accuracy and distance as the crowd cheered and  Great Northern Brewery kept the grown ups hydrated.  Thanks to Montana Fly Company, Great Northern Brewing, Montana Coffee Traders and Scientific Angler for providing some great prizes and raffle items.  People LOVED those MFC River Camo products, like the fish skin fly boxes and forceps! Oh, and thanks to our own fly shop for donating an R.L. Winston Fly Rod, a Simms guide jacket and tons of fishing accessories.

Winners of each category include:

Masters:

1. Mark Evans    2. Travis Morris    3. Tom Walstad

Open:

1. Gary Yee   2. John Alderson   3. Brent Owens

Youth:

1. Ella Hutcheson   2. Noah Kilman  3. Marcus Kilman

Good job everyone and thanks for coming!  See you next year!

Need something to do tomorrow? Come out to West Glacier for the Glacier Anglers Cast-Off 2011! This is the first-ever certified fly-casting instruction and competition and it is totally FREE! Activities begin in the morning at 10:00 a.m. with a few short fishing seminars at the Ridgetop Retreat. The talks include:

Beyond Bugs

Trout Hunting

From Nets to Knots

Then we’ll move outside to practice casting on the four stocked fishing ponds. The All-Cast casting competition is set to start around 2:00 p.m. There are tons of great raffle items and prizes for participants.  Montana Coffee Traders, Great Northern Brewery and food vendors will be on site selling goodies! Remember, proceeds from this free event will benefit the Flathead Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Click here for more information and we hope to see you tomorrow! Yee-haw we’re excited!

The sun shines early in these parts.  Or, maybe just for our marketing manager, Ryan Thompson.  Ryan woke up with the early birds this morning to make it to a 5:30 a.m. live  interview on NBC Montana’s Montana Today morning show with Monte Turner. It aired on KPAX in Missoula and KECI in Kalispell–did you see it?  Neither did we.  So, we posted it so we can watch it over and over again.

Monte asked Ryan about the details of the upcoming Glacier Anglers Cast-Off on June 11th.  It’s a don’t-miss event for fisherfolks of all ages and skill levels, and it’s a great opportunity to expand your fishing skills and even compete for amazing prizes, bragging rights and entry into nationwide casting comps.  We are all looking forward to a fun event next weekend at the Glacier Outdoor Center.

Thanks for putting your pretty mug on the tube, R.T.!

Don’t let the rain and the swollen rivers crush your fishing dreams!  Glacier Outdoor Center in West Glacier has the perfect solution.  We’re happy to announce our first-ever certified fly-casting instruction and competition— the Glacier Anglers Cast-Off 2011! This event is set for June 11th at GOC and we couldn’t (and you shouldn’t) be more excited! We’ve got a lot of big plans for this day. 

We teamed up with several local shops, product reps and Great Northern Brewing for this.  Glacier Anglers Cast-Off 2011 is a FREE event full of casting instruction, fishing seminars and a chance to qualify for the All Cast National Fly Casting Championships. It is also open for all ages and ability levels.

Starting at 10:00 a.m. at Glacier Outdoor Center’s Ridgetop Retreat, several seminars will be held on a variety of topics led by pros from Montana Fly Co and the Glacier Angler staff.

Here are the classes:

Beyond Bugs: Fly selection and river ecology

Trout Hunting: Reading water and putting your fly where the fish are

From Nets to Knots: Choosing the right equipment and tying it all together

Participants will then get on-site casting instruction at Glacier Outdoor Center’s four stocked fishing ponds. The free All Cast certified qualifier casting competition will begin at 2:00 pm and is open for all ages. The competition includes tests in accuracy and distance and is divided into three groups; Masters, Open and Youth (14 and under). Each participant in each category will receive a day permit for another All Cass event nationwide. Winners of each class in each category will win a season pass to all All Cast events nationwide plus other top fishing prizes.  All Cast is a nationwide fly-casting tour organization offering competitors a chance to win cash prizes for casting.

The seminars and competition are FREE–with donations accepted for the Flathead Chapter of Trout Unlimited.  It is going to be a great time with food and beverage vendors on site for the day. Montana Coffee Traders, Great Northern Brewery and other food vendors will be selling delicious fuel.

For more information please call 1-800-235-6781 or email info@glacierraftco.com.

After a winter (and an ENTIRE spring) of powder days and headlines about La Nina here in Northwest Montana, we are ready for fun summer days on our rafts or along the shore with fly rod in hand. But snow that piles up must melt and flow down.  Reports show that the snowpack water content levels for the Flathead River basin are currently 200% of average. That’s some heavy H20!  We’re so excited to have plenty of water for a full summer of river adventures, including whitewater river rafting, fly fishing, wilderness camping and scenic floating.

Our friends at Quadrocopter took an FRV Hexakopter out for some video flights following the snowmelt east from the Continental Divide. There are some amazing shots of the Flathead River’s Middle Fork and South Fork converging.

The video is just a taste of how beautiful this area is. Book your river trip today.

On the Mo, baby!  Glacier Anglers guides Marc Evans, Stevo Lund and Ryan Thompson squeezed in some fishing on the Missouri River on their way home from the Simms Ice Out.  Can you blame them? After a weekend at the Simms Ice Out, who wouldn’t be excited to get out on a river? Thank you Craig, Montana. You delivered the goods.  And by goods, we mean, lots of good, gorgeous fish.  Enough that we were able to bring you Motown’s Greatest Hits.

And Marc may or may not have channeled Marvin Gaye.

And the Missouri wasn’t the only river they hit on this road trip.  Here are some pics from the Gallatin, too!

Don’t forget, these river soul men can take you rollin’ on a river this summer– book your fly fishing trip today.

The fishing on the Flathead River system continues to be spectacular.  Marc & Karsten spent the afternoon fishing the Middle Fork this past weekend and landed a few great fish.  No 36 inch bull trout like last week, but they certainly got into some fine early spring cutties.

Don’t miss the window and be sure to get up here and get your pre-runoff fishing in.  Chances are, the spring flow is going to be high long into June.

Check out this video of Marc on the Middle Fork near Moccasin Creek.

There is a window of time after ice-out and before runoff when the rivers in Glacier Country are fishing really well.  The window is open now…and if you know where to go and how to hit it, the Middle Fork of the Flathead is delivering better than a FedEx man on rocket boosters.

In the past week, guides Steve and Marc, along with Trout TV host Rich Birdsell got into what we in the biz call “real nice fish.”

This is the real deal–a 15-pound bull trout caught on a size 12 prince nymph.  Good thing Steve-o has been working out–otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to hold this beast for a proper grin-n-grip photo.

Lift with your legs, Steve.

This thing could eat a dog. But it chose a size 12 prince instead.

Of course there are a lot more fish in the river.  And the fellas found them.

Come fishing with us!  And don’t worry about missing the window–just call us and we’ll tell you about some fishing options available even during runoff.   Don’t let our guides hog all the fun.

This is huge, folks! We have partnered with Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air’s “Explore National Parks” program to offer 20%-off flights to and from Glacier National Park Internatinal (FCA) airport in Kalispell, MT. You read right, TWENTY PERCENT OFF!

Call your friends, call  your family, or, if you don’t live here, book your flight now because it’s time to visit Montana!  Just for example, a round-trip flight from Los Angeles to FCA during the first week of June was UNDER $300 with this promotion.  This is only offered as part of the Explore National Parks program that we’ve partnered with, so you can’t find it on the airlines’ website.    Instead, visit Glacier Raft Company’s Specials and Promotions page for the discount code and link to the booking page. You’d better hurry because the tickets must be booked by May 1st for travel dates between May 1st to June 30th, 2011.

To sweeten the whole shebang even greater, Glacier Raft Company is offering 2-for-1 half-day whitewater raft trips. You need to mention that you are traveling with Alaska Airlines or Horizon Air when you book your raft trip, and bring your boarding passes when you check in for your float. This deal is good for raft trips between May 15th and September 15th, 2011 and works for flights into and out of Kalispell, Great Falls, Helena Bozeman, Billings, Calgary, AB or Spokane, WA.

We’ve got the goods, so come and get ya some!

See you when you get here.  And locals, call everyone you know and tell them that the time for that Glacier getaway is now.

We’re taking customers on our first fishing trip of the season tomorrow.  Guides Marc and Stevo will be headed out on the Middle Fork from West Glacier to Blankenship Bridge.  There’s about three feet of visibility right now, and as long as that water stays somewhat clear, we can take customers.  And it should be pretty good.  Take a look at the pics we took over the weekend on the Middle Fork.  Marc and Chris caught about a dozen solid cutties. 

When they set out, they didn’t know what to expect.  The water looked good, but not perfect.  But– TWELVE fish later the trip was obviously a success.
If you’re a local out on the river tomorrow, give us a nod.  And, if you’d like someone to row for ya, and help get you the best day possible, book a trip with one of our expert guides.  Don’t forget, you can buy flies and gear, including warm clothes, fly rods and reels in our full-service fly shop at Glacier Outdoor Center.

Fish on!