Recently some friends were visiting and we decided to try "Hooked on Montana," a fishing company located just south of Kalispell MT in a town called Somers (pronounced "Summers"). We booked a five hour excursion with Erik, and arrived at 7am on the day of our reservation. So here's how the day went.
Hooked on Montana is located at 5463 US-93, about 15 minutes south of the center of Kalispell. When we arrived at 7am, we were directed straight to the boat which was located at the end of the pier. We hopped on board, completed some necessary paperwork and disclosures, and then off we went. Our guide was Erik, and he let us choose whether we wanted to go after lake trout or whitefish. We chose the trout and headed out to our starting point for trolling.
You don't have to bring any fishing equipment with you. Erik's got plenty of poles and bait. He originally set up six poles, and a little while later added four more. Once the fish started biting, he changed out a few of the lures, but basically we slowly moved through the water and just watched for the rods to move. And when they did, we jumped up and started reeling them in. It was as simple as that!
For the first few hours, we were getting bites fairly regularly. Three fish got away, but then we were able to reel in four "eating" sized fish and three "too big" fish. Fish between certain lengths (I think it was 30-36" but I'm not positive) are at a prime breeding age so those are sent back to make more fish. And then fish that are even bigger than that are old. Some of the fish in the lake can be 50-100 years old. They apparently aren't tasty, so we sent those back as well. But what fun to pull them in!
Erik also fillets the fish for you, so he did that during the last few hours of the trip, when the waters were calm, the poles were silent, and conversation was rich. We learned all about the history of various fish and shrimp in the lake and talked about recent weather and local happenings.
A few other items of interest. There are no bathrooms on board the boat, so make sure you do your duty prior to taking off (there is a porto potty on the side of the business building). The charter does supply water for drinking, so you don't need to bring that with you. And if you are planning on bringing home filleted fish, you may wish to bring a cooler with ice just in case. Also, final note, the charter is not in charge of the weather or desire of the fish to bite! So while we had an amazing time, there aren't any guarantees about the fun factor.
So the bottom line? We would definitely recommend taking a fishing charter with Hooked on Montana. It'll be a lot of fun! For more information, check out Hooked on Montana at their website or call them at 406-885-0105.
This was originally posted at thehousekat.com.
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