Gulp This

Saturday July 23rd, 2005
Fishing Journal- We packed up the heavyweight rods and went over to Hepgen Lake for some infamous Gulper Fishing. Gulper Fishing has become a very popular treat amongst fly fishermen. The name is derived from the noise these large "lake fish" make when they gulp up whatever the fly may be on the surface. For the most part they are taking Calebaeitis in the Dun form which is just a pretty fly with its wings upright. The fish gulp in complete lines just gorging themselves on the flies. This only happens into late July, August and parts of September. Usually lake fish have an abundance of food in the deeper water and never really venture too far inward but with incredibly easy eating this time of year it sure is fun. All you have to do is first off spot the fish (average size 20") and predict which way its going...make a good cast and watch the fish eat it. There are Browns and Rainbows that perform well. There is nothing like having a 20" trout on a fly rod. They fight to the end and in some cases take 20 minutes to land. But this particular morning the fish were very inconsistent lining out for us. An occasional feed every now and again makes the fishing spotty. They just weren't behaving right. We then fought the wind all morning looking for fish and glassy water. When the wind picks up you might as well pack up because the Gulper Fishing is over. It usually really doesn't start to blow until around 11 or 12:00. I fished with Bill of course and one of his good friends Dr. Bruce Kohn. Got to hear some interesting stories about what type of patients are in a prison medical facility in the middle of BFE Montana and what ugly things the Meth problem has turned into. He basically said if you want to fry your head all you have to do is get near this stuff. So around 10:30 the fishing experts determine that the large damsel fly's flying around everywhere is what the fish are eating. Nothing quite like fishing the wrong fly for 2 hours! Damsel Fly Nymphs to be exact and you couldn't find one of those in my box that particular day. I think between the three of us we may have landed one fish. Got to see a few golden eye ducks and that was very cool.