Fishing – Occidentalist

Down the Backroads of Northwest Montana

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2026-08-09
Post category:2026 Fishing Montana
Post comments:0 Comments

We’ve been to Montana plenty of times. But we haven’t really focused on seeing a good portion of the state. Our first big bite in 2026 was to travel through some of the backcountry starting north and heading south in the western portion of the state. We took a day to drive nearly to Canada, and then settled in for a few days at a picturesque lake before making our way back south for the first half of July. July started out cool and rainy, much better than it ended, hot and smoky. The clouds and rain that started out our trip seem so distant now in the oppressive August heat and choking smoke, it seems like a distant memory. Our views of the mountain above the lake were obscured on arrival, but we could tell this was going to be a great place to spend a few days.

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Dworshak Reservoir Boat, Camp and Fish

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2025-07-08
Post category:2025 Fishing
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Up until this year we hadn’t had much luck at Dworshak Reservoir., which is a shame, because here is this huge reservoir that mostly has an undeveloped shoreline, nice boating amenities, but the fish we were catching were tiny. Like fall through the net tiny. That all changed this year. We started catching kokanee with a decent size to them, and figured out the technique to start catching decent numbers (hint: they are really shallow). By early June we were having 30 fish days going out for day trips. The water level topped off at full pool about then as well, which made the boat in mini camps (70 in total) easily accessible for some boat in camping. We packed up the boat and headed out for three days of boat in camping to chase some kokanee.

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Salmon River, 2023

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2023-12-10
Post category:2023 Fishing Idaho
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Steelhead on the Salmon River? Yeah, it might sound a bit strange, but that was what we were there for. Well, yes, there’s also the camping, being on the river, a bit of wildlife, time around the campfire, all in a place not too far from home. Throw in a chance for steelhead? Count us in. And yes, there are salmon as well, but that season was winding down while steelhead should be ramping up.

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