Location: Tiber Reservoir (Lake Elwell)

Another day of fishing in Big Sky Country. Matt and I decided to try a large reservoir. Tiber, north of Great Falls. Over 33,000 acres, 27 miles long, and said to have good walleye in it.

We arrived and had a bit of a struggle with finding the marina, so started fishing a bit late, around 8am. Just out from the launch there is a long flats area that goes for a couple miles up lake. The depths we fished varied from 15 to 35 feet. It was a sunny, warm, calm day. I expected big crowds. Well, maybe a dozen boats tops. Wow, not what you'd see in Washington!

Method was bottom walkers with spinner/worm harnesses, nightcrawlers. Within minutes of gear down I hooked into a nice fish that turned out to be a nice - big - sucker. Groan... hope that isn't what we were in store for all day. It wasn't. Soon after Matt hit a 14" walleye, and a little later another small guy of 12". Even so, it was what we were looking for.

We trolled the morning away and got a couple more suckers, but the walleye bite was brief and over, until around noon, when my rod doubled over in 24 feet of a rocky bottomed point. This was a good fish and gave a nice series of head shakes as I guided it into the waiting net. A nice 22" specimen.

I'm definitely going to return here, but next time bring a bigger boat to really explore some of the bays and flats farther from the Marina. The reservoir also holds trophy rainbow, pike, ling, sauger, and catfish. Great fishing with my son for two days out here in Montana.

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