My wife and I flew to Billings for a quick weekend visit with my son and DIL and as luck would have it Matt and I found time to get away for a morning of fishing. Deadman’s Reservoir (seems like a very appropriate name for a Montana reservoir) holds a nice variety of fish, including kokanee, rainbows, walleye, smallmouth, and tiger muskies. Our plan was to target the warm water fish but the reservoir had other plans for us.

We drove the short 55 miles to the launch, avoiding a few deer along the way and arrived to find the place to ourselves. Boat in the water, we worked our way along the shoreline casting in 5-15 feet of water, using plugs and spinners. It didn’t take too long before I had the first hookup, which unfortunately came unbuttoned before we could see it. Shortly after that Matt hooked into a nice fish that splashed and flashed bright silver, and then it was gone. Hearted by our early bites we continued to work the shoreline, headed toward a rocky section of shoreline.

Matt had been throwing a large spoon for muskies and I chose a smaller diving plug, bouncing it back in the rocks to the boat. I had another nice hit and this time landed a good 14” rainbow. Shortly after that Matt got himself a rainbow and from there on in it was a rainbow party.

We had a nice morning bite that ended as the wind started to pick up. We probably had around a dozen fish for the day, not bad. All rainbows, couldn’t find the warm water fish which kinda surprised me.

Always a good morning to get out fishing with your son and as always Montana waters did not disappoint!

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