Montana Outdoor Podcast Downrigger Dale & The Captain of the Montana Outdoor Radio Show

In this week’s edition of the Montana Outdoor Podcast, Downrigger Dale talks with Montana FWP Bear Specialist Jamie Jonkel about problem bears and how to deal with them. Jonkel talks about how Bears can cause some serious problems if they start looking for, and find, easy food sources in Western Montana neighborhoods, like garbage, bird feeders, pet food and, well, you name it. As you can imagine this can get very dangerous. The number of reports of problem bears have been growing in Missoula, Kalispell, Whitefish and other cities. Rigger and Jamie even talk bears that enter homeless camps along the rivers and even entering tents! This has become a VERY big problem in several cities.

When you listen to this podcast you will hear some of the usual things like: Are you Bear Aware? Do you know how to Bear-Proof your property? What are the main things that attract bears? BUT you will also hear some things that are, well, weird, like: Bears can become addicted to bird seed?! Did you know that fresh cut grass can attract bears? Bears view chickens as garbage cans with wings! Oh, and what about the story of the couple that was moving into their new house and found that a bear had already moved in?! Did a bear really come into a home and help himself to the homeowner’s lunch that they had just set out?! You have got to listen to this one folks!!

After you listen to the podcast. If you want more information on, how to deal with bears on your property, how to keep your livestock safe, guidelines for landowners and much more, you can find helpful links including email addresses for Bear Specialists in your area by clicking here. Do you even know how to use bear spray? Click here to watch a great video! Did you know that the right electric fence can be a great tool to deter bears? Click here to learn how to set one up to protect your property. This takes you to a great guide and on the last page even has info on how to get financial help for fencing. Here is another link for assistance with bear fencing.

Remember to tune in to our live radio show, The Montana Outdoor Radio Show, every Saturday morning from 6:00AM to 8:00AM. The show airs on 30 radio stations all across the State of Montana. You can get a list of our affiliated radio stations on our website. You can also listen to recordings of past shows, get fishing and and hunting information and much more at that website or on our Facebook page. You can also watch our radio show there as well.

Matt Fischer and Ty Hinderager have been fishing in tournaments together for 15 years and have done pretty well competing together but they never had a tournament weekend like they did last week! These two entered the Crooked Creek Walleye Fishing Tournament on Fort Peck Lake in Montana and set a new record for the most weight ever caught in a two day Walleye Tournament in Montana! You aren't gonna believe what the total weight of the 10 Walleye they caught. Give the podcast and listen and find out what it was!

Matt and Ty took home well over $17,000 when it was all said and done last weekend and Downrigger Dale and the Captain caught up with them and had a great conversation with them. The two champs talked about their strategies for pre fishing the tournament as well as for day one and day two of the tournament. VERY interesting stuff! They also talked about electronics and the role they play in their success as well as how the work together no matter who is having a great day and who is having a rough one.  Whether you want to learn how to do better fishing in tournaments or just how not only catch more fish but also bigger fish, then this podcast is for you! Plus you just might be surprised with some of Ty and Matt's answers to some of The Captain's and Downrigger's questions!

If you have any questions for Matt or Ty just click here to email Downrigger Dale and he will get your answers from Matt and Ty. For a listing of upcoming fishing tournaments in Montana just click here.

 Remember to tune in to our live radio show, The Montana Outdoor Radio Show, every Saturday morning from 6:00AM to 8:00AM. The show airs on 30 radio stations all across the State of Montana. You can get a list of our affiliated radio stations on our website. You can also listen to recordings of past shows, get fishing and and hunting information and much more at that website or on our Facebook page. You can also watch our radio show there as well.

So, who is Montana’s secret admirer? This week on the Montana Outdoor Podcast Downrigger Dale decided to find out. I guess you could say he was “shocked” when he found out just who it was. As Rigger put it, “I really was shocked, pardon the pun, to find out that such a big company would do something like that! Not because they had to but just because they wanted to. Mainly  they just see it as the right thing to do.

I suppose you are still scratching your head and wondering, who the heck are we talking about? Well odds are that many of you in Montana do business with them every month. Downrigger spent time with Kim McMahon and Andy Welch on the podcast and they talked about the Missouri-Madison River Fund, which is officially described as a “grant program that is implemented through the Missouri-Madison Comprehensive Recreation Plan. It addresses the ongoing needs for public recreation in the Missouri-Madison Project Area”. Created as a public-private partnership among local government, state and federal agencies, Project 2188 Hydroelectric Project, River Fund grants and our secret admirer’s matching funds are awarded annually for qualifying projects. Now, when we say “secret” we are stretching the truth a bit, as actually it is not a secret. It is just that we, and likely most everyone else has no idea that this corporation has been doing all this wonderful stuff!

Still not sure who we are talking about? Well, listen to this week’s Montana Outdoor Podcast! This Podcast is packed full of all kinds of great information. In fact, in addition to talking about all the great things this wonderful company is doing that benefits areas all along the Missouri and Madison Rivers from West Yellowstone to Fort Benton and even beyond, Downrigger and his guests also talk about the company’s involvement high up into the Beartooth Mountains and even down the Clark Fork River in Thompson Falls!

Ok now, no cheating! AFTER you listen to the podcast then you can do the following: If you would like to Learn more about the Missouri-Madison Project, click here. To send questions or comments to our guests; click here to send an email to Kim McMahon and click here to send an email to Andy Welch. If you would like to see a listing of all the projects that they and the company have been working on since 2007 click here. This is a VERY impressive list! How many of those places listed there have you been to? Remember NO SPOILER ALERTS by telling your friends who the secret admirer is! Just share  this link on your social media pages and send it to your pals!

Remember to tune in to our live radio show, The Montana Outdoor Radio Show, every Saturday morning from 6:00AM to 8:00AM. The show airs on 30 radio stations all across the State of Montana. You can get a list of our affiliated radio stations on our website. You can also listen to recordings of past shows, get fishing and and hunting information and much more at that website or on our Facebook page. You can also watch our radio show there as well.

On this episode of the Montana Outdoor Podcast, we talk to a guy that is known for thinking outside of the box when it comes to fishing. No, he doesn’t do it to be different. He does it because it works!

Neal Cote is a true fishing innovator, researcher, and teacher. Downrigger and the Captain had a fascinating discussion with Neal about all kinds of fishing techniques and ideas that really opened their eyes on how to break that catching slump that we all can get into. They also learned about a new term that may sound strange here but once you listen to the Podcast you will get it and you will never forget it either. So simple, yet one of those things you probably have never thought of. It goes like this “be careful that you don’t get stuck fishing your memories”. Puzzled as to what that means? Listen to the Podcast and get ready to have your mind blown! After talking with Neal on the Podcast Downrigger said, “I feel like I have just been to therapy, and I am looking at fishing a lot differently now”. Does that mean he and his fishing buddy the Captain will get along better on the boat this summer? Ah…Neal is an innovator not a miracle worker, but it is safe to say they are likely going to catch a lot more fish!

On this week’s Podcast Neal Cote does not just talk about innovative fishing techniques. He also shares all kinds of great advice on updating your tackle box, rods, and line without breaking the bank and he even gave some great ideas about how to strike up a conversation with other folks out there that will help you collect information to help you find and catch more fish, without annoying the crap out of everyone on the water and the fish cleaning station!

Neal is also a very accomplished fly fishermen and fly tier. He shared some great ideas, like how to land huge pike with your fly rod…consistently and much more! This podcast is packed fuller than Downrigger’s lunchbox! After you listen if you have questions for Neal, you can click here to email him. You can learn more about Neal Cote, read his blog, get fishing reports, and buy his incredible flies from his company called Bite Me Flies, just click here to do all that!

Remember to tune in to our live radio show, The Montana Outdoor Radio Show, every Saturday morning from 6:00AM to 8:00AM. The show airs on 30 radio stations all across the State of Montana. You can get a list of our affiliated radio stations on our website. You can also listen to recordings of past shows, get fishing and and hunting information and much more at that website or on our Facebook page. You can also watch our radio show there as well

This week on the Montana Outdoor Podcast Downrigger and The Captain sit down with fishing guide and outfitter John Perry, aka, The Mountain Man. John is one of the few Montana guides that is internationally known and is likely one of the most in demand guides in the United States. People come from all over the world to fish with John on Montana’s Blue Ribbon trout streams, Rock Creek, and the Clark Fork, Blackfoot, Bitterroot and Missouri, Rivers. John is just as famous for his flies that have become internationally known as well. 
This is one of those podcasts that you will want to listen to a few times. Each time you do you will pick up something new. Whether it’s the story of John learning Latin so he could better understand the science of Entomology (the study of insects) which ultimately helped him tie better flies or his mix of humor, spirituality and dedication to hard work that has made him an incredible mentor to the guides that currently work with him today or have learned from him in the past. As Downrigger put it, “After recording this podcast I walked away not knowing if I had just spent close to an hour with a man that is insane, brilliant or both.  All I know is somehow I just became a better fisherman, and my stomach still hurts from laughing! I can’t wait to listen to this podcast again!”.  Mixed in throughout this podcast is information about all kinds of things from when and where to find the fish to how to read a river so you know what to use to catch them.

If you would like to learn more about John Perry or to book a trip with him click here. There you will also have access to info about fishing with John or his other guides on Rock Creek as well as the Clark Fork, Blackfoot, Bitterroot and Missouri, Rivers. If you would like to book a night at John’s unbelievable lodge on the Clark Fork River click here.

Remember to tune in to our live radio show, The Montana Outdoor Radio Show, every Saturday morning from 6:00AM to 8:00AM. The show airs on 30 radio stations all across the State of Montana. You can get a list of our affiliated radio stations on our website. You can also listen to recordings of past shows, get fishing and and hunting information and much more at that website or on our Facebook page. You can also watch our radio show there as well.

The Missouri is the longest river in the United States, flowing more than 2,500 miles from its source on the eastern slope of the Rockies near Three Forks, Montana, to its confluence with the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri. What controls all that water is a series of dams and the most important of those are located in Montana. This episode of the the Montana Outdoor Podcast explores how those dams in Montana are managed, especially the granddaddy of them all, the Fort Peck Dam!

When the Fort Peck Dam was completed in 1940 it was the largest Dam in the World! The dam is managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. On this podcast your hosts Downrigger Dale and The Captain are joined by the Operations Project Manager of the Fort Peck Dam Darin McMurry. Darin is one fascinating guy and gave all kinds of information about how this incredibly important dam is managed and how the decisions that are made there not only affect Montana but everything that happens downstream all the way to the Gulf of Mexico!

When you listen to this Podcast you will learn how the dams along the Missouri River in Montana help manage the risk of flooding, how they help keep the barges moving in the Mississippi River, they help keep Americas Farmlands irrigated and much more! Downrigger also asked Darin about some the myths and mysteries of the Dam and it's huge reservoir. Things like is it true that divers that clean the drain screens have seen creatures that defy the imagination? Is there really one button that if pushed could send all that water pouring across America? Who really makes the decisions on how much water is sent down the Missouri River? You will learn the answers to those questions and so much more!

If you would like to get more questions answered by Darin McMurry just click here to email Downrigger and he will get in touch with Darin and get your questions answered. You can also visit the Army Corps of Engineers Facebook page for Fort Peck Dam and Reservoir by clicking here. You can get information about the Fort Peck Interpretive Center, which is an incredible place to visit if you are near Fort Peck Montana, by clinking here.

Remember to tune in to our live radio show, The Montana Outdoor Radio Show, every Saturday morning from 6:00AM to 8:00AM. The show airs on 30 radio stations all across the State of Montana. You can get a list of our affiliated radio stations on our website. You can also listen to recordings of past shows, get fishing and and hunting information and much more at that website or on our Facebook page. You can also watch our radio show there as well.