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Usually, one guide will
accompany two hunters and an average to fifty to one hundred deer
are seen each day. Many of them are bucks. The opportunities to bag
a good mule deer are outstanding.
Sometimes, an unguided hunt can cost far more than a
guided hunt due to lack of knowledge of the area,
equipment, and experience. Hunting the Missouri
Breaks with a guide and boat provides all of that
and more. Normally, when asked what the "chances of
bagging a nice mule deer is," Carl Mann responds,
"We are confident that we can get you a shot a good
buck, the rest is up to you."
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 HUNT MAGAZINE
Featured Us As:
"HUNT OF THE YEAR"
Mule deer populations are high through their range,
and Montana is no exception.
However, Montana has something to offer that other
states lack: A large, non-mountainous, area of
public land that holds high numbers of mule deer.
This area surrounding Fort Peck Lake in northeastern
Montana is a deer hunters paradise.
Carl Mann's Montana Experience Outfitters offer the
hunter the unique opportunity to see scores of mule
deer every day, and the chance to harvest one
without the rigors associated with high hills and
deep forests. Hunters can glass the shoreline of
Fort Peck Lake from a boat, stalk the ravines along
creek bottoms, or have Carl and his associate guides
place them for a drive if need be.
The deer populations around the lake are very high,
and can offer a hunter multiple chances to take a
mule deer buck. Carl has guided many older hunters
and handicapped hunters to their first deer.
This hunt is an excellent way for the first time
western hunter to see lots of animals and have a
good chance of bagging a buck.
If you're thinking of heading out west a good bet is
Carl Mann's Experience Outfitters. Their excellent
reputation for helping hunters bag a muley buck
speaks for itself!
THE AREA: Fort Peck Lake, around which the hunting
takes place, is 134 miles long, has 1,520 miles of
shoreline, and has 240,000 surface acres of water.
It is impossible for a hunter to cover the area in a
season.
The area surrounding the lake is a rugged landscape,
cut with small breaks and creek bottoms. Hunting the
area with a guide like Mann gives the hunter a
comfortable camp, knowledge of the area, and a high
probability of getting a shot at a muley buck.
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 OUTDOOR LIFE - "The Breaks for Bucks"
By Bud Journey, Montana Editor
"This is a great place to hunt if you want to see
lots of deer," Carl said, as he peered through his
binoculars. "We see between 25 and 75 deer each
day-and a decent percentage of them are bucks."
Carl Mann, who has hunted in the area for seven
years, was scanning the Missouri River breaks that
surround Fort Peck Reservoir for mules. The breaks
make up the network of hills and gullies that fall
from the plateau of eastern Montana's prairies to
the waters of the state's largest river. It's a
unique but extensive ecosystem found only along the
Missouri, and it provides a home for mule deer,
antelope, elk and a few whitetails. Mule deer,
however, are the most numerous, and that was what we
were hunting.
The vegetation in the breaks ranges from sagebrush
to pines, with a variety of native grasses dispersed
throughout. Most of the land is quite open and
allows good visibility. "There are some deer
across the draw," Carl said. "I think there's
a buck with them." We got out the spotting scope and checked
more closely. There were four does, a spike, a
three-pointer and an average four-pointer.
"Do you want to take Him?" Carl asked.
"I don't
think so," I said. "I still have three days. I think
I'll keep looking."
"You'll see more," Carl assured me.
He was right. The next day, I saw between 75 and 100
deer. At least 23 of them were bucks, including
three 4x4s, but I still didn't see anything that
stood out.
During late afternoon of the third day, John another
veteran breaks hunter, shoed me a spot where he had
seen a good buck earlier in the season. We set up on
a high hill that afforded good glassing
opportunities, then sat and watched. Muleys seemed
to grow out of the shrubbery. The longer we watched,
the more deer became visible.
Finally, shortly before sundown, John said, "There's
a good buck."
I looked in the direction he was pointing and picked
out the buck among several does and and a spike. He
was obviously bigger than other deer I had seen up
to that point, and he definitely deserved a closer
look.
We used a gully for cover and moved to a spot a
little more than 200 yards from the buck, which
isn't bad shooting distance in eastern Montana. We
looked him over carefully with the spotting scope
and decided that we probably wouldn't see any
better.
I lowered the accessory bipod attached to the stock
of my Browning .25/06, assumed a prone shooting
stance and carefully squeezed off a shot. The buck
went down. He had an almost perfectly symmetrical
rack, with well-developed tines and brow guards on
each side-a nice animal.
 Of the five hunters in our camp, four of us finished
with good, mature muley bucks. The fifth hunter,
Jim, wanted to shoot only an exceptional specimen.
He passed up six 4x4s without shooting, then, on the
last day, missed a chance at a very big animal with
a 30-inch spread.
The breaks around Fort Peck is rugged country with
limited access. There are primitive dirt roads that
snake throughout much of the area, but they can be
hard to find and confusing once you get on them. To
complicate matters, rain or snow makes the gumbo
soil unbelievably slippery, and when things get wet,
land vehicles become useless.
Carl has solved the access problem by setting up a
camp along the shores of Fort Peck Reservoir and
using boats to get to their hunting areas. It seems
like the obvious solution to the problem of getting
around, but few people do it. During the four days I
hunted the breaks, I saw no other boats on the
reservoir.
A word of caution is appropriate here. Fort Peck
Reservoir is a long body of water, and strong winds
often whip up large waves, creating treacherous
boating conditions. At such times, it is imperative
that you keep off the water, which can be dangerous.
The reservoir is surrounded by the Charles M.
Russell National Wildlife Refuge, so there is almost
no development along its shores. Virtually all
development lies adjacent to the dam, around the
community of Fort Peck. The refuge also maintains
some administrative buildings there.
There are relatively few boat ramps for such a large
reservoir, and bad weather also reduces launching
opportunities. If you plan a trip there and need
access information, contact Refuge Manager, Charles
M. Russell Nation Wildlife Refuge, Box 110,
Lewistown, MT 59457 (406-538-8707). The office also
distributes maps and can fill you in on other
details, such as camping and fishing opportunities,
boating and firearm laws, and other refuge
activities and regulation.
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 OUTDOOR LIFE - "Miles of Trout"
By Bud Journey, Montana Editor
"The Clark Fork is the most underrated trout stream
in the state of Montana." Carl Mann gave me his most
emphatic look to underscore what he had just said.
Then, he continued: "The Bighorn, Yellowstone,
Madison, Gallatin and Bighole get all of the
publicity, but this river is better than any of
those." He stopped the pickup and led me to the side
of the road, from where we could view a long,
dogleg-shape pool in the river.
"Take a look," he said as he pointed toward the
water.
I looked at the long, placid pool and immediately
picked up the churning swirl of a large,
surface-feeding trout-than another and another. As I
watched, dozens of trout dimpled the surface with
their feeding activities. "That's all I need to see," I said, heading toward
the back of the pickup. "Let's get the fishing
gear."
"Whoa, wait, hold on!" said Carl,
"Not yet! We're gonna make a float, Remember?"
"I think I'll just make a few casts," I said.
"Those
fish are feeding right now. And I'm gonna fish for
them right now." "Come on, bud,"
said Carl, "Those
fish will still be feeding later."
I took one last, longing look back at the feeding
trout, then reluctantly climbed into the pickup.
At St. Regis, Montana we headed for one of the many
public access areas on the river. Our float trip
would take us through 10 miles of great trout
fishing.
The unique river has a history of ecological abuse
due to a century of mining activity in its
headwaters. Other industries continue to degrade the
water to an unknown extent, but the river has shown
an amazing resiliency and continues to provide some
of Montana's best fishing.
There are good populations of rainbow, cutthroat,
brown and bull trout in the river, and a recent
study has shown that rainbows are growing up to five
inches per year in some sections of the river.
Browns are common in the upper reaches of the river
east of Missoula, and rainbows predominate in the
long stretch between Missoula and the confluence
with the Flathead River near Plains.
Carl has been fishing the Clark Fork for 17 years,
honing his technique according to the idiosyncrasies
of the river. Some of those idiosyncrasies are in
contrast to norms on other streams. For example,
Carl doesn't go out of his way to get on the river
early. He likes to hit it at about 10 a.m., when the
warming air begins to trigger insect hatches. The
best hatch of the day Carl believes is in the early
afternoon, between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.
Carl also has no problem mixing hardware and
flyfishing. He will use both techniques from the
same boat at the same time. In fact, he usually
begins each float trip with a flyfisherman in one
end of the boat and a spinfisherman in the other
end. That's what we did. Carl tied on a No.l 14 Blue
Dun dry fly, and I tied on a small black and yellow
Panther Martin spinner. I cas6 in all directions
from the boat, but primarily toward shore. Carl did
the same. We caught trout all along the 10-mile
float, and they ranged form 11 to 15 inches in
length.
It was a bit of a slow day. It's not uncommon to
catch and release dozens of rainbows that average 15
inches in length-and a few cutthroats as well as the
odd brown. The browns tend to be even larger than
the rainbows. When we found a spot with lots of
rising fish, we both used flies, primarily dry
flies. The dominant pattern on the river is any
mayfly imitation in No. 16 and No. 18.
Many of the hatches on the Clark Fork are comprised
of tiny insects that could only be duplicated by an
extremely small fly. When that happens, Carl forgets
about matching the hatch. For example, he said "We
have a blue-winged olive hatch that comes in at
about No. 20, but I use a No. 10 Wulff pattern
during that hatch because it stands out among the
real flies, which all look alike. The fish will take
the bigger artificial fly every time:"
When there is no hatch and the fish aren't rising,
Carl has no qualms about tying on a spinner. He
likes to use a one-quarter-ounce gold Thomas
Cyclone, but any good-quality small gold spoon will
work. He has caught some of his larger fish,
weighing up to five pounds, with spinning gear.
Spinners seem to work best on browns in the lower
part of the river, the 73-mile stretch from Missoula
to St. Regis. But many of the locals like to use
nymphs for browns in the upper Clark Fork, east of
Missoula.
One of the pluses of fishing the Clark Fork is that
it is a very long river. It snakes for more than 300
miles through some spectacular Montana country
before entering northeastern Idaho. This allows
plenty of space for fishermen to disperse. The
result is that the Clark Fork doesn't suffer from
the same kind of pressure that affects many other
Montana streams. In fact, according to Carl, "We
often seem to have this river all to ourselves. More
often than not, we see no other boats when we're
doing a float."
The best time to fish the Clark Fork is in the
spring, just before the high-elevation snowmelt.
That usually occurs in May. The fall is also good,
and fishing pressure is very light then. The only
bad time is during the heavy snowmelt, usually in
June.
Ironically, the Clark Fork is also quite accessible,
with routes 90 and 93 paralleling almost the entire
length.
Visitor accommodations are abundant. Missoula is a
city with a population of more than 30,000, and
complete visitor services are available, including a
commercial airport. Other small towns along the
river, such as Superior and St. Regis, also have
facilities for visiting fishermen, including food,
lodging, fishing licenses and angling supplies.
No one knows the Clark Fork better than Carl Mann,
who guides fishermen on the river.
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HUNT MAGAZINE Featured Us
As:
"HUNT OF THE MONTH"