Montana in August

Joe and I had a great opportunity to head west for a few days of fishing during one of the best months of the year.

We were only able to be away from the shop for a few days so when the alarm went off at 2am on Friday I was up and waiting by the door for Joe to pick me up to head to Philly for our 6am flight. We didnt have time to make coffee or eat so we made sure to do so in Chicago between flights.

Once we made it to Bozeman we headed to a couple local fly shops to get license and check out a few...or should I say a lot of local patterns. Then we were Madison bound. Getting to the Madison round 3pm we fished until we could no longer see then it was back to the truck to open a fresh cold Alaska Summer Ale. Fishing near the famed 3 dollar bridge was amazing; the fishing was tough for this is one spot on the river that sees much foot traffic. Joe and I each managed a few fish each, Joe first fish was a very healthy Brown.

Getting up at 6 with the sun was a great idea; montana sunrises are something that has to be seen! On the way out we saw a lone Antelope sitting in the neighbors front yard, taking in the sight just as we were. We fished hard all morning until sun was high and the fish took a break. We fished back channels with hoppers, there wasnt much down time, the fish were hungry and wanted to eat the big foam bugs we presented them. Not many big fish but we had constant action all day. Then it was off to the local pub (The Gravel Bar) for a cold one and some grub.

At 4am on sunday morning Joe's alarm went off and we where up and packing for the long haul to Craig MT to fish the Missouri river. Joe has been dreaming about fishing this river for years and after the pictures Wes brought back last year I couldn't wait to get a shot at some big healthy wild trout. After almost losing a truck tire and about a gallon of coffee we made it to Headhunters Fly Shop where we rented a boat for the day. It wasnt long before Joe and I both fell in love with this river. The Mo is a dry fly fisherman's paradise, slow flat water that holds big fish. We launched the Adipose skiff at Holter Dam and started fishing. With no fish rising we put rigged up our nymph rods, within a half hour I had what I flew all the way to Montana for, a beautiful Rainbow! We started down river and it wasnt long before we found fish again. Caddis started to fly and the fish knew it, the rest of the day we fished a CDC Caddis and had great success.

The last day we both were a little slow getting out of bed due to getting back around 12:30am that night, but we packed our stuff and headed back to Bozeman to get onto the Gallatin for a few hours before our tour of Simms and our flight home at 5pm. The Gallatin is a beautiful stream running through the mountains with lots of boulders and pockets for wild rainbows to hide. Joe and I fished for about 2 hrs before we headed into town to meet up with the Simms crew for our tour. Around 330 we pulled into the airport parking lot with our rods still strung up to catch our flight. It was very hard to leave this fly fishing dream, but we know that we will be back sometime soon!

Check out Joe's Blog for his story!