Montana Fishing Trip, July 2004

When I was a young boy of about 11 years old, all I ever dreamed about was living in a log home and I wanted that log home to be in Montana. Since that time, I have realized only half of my dream; I live in a log home but it is in Tennessee, far from Montana. I will never forget how amazed I was when I first discovered how many times you could geographically fit the state of Tennessee inside of Montana; three and one half times to be exact. There are more people living inside of Davidson County, home to the city of Nashville, than are living in the entire state of Montana. It is without a doubt a rugged and beautiful country.
The river you see in the picture is one of the most famous trout rivers in Montana; the Madison River, home to some of the most beautiful Brown and Rainbow Trout I have ever caught on a fly rod. What a wonderful experience that I will treasure for the rest of my life. I can still feel the crispness in the air and the fresh smell of the countryside as we floated for miles down the Madison as it meandered through the valley toward the town of Ennis, Montana. Believe me when I say, it was very easy to let all the cares and worries you thought you ever had just float away beside you.

Every bend in the river seemed to have it's own unique signature. After floating for miles on our "clack-o-craft" (the boat we fished from) we soon rounded a bend in the river and suddenly we were amazed at the number of sheep crossing a hillside beside the river. What a sight. This is sheep country, I soon learned. They seemed so small as they crossed over the hill compared to the glorious mountains that rose to the sky behind them. I had to slap myself to be reminded that I was in Montana, fly fishing on a famous river, without a care in the world. Shortly after this picture was taken we rounded another bend in the river and the entire scene changed to that of storm clouds and a serious treat of a hail storm. Minutes before we were admiring a beautiful crystal blue sky. My friend, this is Montana. You never know what you might get around the next corner, but that is what I love about this country. It is so beautiful, even more so than words can express, but then it seems that can change instantly and you find yourself running for cover. Most of the time however, it is what many call Montana, "The Big Sky Country".

The bluest sky that I have ever seen. The mountain range that you see here is the Absaroka Mountain Range. The highest peak is Francis Peak at 13,153ft. There are also forty-six other peaks higher than 12,000 ft. Looking at those mountains I couldn't help but think of how beautiful heaven would be. It also made me think of how magical it would be to live up there in one of those valleys for the rest of my life. I don't think I would ever get tired of looking at the sky, the mountains every morning and evening as the sun either rose or set. If you knew how to take care of yourself and survive, the adventures you would have would be endless. It may sound silly to some but I would have loved to have seen this wilderness through the eyes of Lewis and Clark the first time their expedition made it's way across Montana.

Just in case you thought I was making all this up by downloading pictures from the internet, I thought I had better prove to you I was acually there. The first and third pictures are rainbow trout and the second picture is a brown trout. All three were caught on flies that our guide suggested that we use since they seem to look most like the ones that were flying all around our head and faces at the time. Occassionally, our guide would pull up to the shoreline to check the type bugs that were hanging out on the sticks and grass, so as to give us a better chance of catching and landing a fish. It was amazing to see the different insects that seemed to flourish along different sections of the Madison River as we floated along. Several times we changed flies to match the insects that were populating the shoreline at the time. When we had a cold spell for 30 minutes or so, we'd tie on another fly and then we'd we back in business.

It's hard to explain to you in words the feeling I had of catching a wild trout on this river. You would have had a better understanding if you had been there just to see the expression on my face. It was worth a thousand words. The initial indication that you actually had a " fish on", was the ever so slight "rise" as the trout took the fly and when I say "slight", I do mean "slight". If you weren't watching your fly floating along, the trout might take it in and spit it out just as quick because it had determined very quickly that it was artificial. I missed several nice fish that way, but when you did manage to set the hook, the fight was on. Most of the time the trout would head straight up the river, against the current and that was ok until he headed downstream and you were fighting the current trying to bring him back to you and then it felt like you had on a 10 lb smallie. You will notice in the picture that the guide is holding a landing net. We tried to land all the fish in the net, so as not to injure them. Then, of course we released all the trout we caught. The water was not all that deep either as you will notice, but it was iceberg cold and rather swift at certain spots. To stand in the river, you had to brace yourself so as not to fall because the stones ranged in size from softballs to basketballs, that is of course the ones beneath the water and it was tough to get your footing. Well then, had enough, do you think you would like to go to Montana with me next time ?

As I stated before, things can change in an instant. During this particular instant, hail fell from the sky about the size of marbles and we headed for the shoreline to scramble under a few trees that offered a little shelter from the pounding we were getting. Then as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared and we were back on the river and enjoying our adventure. I probably failed to mention this before, but it was July 1st, 2004. I didn't think it was possible to have a hail storm in July. I was thinking of all the scorching hot days I had endured in Tennessee, when in July you could hardly breathe when you were outside, due to the humidity. One good thing about Montana though, you have extremely low humidity or not at all. The individual that owned this home was definitely above the 100 year flood level for this area. Imagine waking up every morning, looking out your front window at the Rockies with the Madison River meandering its way along your driveway. What a life.