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A Great Day with Golden Stones on the Madison River
Classic big bug action on Montana's iconic 50 Mile RiffleUnlike previous years, my summer expedition for 2026 has not been all about fly fishing, as I’ve spent more time working on this website than I have on the water. Working parked next to a river in Montana is a job that I can get behind, if only there was some actual revenue coming in.…
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Fly Fishing Scenes, August in Montana
From the Bighorn to Glacier and backI started the month down on the Crow Reservation, on the Bighorn river below Yellowtail dam. Cottonwood camp was the base for the first few nights, then I moved to the Bighorn access point downstream. A nasty thunderstorm blew in and threatened the huge tree I was parked under, so I beat feet up to…
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Scouting the Gardner River from the North Gate of Yellowstone
I wrote last summer about my visit to my old favorite honey hole on the Gardner river in Montana, and this year I decided to hike into the park from the North Gate in the Town of Gardiner. The old road through the park from Gardiner to Mammoth Village was destroyed by the flood of…
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Labor Day Fish Tales from Montana
Hebgen gulpers and late summer callibaetisI’ve spent the last couple of weeks on Hebgen Lake, near West Yellowstone, chasing callibaetis-eating rainbows and browns. Today, on my last day on the lake, I found an honest to God “gulper”, a fish that’s eating bugs on a steady tempo… about one every three seconds. That allows you to predict where to place…
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July in Montana, Broken Bikes and Brown Trout
A KTM that didn't like getting wet and dry flies on the BighornMy last post had me dreaming of dry fly action on the Henrys Fork, and sad to say, it was a two week exercise in “hope springs eternal”. Maybe tomorrow the bugs will come out and the fish will start looking up? Apart from a few nights of substantial brown drake hatches, where I at…
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A Look Back at Fly Fishing in 2024… WTF, Mate?
2024 was the ninth year that I’ve been a full-time RV’er and I have been looking to upgrade to a new model for the next ten years. My business has been good this last year, or rather you could say I worked more than I wanted. A happy result is that I’ve saved a substantial…
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Finally, A Colored-Up Fall Run Fish
I’ve fished the Madison in Yellowstone 12 days total since September 22, and this is the first legit lake-run fish that I’ve caught. It has been so bright and sunny, some of the willows along the bank think it is spring and have started to bud! But what a fish, just look at that orange…
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An Update from West Yellowstone
I’ve managed to break my weekly posting streak here at travelingwithtools.com, which started back around this time last October. I’d committed myself to a regular writing schedule (more or less) with the goal of making this website into something more useful. Well, two weeks ago, I set up on the Madison River at Bakers Hole…
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The Gardner River and a Yellowstone Honey Hole
In 2015 I paid my first visit to the Gardner River in Yellowstone National Park. I had an exceptional experience, due to the dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time. I had parked the motorhome at the Lava Creek trailhead, just adjacent to the Mammoth campground, and hiked down to…
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Trout Spey and Preparing for the Madison Fall Run
I’m staked out here on Hebgen Lake near West Yellowstone, Montana and I’m getting excited to fish the Madison River Fall Run. The town had a fly fishing and art festival last weekend called “Wretched Mess Fest“, which is just a damn great name. My first motorcycle was a Yamaha XS500 that I lovingly referred…