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Halfway Through the 2024 Fly Fishing Road Trip
I left California on July 20 so I’m now about five weeks into this year’s western road trip. I’ve got a campsite booked at Baker’s Hole on the Madison River for the last week of September, to hunt for the traveling browns that move upriver, so about five more weeks until you can reliably expect…
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Mountain Passes in a Heavyweight RV
I’ve finally managed to break free from work in California to head east towards the Continental Divide. The heat wave has yet to break, and my motorhome complained to me on the way up CA-20 towards Grass Valley yesterday. For the first time in almost ten years, the temperature gauge moved off the middle and…
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Missing Montana
Longing for Big Sky Country and Cool Clear WatersI had planned on making opening day on the Henry’s Fork on June 15, the start of my summer in the Yellowstone periphery. Technically, that would be missing Idaho, but I generally think of my trips to the mountains as “Moving to Montana“. And it is only 30 miles to the border at Targhee Pass.…
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Bugs of Fly Fishing Seasons Past
One of the things that draws me to fly fishing is the consistently interesting topic of, “what are the fish eating today?” Sure, some people like bugs more than others, and maybe go a little too far down the rabbit hole. Some little boys that play with bugs grow up to be scientists, some grow…
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Another Look at the Dark Side of Catch and Release
I came across an article on a Wyoming website today that discusses the pressure fish face on some of the West’s iconic rivers. Actually, the story focuses on the North Platte’s Grey Reef section, which is one river I haven’t made it to yet, but the problem affects many popular rivers. “Almost a quarter of…
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A Madison River Fall Run Flybox
I’ve got a story simmering about the experience of fishing the Madison River above Hebgen lake in the Fall and it just isn’t coming together the way I want it to yet. In the meantime, let’s take a look at some of the flies that I’ve tied for that event, in West Yellowstone, Montana. Probably…
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Abandoned Dreams on Ruby Creek
A Montana homesteader's dashed hopesOne of the things I like about my nomadic lifestyle is the ability to frequently explore new grounds, and I enjoy poking around old historic ruins when I find them. In 2021, I was fishing the Madison River in Montana, and I was based for a few days out of the Ruby Creek BLM campsite,…
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A Week on the Big Mo in July
Tricos, Caddis and PMDs, Oh My! The Missouri river in Montana is one of the top destinations in America for fly fishers who prefer the art of the dry fly over chucking bobbers and lead. I first visited “the Big Mo” in 2018, the year that I spent trying to hit all of the big…
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August on the Bighorn: 2021
I had spent a couple of weeks on Hebgen lake near West Yellowstone, and after getting my fill of that top notch dry fly action, I decided it was time to move on. As often happens in my meandering travels, I didn’t have a plan set in stone. The skies had been getting more smoky from…
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Gulpers on the South Fork Arm of Hebgen Lake
July, 2021 I caught a few fish on the first day out from the float tube, but they were on a leech pattern under the surface, and I was searching for gulpers. They are the famous Hebgen trout that methodically eat emerging and spent callibaetis mayflies over a long stretch of the summer, making this…