Montana Mayfly Tour

For the last few years we have traveled out to Southwest Montana in April to enjoy some of the legendary early season dry fly fishing. Rumors of blanket Baetis hatches and giant trout sipping midges continue to tempt us to risk life, limb and hypothermia for a shot at a 20" rainbow on a #20 BWO dry fly. Typically, when we arrive at Gallatin Field in Bozeman, the clouds recede, the mercury rises and we spend the weekend basking in the warm Montana sunshine while the Trout lurk in the shadows and quake in fear of exposing themselves to the crafty anglers stalking the banks of their home rivers. But this year was different! We finally stumbled upon a few days of that lurky, smurky, grey drizzle (downpour) and even a little flurry or two and the rest is history. If you noticed the family resemblance, the happy fellow in the cheesy Yamaha hat is my younger brother Matt who flew in from Nashville to try out this fly fishing stuff. He seems to like it!


Chapter 1 - Friday on the Ruby River
	Right out of the chute Matt tricks his first Montana brownie. Right now he's thinking "Hey - this is easy." Right!
So after turning loose several of the first guy's larger cousins, he manages to finally grab hold of this healthy Ruby River brown trout. I think the look on his face now translates into "Thank God - these fish pull a lot harder than that first one!"

What was that movie with Jeff Daniels and Jim Carry? Although they are holding a couple of fine trout!

Our Guide gets artsy with his fancy underwater camera - nice work Geoffrey!

Chapter 2 - Saturday on the Big Hole

Last stop on the way to Maiden Rock. Arrange for a shuttle, brush up on the 14 pages of regulations and hit the river.

Mr. Trout meets the Circus Peanut! Big Hole browns really do like big, ugly streamers.

This time up on top - one of Geoffrey's freshly tied Skwala stoneflies.

He who talks to trout. I think I was saying "Damn, I like this river!"

Chapter 3 - Sunday on the Madison
	So now it is day 3 - we make it to the Madison River a little ways up from Ennis, Mt. Richie shows off a pretty rainbow from an interesting perspective. I have no explanation.
Drift boat operation 101 - Stay away from the bank!

Chapter 4 - Monday on DePuy's Spring Creek
	So you think a little spring shower would scare us? How about a horizontal downpour in a 25 MPH breeze at 42 degrees. Matt hangs in there to trick this pretty bow on the elusive Baetis DRY FLY!
On the spring creek they have thoughtfully provided several "Warming Huts" which we figured out right away. This one in particular was named Eva's Hut and what you don't see in the photo is the wood burning stove glowing in the corner. I really like this river too!


One last big smile from the banks of DePuy's Spring Creek. What a great day - just our 5 rods on 3 1/2 miles of private waters. Like a little slice of heaven. I'll be back!

	Even Richie gets some action. In the background you can just catch a glimpse of the cozy little canyon the Ruby flows through - a really peaceful retreat not too far from the big city lights of Sheridan, Mt.
Your humble rodmaker demonstrating an artful pose of rod and rainbow.