Woke up frozen and unmolested by grizzlies at 5:50 AM.  Broke camp quickly and went to the bakery in Cooke City that opens at 6:00 AM to warm up, get coffee and a sausage and egg and cheese ‘mc’muffin’ on a fresh biscuit.  It was a dandy!  The bakery also shared space with a guide service and I chatted up the guide.  My original plan was to fish the stretch from yesterday (no thanks!) but to get to the highway that connects with the Gallatin River, I’d have to go 4 hours though the park to the northwest entrance / exit.  He suggested getting up to Livingston and over to Bozeman and fish the Gallatin River between Bozeman and Big Sky.  Done and done!  See photos of the bison on the highway and when anyone see anything of interest in the park, they think the entire road surface is a parking lot.

Found an RV park in Bozeman that also had a hot springs and spa – what a dream come true!!!  Maybe fish, have a hot springs bath and a massage and sleep like a baby.  Called and made a reservation and beat cheeks over on interstate 90.  So, it was and RV park and there was a hot springs that was across the parking lot.  But, a massage?  No.  The hot springs had 9 different tubs of varying temperatures, but none of it a natural ‘hot springs’.  It was run by the Seventh Day Adventists and there is no alcohol sold and they also close at 4:00 PM Friday and open again at 7:00 PM on Saturday.  Before I learned it was the Seventh Day peeps, I was sure an orthodox Jewish family was running it.  Now here’s the kicker – on this particular evening, they had a University of Montana ‘back to school’ mixer complete with DJ and thumping music past 11:00 PM! TOGA TOGA TOGA  The good news is this RV park was not on a train line J

In the Gallatin River by 2:00 PM and tried 6 flies and only one produced a couple hits.  The fish are eating some hatch on the surface and are popping up all around me.  Fished a little more and finally thought about moving on.  Chat up a fellow (Scott) and he happened to be a guide and inspected what I was using.  He suggested a combination of two flies on one line (legal in fly fishing country).  See photo of flies.  So I took my ‘hopper’ and on to that hook, I tied another line about 18” below (the dropper) with an ant.  The ant would sink while the hopper floats.  He suggested another spot 10 miles down the road and off I went.

Well, that did the trick!  Within the next couple hours, I had over 8 hits and caught 3 fish.  Played the fish for a brief time and all eventually rolled and spit the hook out.  When you are using fly fishing gear, it is a completely different fishing experience from traditional spin casting fishing.  See photo of rod bent in the sky – the best I could do with while keeping tip up for playing the fish.

Why Fly Fishing?

I lost my dear friend (and fishing buddy) Dave Mohr a few years back and he and I planned on taking a trip to Montana to fly fish.  While Dave and I had 40 years fishing time together, we always were on a time crunch and we chose to pursue quantity over finesse.  Mind you, it still takes plenty of knowhow to find and catch fish in moving water.  Dave and I longed for the day when he would retire, move back to the US from Europe and we could make this trip.  Dave retired and passed away a year later and left me alone in the stream to fish his way and shout his name once I had a fish on.

Dinner with Eli Hogan

The son of my good friend and colleague, Tim Hogan, moved to Bozeman about a year ago and Tim shot both of us a text to maybe get together.  What a way to finish off a great day.  Eli picked me up at the park and off we went to a trendy spot near Bozeman.  Check out the photo of us on the rooftop bar with the mountains in the background.  Oh, sorry you can’t see the mountains because of all the smoke from the fires.  Eli is a great kid (late 20’s) raised well and grounded and a pleasure to spend a couple hours chatting over beers and good food.  Oh, Tim, I heard you have not been to Bozeman yet.

In Missoula MT right now getting ready for some conf calls.  Note the photo of my dashboard.  Look closely and you can see the fine ash that has been coming through my air vents.  Most cars today have filters for your ‘comfort’.  Not this baby!

Happiness from the trout gods and Dave.

Gary