A Little Taste of The Stonefly....

A little taste of what I was a part of last weekend in Twin Bridges, Montana. 

What a place

When The Bobber Goes Down....

according to Joe from Evolution Anglers, 

STRIKE LIKE COBRA!

Spending 2 days in Twin Bridges with Joe and the rest of the crew at the Stonefly Inn got me really tuned up in reading the action of a strike indicator (aka starring at a bobber)   This phrase is another one the hillarious one liners that Joe brings to the table as your progress through the day on the water.  Some I can say here, other's you're just going to have to hear for yourself.

We both believe there are a lot of times when a fish picks up your bug, spits it out and you never knew it happened.   Becoming one with your indicator, in a zen sense can make all the difference.  

So back to the main point of this post.  When in doubt, STRIKE LIKE COBRA when your bobber jukes, jumps or plain goes under and swims away.   Set the hook and see what happens.

Because sometimes, there's a fish attached.

If you're thinking of going out to Montana this summer, you'd be crazy to not fish with the crew from the Stonefly.    Utterly crazy.

The high water of early spring and summer is going to make July, August and September just pain nuts.   Give them a call, you wont regret it.

Under Montana Skies....

This place is truly amazing. 

July and August, White Unicorns and Weddings

July

The annual trip to the Smallmouth Who Eat Mice River was a smashing success.   Now its dry fly action that I really get excited about.  They eat like they've never seen food before

On a whim, we decided to "take a look" at the Clearwater and hope against hope that the far leading edge of the summer run Steelhead were in town.

You see, white unicorns DO exist.

Do yourself a favor and skip fishing for Steelhead over here in July.  Because if you do and you luck into a fish like this silver rocket, it makes you forget all else.  Wait till September or something sensible.

Yeah right.  Wish I could say I followed that advice but as you can see, the pictures from July are done because no other Steelhead were caught and that's all I went for.


August

I put the two hander away for a bit for a trip to Montana's holy land of Twin Bridges.  Good buddy and fishing guide Joe of Evolution Anglers was getting married and of course, there were some fish to be caught.

A beautiful day in the valley floating with Liz and Kevin  followed by a beautiful day on the Big Hole at Joe and Ke'lah's wedding.  We might or might not have fished the morning of their wedding.....just maybe

Also, I caught another white unicorn.

Tune in tomorrow for The Fay Clave of September an October's guns of fall

Life Seems Like It's on Mute Right now

A weekend to the trout holy land of Twin Bridges, Montana can do that to you.

There are certain times in life were everything just pulls together, and this last weekend was like an arrow hitting the dead center of a bullseye

From Missouri, Hawaii, Ellensburg, Portland, Seattle and all places in between, members of the fly fishing degenerate council and their better half's descended into Southwest Montana for a little wedding for our buddy Joe Willauer of Evolution Anglers. 

Planned or not, it also coincided with some pretty nice hopper fishing on the rivers surrounding town.  If you don't know what they are, then you probably need to go find out...cause it's a trout fisherman's version of mecca

Fishing was a nestled in the region between great and unreal.  When you can toss big foam pillows down a current line and have toad browns tip their noses up to accept, it's a pretty rad deal

I hopped in an extra seat on Friday and Kevin Samuelson of the Evening Hatch and his lovely girlfriend Liz. 
She did an excellent job showing s that girls often out fish the boys

And Kevin showed me that there are Steelhead east of the continental divide

The day of the wedding was the culminating day of the trip.  It's a special day when you can do a bit of fishing, hop up the bank, get ready and walk to the most beautiful little church I've ever seen. 

A little golden love right before.....

The ultimate expression of love was stated between Joe and Ke'lah Willauer.  Cheers to you too!

So the stars aligned, the sun shined on our backs, fish ate big dries, a few too many Moscow Mules were consumed, a 4 wheeler ran around the reception hall and I danced like a fool at the reception of the best wedding weekend I've ever been to.