Okay, so the only brown we caught on the Beaverhead wasn’t big at all, it was a teeny little guy, but we did have two days of primus prime primo dry fly fishing on the Beaverhead catching several nice rainbows.

I caught this fish on a trico right out of the gate.

The Professor answered immediately with this bank feeder he caught on a double-wing trico pattern.

What to do when you reach the takeout before they’ve shuttled the truck? Impromptu cheese & cracker picnic.

Driving home from Dillon…

Our second day on the Beav we put in at the dam with its scrappy ramp.

We saw rising fish all day long which was great fun.

I tried and tried on this pod but couldn’t get one. Here I am starting to get chilly and hungry and wanting to find a fish that was a little hungrier for what I was serving up.

We did find a catch a few more fish, all in all two great days fishing. And for the record we did see a very big, big brown beaver on the Beaverhead. But since I didn’t take a picture of the actual beaver, I will leave you with some video of Cross Canadian Ragweed covering “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver”. I know Les Claypool is an avid fly fisherman but the Professor and I saw Cody Canada cover this Primus song a few years ago in New Braunfels and I just feel like seeing some Cross Canadian live…since it seems that won’t be happening for awhile.

I finished the Texas Water Safari on Tuesday July 13th. By the following Sunday, hands still swollen, I scooped up Little Chick and made a beeline for Montana and the Missouri River. Football players win the Super Bowl and head to Disneyland…I head to the Mo.

Don’t get me wrong, after months of training and enduring the race itself, the San Marcos and Guadalupe rivers have an indelible place on my heart. As do other trout streams such as the Big Hole, the Beaverhead and the Blackfoot. But there is no getting around one plain and simple fact: The Missouri River is my home water.

I don’t know why. I didn’t set out to make it happen that way. I live in a state several states away. I know dozens upon dozens of people who fish the river infinitely better than I do. Many other streams and tides have captured my heart, but when it comes to fishing, the Missouri is my soul.

Curious, no? Is it the people I have come to know through the years? Is it the style of fishing? The fish I’ve caught? Memories with family and friends?

It begs the question: What defines ‘home waters’?

I will have to answer my own question with some pictures from this past July:

And here’s a little music to enjoy while you ponder this question, “What is your home water?”

Of course I also really love the Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty version of this tune but had to go with John Denver since we are, after all, talking about trout stream and the Rockies.

Okay, that’s not true, Project Playlist didn’t have the Loretta & Conway version. But this one is pretty good. It captures the mood. Because I can tell you it felt damn good to be back on the Missouri again this summer.

My friend LG has filmed a marketing video for our friends at The Trout Shop in Craig MT and they were kind enough to ask me to record the voiceover for the video. I was happy to help, although with everyone’s fishing schedules, we have had trouble the past few days trying to find a time to get it done.

Two days ago I rowed my mom and Little Chick on a 7-mile float in a heavy headwind. After being in the narrow, long Safari race boat the Clacka felt like a battleship! I couldn’t get over how wide it seemed. Rowing in the wind with very few fish wasn’t exactly the ideal way to recover post safari. I was still a little beat.

Meanwhile LG was wrapping up a 32-day stretch with some good clients. So we couldn’t seem to schedule the voiceover.

Finally we confirmed a time: 1pm yesterday at the Trout Shop. Perfect. Only problem? We couldn’t find a quiet place to record. The shop was bustling and there is a bell in the back office that goes off every time a customer comes through the front door.

Hmmm, what to do? What to do?

You got it. The quietest spot in the whole town of Craig was the Trout Shop bathroom. They were able to cut the music on the bathroom speakers so LG set me up with the fancy mic and camera equipment and I recorded the voiceover for the video in a quick fifteen minutes.

It’s a glamorous life I lead to be sure…I image James Earle Jones negotiates a better deal for his voiceover work.

But I did score a bottle of leftover Pinot Grigio that LG’s clients had left him.

We were done in plenty of time for me to meet up with my friend Brandon of PRO Outfitters – we were doing a late afternoon/evening float. We ended up getting on the water around 3pm and had a feeling things were going to light up. The wind finally calmed down, and a bit of cloud cover helped the cause.

Finally! After a long summer of high cfs and water safari delays and an extended nymphing season….dry fly action. Big time. It was the essence of the Missouri…rising fish, picky fish, small CDC dry flies that were hard to see and even harder to keep afloat, small trailer flies that were impossible to see. Long drifts (some more drag-free than others!), great takes, big eats.

After fighting 20,000 cfs these Missouri trout are strong! Even the fourteen inch football rainbows put up a dramatic fight. It was beyond fun. They were also skiddish. We saw a ton of fish eating on top but one or two casts would put them down, which added to the fun. Although we did find two or three resilient pods that allowed me to trick more than one fish.

I missed eats, I broke a few big ones off. I boated a few good ones.

It was a picture perfect evening float. I love this river.

I have just returned from three days of fishing in Montana where the rivers are big sky high and the fish are eating way down low in funkytown. Despite these challenges we had a dynamite day fishing the Big Hole with guide and friend, Eric Thorson, who in our minds has officially earned the moniker ‘Hardest Working Man in Fly Fishing’.

With high flows, very few bugs flying, and fish who simply refused to eat, Eric worked like a maniac rowing through thousands of cubic feet of raging water while digging deep into his fly boxes and getting super creative on patterns.

You may recall we fished with Eric a few weeks ago during very chilly temps over Memorial Day. Eric and his business partner Ryan own Sunrise Fly Shop in Melrose and we are huge fans of these guys and their whole operation.

This time we didn’t have the frigid weather of a few weeks ago – it was about 90-degrees and sunny – but once again we fished like lunatics all day. Eric put us on a twenty mile float and it took all three of us to force feed the fish that we did manage to catch.

Try Me

We threw just about everything at these trout. I was determined to tempt something to the surface and spent most of the day with some duo combination of big-big dries, big-medium dries, and even big-humongo dries. I was somewhat coy drifting these superbad bugs in all the hotspots, teasing the fish with a “Try Me, Try Me, Eat Me, Eat Me, Drink Me, Drink Me” attitude.

I caught one small fish.

Please Please Please

The Professor was unafraid to go low early drifting small nymphs and worms and catching a handful of nice fish in the morning. When things went deadsville, Eric dreamed up a super funky combo of dead drifting a streamer with a nymph below. The Professor pulled out three or four fish on that rig while I was battling it out, coming up dry on dries.

It was time for me to show some humility and beg the fish. Please please please will you please eat something for me, Trouts? I haven’t had this much trouble trying to convince a creature to eat since Little Chick was a newborn and wouldn’t take a bottle.

Get Down On It

Okay, fine. Since all the fish were coming in the back of the boat I conceded and signed on for the down and dirty streamer-nymph program. Immediately I had two eats on the small wet fly, but I guess I didn’t have my heart and soul totally into it because I missed both fish! Argh.

I Feel Good

As the sun was dropping a little low in sky and the takeout was growing nigh, we all noticed more bugs fluttering about. Despite the lack of success on dries all day, Eric had a hunch.

We were all hot and tired and mildly deflated. We had fished ourselves into a certifiable frenzy but Eric got down on his metaphorical knees brought on a dramatic cape routine for a grand finale to beat the band.

In one fell swoop, we ditched all nymphs and rigged up big dry flies.

Ka-poow! Huge eat on top.

Cha-ching! Another one devoured it.

Ka-boom! Nice 17-incher pounced on it.

Thanks to Eric’s relentless efforts and keen instincts, we had some seriously hot fishing during the final hour of this mega float. In the words of The Godfather of Soul, “I Feel Good.”

Many Thanks to Eric and Ryan of Sunrise Fly Shop.

Be sure to check out their recently retooled website while you enjoy some tunes from Mr. Brown…

I will be totally honest with you, I’m not great at mending my line. Give me an upstream mend…put a mend in it for me…get that line above your fly…don’t move the fly…too much mend…too little mend.

Argh. I have never truly mastered the finesse of the mend. Too much, too little. But somewhere along the way I learned the reach cast (I’m not too bad at it actually) so I lean on the reach cast which, in my mind, is much a sexier version of the mend.

That said, I know deep down it really is important to conquer the good old-fashioned mend, and not lean on the sweeping dramatic entrance of a reach cast. The mend is much more real life. It deals with the cards you’re dealt, the cast you’ve made. Make an adjustment, make the necessary edits. No surprise in my college creative writing classes I loathed the editing process. I like to get it on the page right the first time or simply tear it up and start over.

Not a terribly mature approach to writing, much less a sophisticated approach to fishing. Starting over? Picking up that line too much spooks  the fish, not to mention your fly spends less time on the water. So it is with humility and hopefully a tinge of maturity that I recognize the need to mend. The need to fine-tune, not start over. The need to subtly edit, to shift gears, course correct, and of course, eliminate drag.

Drag. I was definitely dragging when I trotted off to Montana this Memorial Day Weekend. I was way stressed, wound tight and floating about as well as a water logged dry fly after eight hours of being drenched through the river.

But I was fired up to fish.

Friday we met up with Eric, co-owner of Sunrise Fly Shop in Melrose and our guide for the day on the Big Hole. We’d meet Eric a few times before but it was our first chance to fish with him and I am here to tell you, we are BIG fans of Eric…BIG fans of his business partner Ryan…BIG fans of Ryan’s super charming and lovely wife Katie…and BIG fans of Sunrise Fly Shop. Run don’t walk if you’re thinking Big Hole. These guys love these rivers in Southwest Montana and they are hellbent on delivering clients an all-around topnotch fishing nirvana. They are fun, they are professional and they are plain good people.

So despite the 38 degree temps and all day rain, our enthusiasm wasn’t dampened in the slightest for the day of fishing ahead…

It was a perfect debut for my 2010 trout season. Eric was a good coach, giving me some things to tweak with my cast, and of course, working on my mend. He really focused on the mend…so I have taken the message to heart and am dedicated to improving the mend in 2010. (Although please note I am really tired and have no intention of editing this post and will most likely hit ‘publish’ without checking for typos.)

All that 360-improvement aside, we caught fish. We had action pretty much all day on streamers, san juan worms, and dries. We even hit a pod of risers later in the afternoon and caught four nice fish on a small purple dry – we all know how much I love those purple patterns.

At one point in the day I was casting and mending away, trying to keep my fingercicles from breaking off, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a horse galloping along the bank among the trees. Except it wasn’t a horse, it was a giant St Bernard eagerly trying to connect with us. I kid you not, this dog followed us for at least six river miles, swimming back and forth across the river as we tried to avoid it.

This loving little beast kept screwing up our banks – so instead of telling me to mend, Eric was busy yelling, “Sit! Stay! Back! Bad Dog!” We could not believe it when we reached the takeout and he was still on our trail.

I was worried he was trying to let us know that someone needed rescuing. It was dangerously cold out there if you weren’t properly geared – hell it was cold in layers of gear! Then I started to worry that we were the ones that needed to be rescued and we didn’t know it yet. The St Barnard remains an odd element from the whole day.

Despite the St Barnard, we caught fish. Despite the frigid temps and the fact the river rose over 500 cfs while we were on it, we caught fish. When the Big Hole is on the rise it’s usually the kiss of death fishing-wise. But we kissed back. And caught fish.

Unfortunately, I also caught a cold. Thank heavens I have more fishing ahead this summer because after Friday on the Big Hole with our new buddy Eric, I was out of commission for the weekend.

But the trip was about more than just fishing. We connected, sometimes unexpectedly, with fun friends. While running errands in Dillon we ran into Miles Nolte and his girlfriend Tessa.

At Four Rivers Fly Shop in Twin we had fun chatting about life back home in TN with owner, Robin, and also bumped into fellow fishing blogger and author of Olive The Little Woolly Buger, Kirk Werner.

We had a very special and entertaining post-fishing meal with my dad who was out there on a separate fishing trip with my uncle and some good family friends. It was a treat to share war stories from the frigid day on the river. When my dad ordered a draft beer they brought a bottle and explained that the tap had frozen over. Pretty much sums up our day of spring fishing on the Big Hole.

Even though I was on death’s doorstep by Saturday night, I pulled it together because I couldn’t possibly miss out on dinner at Bandito’s in Virginia City. The joint was packed but we were able to nestle into our favorite spot at the bar and really enjoyed catching up with
Scott, Justin and Stacy.

Justin aided in my quest for health and fixed me a few rounds of gingerale & bitters that I sucked down eagerly – they did make me feel better! The Professor picked his favorite Carne Asada while I was delighted with the special pan-seared halibut and pitch-perfect asparagus with fingerling potatoes.

Bandito’s was my last outing in the 406. I was spiraling fast. So I spent the entire day Sunday on the couch. The Professor spent a few hours wading the Ruby while I watched endless episodes of America The Story Of Us…The Real Housewives of NYC…some saccharine chick flicks on Oxygen which made me cry…and (the highlight) Operation Petticoat. Damn that movie gets better and better every time I watch it.

Fishing, friends, family, healthy food, medecine, rest, bad tv, good tv. All the remedies of the weekend seemed to work in concert because I have returned to Austin feeling much better. Nothing like a little time in the 406 to edit, to shift gears, course correct, and of course, eliminate the drag of every day life. My load seems lighter, my attitude refreshed, and my cold is heading for the hills.

I am on the mend.

The Headhunters episode of ‘Adventure Guides’ airs this weekend on the Outdoor Channel with a brief fishing cameo from your truly.

Actually, it first aired this morning but I missed it because I was busy hoisting my canoe down to the water about to do an interview on Team Paddlefish for our local CBS affiliate. Can you believe I had my first ever television debut twice in one day? What are the odds?

No matter if you missed Adventure Guides this morning, because it airs again two more times this weekend on the Outdoor Channel. Here are few nuggets of info to keep in mind:

• If you have Direct TV, The Outdoor Channel is 606
• The episode airs FRIDAY Feb 26th at 11pm est / 10pm cst
• It airs again SATURDAY Feb 27th at 11.30am est / 10.30am cst
• My good buddy Mark Raisler of Headhunters in Craig MT is the total star of the episode along with the fish and the Missouri River itself. We had a good day on the water and caught a few nice fish so hopefully that’s fun to relive onscreen

That’s about it, friends. Set your TIVOs, pop some corn, and enjoy the show!

(Now I just have to find someplace with the Outdoor Channel to watch it.)

I had such fun on Saturday with my friends at Fly South here in Nashville. They rolled out a fine spread of Krispy Kremes, hot coffee, mango mimosas and bloody marys. We had a great turnout, and hopefully I didn’t bore everyone with my presentation on Montana trout fishing – heaven knows that’s a topic I like to talk and talk and talk about!

It was such fun to be with family and old friends, not to mention have the opportunity to meet new ones. I’m so grateful to everyone who trekked out. Here’s a mini slideshow of the event. Hold your cursor over each picture to read the captions:

Hopefully Fly South got a little extra ring on the register from our breakfast gathering. These guys are topnotch and deserve it after all their hard work.

Little Chick certainly had her consumer hat on wandering through the store, adding one item after the next to her xmas list. The number one item she wanted from  Fly South? A new pink flyrod. I guess Santa was watching my presentation and our little shop gathering because this appeared at our early xmas celebration yesterday morning:

THANK YOU FLY SOUTH FOR THE HOSPITALITY!!!!!

I am overwhelmed by feelings of nostalgia and memories of family traditions. Wistful, light-hearted notions of carefree days and the sound of laughter with friends. Now while I am preparing to travel to Nashville this week for the holidays, it’s not the Yule Tide season or the thought of rocking around the Christmas tree that has my head in the clouds.

I am experiencing a severe case of trout brain.

This weekend I will be at FLY SOUTH flyshop in Nashville doing a presentation on fishing Montana rivers. In preparation, I am knee-deep in fish photographs and river maps and flies…and it’s killing me. I am desperate to be in a drift boat in Montana. I wish I were in the middle of an evening caddis hatch on the Missouri with two hours of summer sunlight left and a glass of red wine and a bowl of penne waiting for me at Izaaks at about 11 pm.

Since that’s still months away and I am due to shake my tail feathers South for the winter instead of West, talking trout will have to suffice until I am catching them. Care to join me?

The guys at Fly South are the best and if you’re not on a river, I can’t think of a better place to spend a Saturday. So if you’re in the area, please do come to Fly South this weekend to say hello, score a doughnut, and see my presentation on fishing Montana rivers.

Krispy Kremes & Trout Talk

Fly Fish Chick at Fly South

1514 Demonbreun St

Saturday December 19th from 9-10am

If you’re not in Nashville, don’t think you’re off the hook. I need help with my withdrawal symptoms presentation. Send me some Big Sky fishing stories, pictures, pattern suggestions. Jump in the mix, share your trout fishing highlight reel with the rest of us. What was your best day on a Montana river? I am granting you permission to brag – not to mention an excuse to take a break from your online Christmas shopping.

1. Sunrise Flyshop, Melrose Montana

I first crossed paths with the guys at Sunrise last May in Virginia City. I was on the girls fishing trip and we ventured off the ranch one evening for dinner at Banditos and a little entertainment at the Virginia City Follies. During intermission our not-so-subtle group of nine caused quite a ruckus trying to get a group picture. Some very nice guys ventured over and offered to take it for us.

As he clicked away, I shouted out, “Are you a fishing guide?” He was just so at home with the fancy camera I knew right away he must be a fishing guide – guides are always the best photographers. Sure enough not only guide, but a partner in Sunrise Flyshop.

We have since been in & out of Sunrise several times – it’s a great shop. And not just because they are so close to the Melrose Bar. Those guys are on the water relentlessly and have excellent intel about what’s happening with hatches and fish at any given moment and they are eager to share information every time we go in for shuttles and bugs.

2. Sunrise Chicken Biscuits in Chapel Hill, NC

Let’s just say in college after a rare night (ahem) of being overserved my roommates and I would skip all of our classes and hunker down all day playing Hearts and eating chicken biscuits from Sunrise. It was inevitably an intricate negotiation process as to who would make the trip out into the world and get the grub, often bartering clothes, future rides to class and of course blackmail from the night before. But it was always worth it. Hands down the best chicken biscuit on the planet. I don’t know how they can produce so many biscuits – so well – from such a teeny little kitchen.

3. Sunrise…

Well I would say the Craneflies at sunrise on the Beaverhead over Labor Day this year but we never made it to the river in time to catch that hatch. We heard about it every where we went, apparently it was stellar. But since we merely have that lingering and punishing should-a-been there, and since it is almost sunrise here and I have to catch an early flight, I am going to have to go with the delightful Norah Jones song “Sunrise”. I am off to the keys for a few days but in the meantime, enjoy some tunes and share a good sunrise story with us…

This past summer The Professor and I were floating the Big Hole, leapfrogging section after section with another couple in a bright blue skiff. Sun was hot and fishing slowish. We cruised close enough at point for a brief exchange. He was a guide with a rare day off. We were from Texas & Alabama. Good fishing…and so on and so forth.

A few hours later we rowed around a bend to discover some anglers in a driftboat wedged on a boulder and taking on water. Not the first on the scene, a gaggle of boats were anchored up river right trying to help and/or watch the drama unfold.

The guide from the blue skiff was leading the rescue charge with another guy who was friends with the anglers in peril. We offered to help but were quickly dismissed. They were far along into their strategy – plus, the fact that we’d previously allowed we were from Texas & Alabama gained us little credibility in this setting with this crowd.

So we stayed out of the way cheering and watching as the guide from the blue skiff jumped in someone else’s higher sided driftboat, rowed across the river, and held the boat in a hydraulic behind a boulder in what was otherwise fast moving water. He was able to hold it long enough for a critical two-way exchange of gear and bailing mechanisms.

Whoa! Our jaws were on the ground. The Professor and I were blown away by his rowing skills. The anglers were able to bail just enough water to dislodge and row like hell to the slower current river right. All was well.

We saw Super Guide down river and effusively praised his rowing prowess, commended him on being the super hero for the day. He was humble and cool about it.

We were sorta hoping to catch him and his girlfriend at the takeout and treat him to a drink, but they were long gone when we pulled out.

Who was that masked man? Who was that Super Guide dressed as a regular fishing guy?

We spent the next few days asking around flyshops, describing his boat, trying to find out who he was. But we never caught up with him.

****************************************

On our recent Labor Day trip to Montana we were determined to float the Jefferson, something we’d not previously done. Admittedly we had trouble cracking the code. Trying a million things. Hoppers, streamers, crawfish. We threw all kinds of things. What was the deal? Wrong color? wrong size? Wrong stretch? Wrong day?

We were stubborn. We fished the Jeff for 3 days. The first day we were skunked. Second day we caught some on hoppers but while we were trending the right direction, it was still a very low hours-on-the-water to fish ratio. But our third day? Our third day we had the power. It unlocked for us. We were moving fish, netting fish, missing fish, losing fish, catching fish. It was a blast. Lots of action.

What changed for us? Well…..

So on that first day on the Jeff – the day we were skunked – we were floating along scratching our heads when what should appear but a guide boat. Hmm. Something was starting to seem familiar about this setup. Skiff….bright blue….young guide.

Wait a minute. The Professor poked me, you know who that was? That’s Super Guide from The Big Hole! He was right. Somewhere in our detective work we had learned his name was….what was it…his name…Joe, I think.

But where was he? Where’d they go? He vaporized like superheroes often do. Damn.

Next day we were kicking around Twin Bridges getting ready to fish and sure enough, we saw his truck and boat. Super Guide sighting again! Damn….where was he??? We kept our eye on the truck but no sighting. The river called.

After a long day we were heading home, barreling through Twin again when who should step out of the Blue Anchor bar just as we were gunning by but Super Guide and his girlfriend!! The Professor honked and waved, and somehow pulled a U-turn on the main street of Twin Bridges with a boat & trailer.

I kept a bead on Super Guide. Hey! They are turning around and walking toward us!

The Professor practically popped up on that curb and I was already hoisting myself out the passenger window to flag them down. Not worrying about the fact I was about to seem like a lunatic stalker I enthusiastically shouted, “Hey it’s you! Super Guide! Joe…..right?”

At that nanosecond it hit me. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot he is going to think we are complete freaks. I bet he is wondering who in the hell we are and why we keep popping up in his world. He opened his mouth to speak and I braced myself for him to dismiss us or ask what the….

Joe lit up and exclaimed, “You’re The Fly Fish Chick!”

Yay! Hugs for everyone!!! Lovefest on the streets of Twin. We met his girlfriend Kayla who was adorable. Lots of laughs about the multiple random encounters. Once again profuse praise for his supergalactic rowing feat on the Big Hole. The four us went to the Blue Anchor for a few drinks and lots of laughs.

Joe Willauer guides out of Stonefly Inn & Outfitters where Kalya works in the shop. We shared stories about fishing the Jefferson – mostly we told them about our challenges. Joe had some really solid insight and suggested we drop in the shop the next day.

We arrived at Stonefly the next morning – our final day of the trip – determined to make something happen on the Jeff. Joe was already long gone with clients but left Kayla with specific intel for us, including some super secret special bugs that we were not to share with anyone. We were so dutiful, we even plucked them off the cliff pad at the end of the float and off the rods so no one at the boat ramp would lay their eyeballs on them.

Kayla outlined a specific stretch of water where Joe suggested we float. She had just fished the same stretch days before and added her own data on specific rocks and banks to hit. Lottery. Needless to say they set us up bigtime.

We had a wonderful adventure on the Jefferson. The float was gorgeous, the fish were hungry, the bugs worked like a charm. Apparently Joe & Kayla aren’t trying to keep their super hero identities all that much of a secret. So if you’re in the Twin Bridges area, stop in Stonefly and meet our new friends.

MANY THANKS Joe & Kayla! Look forward to more laughs, cocktails & time on the water…