Friday, September 12, 2008

A River Does Indeed Run Through It

For the fly-fishing faithful, a trip to Montana is nothing short of a pilgrimage - a chance to test ones skills against some of the most fickle wild trout in the world. And while I'm definitely not a seasoned angler, it's impossible not to appreciate the beauty of this place and the meditative serenity of being completely lost in the pursuit of the big one.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.








Uncle Bill takes aim while cousin Chris thinks of another zinger.




Our guide has a bumper sticker that says "Love 'em and leave 'em". Perhaps this is a bit more love than he was advocating.






The fish in these parts are all wild (or at least they have been for the past 20-plus years). There are rainbows (pictured above), browns (below) and white fish. The white fish are the only ones truly native to the US. The browns and rainbows, which are the most revered by anglers, were brought here by humans from Asia many years ago. How the hell they got them here is still a mystery. I caught both the fish pictured btw ;)




The man above is Mike, we came across him during our float down the river. He was trying to land this brown just as we arrived but didn't have a net. We lent him ours. He was stoked, it was his first time fly fishing and I don't think his expectations were too high, thus the lack of net. I asked him if I could take his picture and he obliged.