Category Archives: Montana
Brian O’Keefe: Free Lunch Grizzly Bar
Slinging on the Madison in the 1970s. By Brian O’Keefe I think it was ‘round 1978, I was doing a solo trip to Montana after guiding steelhead on the North Umpqua River in Oregon. Thousands of casts and a handful … Continue reading
Posted in Absinthe Lounge, Montana, Northern Rockies
Tagged Brian O'Keefe, Madison River
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Bighorn River Water Battle Heats Up
Bad Blood Boiling in Wyoming and Montana—Bighorn River Fishery at stake. A battle has been brewing between Montana and Wyoming, a fight for water that begins in Wyoming but, subsequently, drains into Montana and supports what many people, including myself, … Continue reading
Posted in Conservation, Montana, Northern Rockies
Tagged Bighorn River, Troy Letherman
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Fighting The Chill in Montana’s Beartrap Canyon
Whiskey, trout and beer. Your standard winter fishing adventure Well, I think we had a high of 32 degrees yesterday, but that was in town, in Ennis. Below Ennis Lake in the Beartrap Canyon, where the sun didn’t make it above … Continue reading
Ruby River, Montana and Brown Trout
Fall brown hunting on the Ruby River. If you’re looking for a little solitude in southwest Montana you can often find it on the Ruby River. The Ruby, which hosts a couple thousand trout a mile, including browns to 20 … Continue reading
Rock Star Fishing on Ennis Lake, Montana
Fall browns and rainbows in southwest Montana. It was one of those days. I mean, November 4, in Montana, with the temperature right at 70 degrees. Not a breath of wind. Clear, blue sky. Ducks and geese passing overhead. Leaves … Continue reading
Fly Fishing Lakes on the Rocky Mountain Front
Chasing monster rainbows in God’s Country I’ve never really taken to the words expert fly fisherman. So, when people introduce me as such, I always roll my eyes a bit. I don’t doubt that I have as much or more fun … Continue reading
Beartrap Canyon
Fly Fishing the Beartrap with Baetis and eggs. It’s not that I’m a Madison River freak or that I particularly like the river better than any others around here, it’s just that it’s right out the back door and easy … Continue reading
Fall Browns on Montana’s Madison River
Wind, gear-chuckers, and high afternoon sun? No worries—sink the hopper and slay. Walked upstram and found more of the same, but I did discover a few little sidechannels that must not have looked too good to the gear guys because I … Continue reading
Montana’s O’Dell Spring Creek
Cool fall days on some hot private water. Some days I feel fortunate to be alive and Friday was one of those. That’s because Jeff Laszlo invited me to fish on O’Dell Creek, which flows through the O’Dell Creek Ranch … Continue reading
Headwaters Backpack from SIMMS Fly Fishing
SIMMS’ Headwaters Backpack Last year I reviewed Simms’ Dry Creek backpack after tooling around southeast Alaska for king salmon, sea-run cutthroat and steelhead. And I found the pack to function great, with a lot of storm protection for my camera … Continue reading