Home Again

Just got back home from one helluva week up in and around the Missouri River Country. We fished everything from little mountain streams to the MO, and had great fishing just about everyday. Summer is finally here for real and things are starting to seem much more like normal.

I'm no longer surprised when my battery dies or the trailer does a little wobble. When Rick's car dies, it seems normal. I can row up river just as far as down. My callouses are finally well developed. I can go all day, crash, get up, and go again...just have no idea what day it is. Life is good.

I am truly old, but that's ok. I can still roll with the young guys and kick their asses most of the time.

We have so many great folks we get to fish with. Hard to say that we have any favorites because just about everyone is really good to us. The guys we just finished with have stuck with us through thick and thin for several years now and I've had the chance to see the boys grow up from Pokemon players to young men. So, as it goes with fishing and my life's work...there is always more to the fishing than the catching and those are the things that keep me caught.

The Missouri is really back to normal summer flows now and is clearing rapidly. It should be really weedy in a week. In the meantime, fish are eating crayfish and caddis pupa patterns pretty well. The dry fly fishing at night is getting very good, especially higher up in the river. Hopper fishing will be picking up very soon.

Also, if you get up to Ovando, check out PRO Outfitters' North Fork Crossing. Not sure what they charge in terms of daily rates, but it's a cool setting with some good folks running it. We ate dinner up there the night after we fished the Blackfoot and the meal was crazy good. I mean over the top yummy, Bison fillets with au gratin potatoes, great appetizers too. The meal was really really tasty.