As you may have noticed Montana Fly Fishing Guides is undergoing a bit of a make over. In the past ten years we’ve been fortunate to have a great crew of guides, lodging partner and most of all great clients. So things have been great, but as Paul Getty once said, “nostalgia often leads to idle speculation”. We are determined not get caught up in that trap.
So along with our new logo you can expect a few more changes in the near future. What’s up next? We’ll be over hauling the website to start. We’ve really gone into detail and found out what YOU think is informative on our Montana Fly Fishing Guides website and plan to continue to develop those areas. So look for the new website overhaul in the next month.
In the mean time what do you think about the new logo? Please post your comments below.
Montana fly fishing is never boring, in fact the 2011 season was exceptionally exciting. We thought we’d reminisce on some of the more notable highlights:
#5 – This one is our personal favorite – us getting to fish with fun people! This might seem a bit sentimental, but we have to start this list off with the quality of people that we fished with last season. Over the past 10 years we’ve meet some exceptionally great people and continued to develop long lasting relationships with others, and we look forward to it again in 2012.
#4 – PMD mania. DePuy & Armstrong Spring Creeks had some fantastic hatches this season and this past July was exceptionally good. Guide Eric and client Kris were able to capitalize with a remarkable 5 fish over 17″ in a few short hours. They also had a shot a fish well over the 21″ mark but were unable to coax him to the fly. I guess we’ll have to save that highlight for 2012.
#3 – Salmon flies on the Madison. We had a two boat crew on a spectacular day from Lyon’s to Ruby. Guides Eric and Zach saw more salmon fly dry eats in one day than in the past 4 years combined. What made it especially memorable is that one of our clients has degenerating eye disease that will make it unlikely he’ll ever see a fish eat his fly again. Certainly a sad condition we are just happy that he’ll remember that day for the rest of his life.
#2 – Fishing the Missouri River at 22,000 cfs. No one has ever guided (our research) this river at that level. Despite the high water the fishing was absolutely amazing. Typical days were 20 – 40 fish averaging 18 inches. Simply incredible!
Drum roll please…
#1 – Without a doubt was the record setting flows on the Yellowstone River. The Yellowstone River peaked in early July (a month later than usual) at a record setting 38,000 cfs which equates to 284,000 gallons of water going by every second – a once in a lifetime sight! While this definitely screwed up the fishing on the Yellowstone River until early August it was cool to see. Check out this video take from Carter’s Bridge just south of Livingston.
So after a great day of fishing on the Missouri River how do you follow it up? Obviously you celebrate one of the owners of Headhunters fly shop Mark Raisler’s birthday with a barbecue then head up to Great Falls for a night out in the big city. I mean why not, especially when you get a call from some beautiful women friends that are going for night involving limos and dancing. Really you don’t have any choice.
So what do you do after the big night? Again there’s really no choice but to gather up the pieces, find your friends and hit the water. The best cure for a hangover is to put a bend in the rod and release a few big fish. As you can see the 20″ rainbow Steve is gripping looks like it’ll have a slight hangover tomorrow.
- somewhere near the water via iPad
Montana Fly Fishing Guides’ Eric Adams & Tony Valeriano have a new base of operation on the Missouri River in Craig, Montana.
The New Fish Pimp Palace
Our new Fish Pimp Palace is a vintage 1986 Wilderness pull behind camper. After years of sleeping in our trucks, couch surfing and tent camping we finally decided to splurge on more comfortable accommodations.
Our new Palace has three bunks, stove, refrigerator, sink, 1/2 bath and what will become our fly tying bench. It also has propane, batteries, and all the necessary amenities decked out in the decor of the mid 1980′s. Yeah that’s right awful drape colors with matching brown/beige cushions all surrounded by sweet wood paneling. Honestly, who wouldn’t want this thing? Oh yeah we almost forgot it’s got dual axels and a second hitch. This will allow us to pull it up piggy back style with the Palace hooked to the truck and a drift boat hooked to the Palace. We know that’s going to get us some sweet gas milage, but at least we can go up and back with all our equipment. Nice!
All the high water predictions this season have us guiding on the Missouri River for almost 6 weeks this season so having a place to call your own is a welcomed change. We know you’re all super jealous of our Fish Pimp Palace and I’m sure there will be plenty of guide shenanigans to ensue. In Fact, living in a small camper with another guide in a town with an annual population of around 700 pretty much guarantees it. We’ll keep you posted. If you happen to see us up there make sure to stop by – we’ll give you the tour and maybe even a beer.
We’ll be pulling the Fish Pimp Palace up tonight so watch out Craig the Livingston boys are headed your way!
Of course we’re in the latest issue of The Drake magazine (Summer 2011 Vol 13, Issue 2). Here’s why…
As many of you know after a day of fly fishing one of the best ways to celebrate the day is having your favorite beverage at the Murray Bar in downtown Livingston. The bar has been slinging drinks for over 100 years and is well known to locals as the ‘fish pimps’ watering hole. On any given day in the summer you’ll be sitting next to several guides, outfitters and hard core anglers recounting the days events. Besides overhearing the local fishing secrets the bar has great music, food and western atmosphere. Out-of-towner’s are often seen perusing the infamous “Murray Bar Flies“. These framed shadow boxes line the walls of the Murray and include a photo, signature and the anglers favorite fly. They are the creation of long time, local artist Michael Simon as a way to pay off his bar tab many years ago. Those immortalized are well known patrons of the establishment, local guides, outfitters, famous anglers, artists and actors many are just plain good drinkers. It’s a well written article written by Stephen Camelio in the latest issue so go pick it up and read it for yourself.
So what does this have to do with us? Owner Brian Menges and bar manager Cole Murphy in the course of renovations found many of the Bar Flies in storage. They turned to local outfitters and patrons Eric Adams of Montana Fly Fishing Guides and Tony Valeriano of Western Drifters for guidance. Eric and Tony sorted through more than 100 Bar Flies and identified those worthy of reinstatement on the hallowed walls. Many of those restored are well known within the fishing world such as Lefty Kreh, Joan Wulff, Don Williams, George Anderson, John Bailey and many more. The foresight of Brian and Cole along with the help of Tony and Eric, who’s knowledge and respect of fly fishing history, saved many of these locally historic treasures.
The Bar Flies have been on hiatus over the past several years with changes in owners and Michael Simons relocation to Virginia. However with the appreciation of of our local angling history, the Murray is on track to reviving the Bar Flies and even adding those who’ve risen to Bar Fly status during it’s dormancy. So next time you’re in Livingston make sure to hit the Murray for a couple cold ones and take in a little bit of fly fishing history. Besides aren’t you dying to find out what some of those famous anglers flies are?
We’ll save a bar stool for you. Just make sure you buy us a beer.
PS – Our hats off to the entire Murray staff for saving the Bar Flies and continuing the legacy.
PSS – Don’t get The Drake – why not? It’s the best fly fishing mag out there. Check out their website and subscribe or pick it up in your local fly shop.
O.K. there’s nothing we can do about it so let’s have some fun with this.
We aren’t all gloom and doom over the crazy amounts of rain and snow here in Montana (see the pretty rainbow picture), but it is crazy right now. As many of you know this is how we get our averages here. Average 80 degrees in the summer time = Monday it’s 100 + Tuesday it’s 60 degrees. However, this is getting a bit ridiculous. Granted it’s heading into Memorial weekend so the weather should be pretty crappy, but they didn’t forecast rain – they forecasted HEAVY rain. Oh, and did we mention the Winter Storm Watch in Paradise Valley and Yellowstone National Park for to day through Monday?
To put it in perspective last week Livingston received about 2.5 inches, the forecast is for another 2 or 3 inches, our annual rainfall is 12 inches. That’s about 45% of our total rainfall for the year in a total of two weeks yippie. In eastern Montana last week they got 8 inches in one storm – it washed out bridges and closed the interstate fun.
Once again if you didn’t catch our previous post about the large amounts of snow we still have check it out and consider adjusting your fishing plans this summer.
I remember a story about this, what was it? Oh, yeah Noah can you get us the building specs on that ark you built? Maybe we can use it to float from Yellowstone National Park through downtown Livingston.
Blogging with a snorkel on somewhere near the approaching water…
So along with our new logo you can expect a few more changes in the near future. What’s up next? We’ll be over hauling the website to start. We’ve really gone into detail and found out what YOU think is informative on our Montana Fly Fishing Guides website and plan to continue to develop those areas. So look for the new website overhaul in the next month.
