August 3 & 4, 2020
I love speaking before a crowd and yesterday I was back before one for the first time since my winter fly fishing show tour came to an abrupt ending in the middle of March due to Covid-19. My full day seminar took place in Big Sky, Montana and there was a limited attendance allowed of 50 people. We had pretty close to that number.
Winston Rods provided loaner rods so after I gave my usual “Fly Casting 101” presentation, everyone lined up and casted on the grass of Spanish Peaks Mountain Club. I made my way through the group offering instruction with the help of event organizer Jim Hagar and a few other fine tuned casters. Later in the day we talked dry fly fishing and the grand finale this evening was my PowerPoint presentation, “Fly Fishing through Midlife Heaven”.
My Monday wasn’t over when the event finished up around 8 PM. Jim and I grabbed dinner then I returned to my room to decorate a guitar with my Sharpie art. The guitar belongs to Chris Daniel. I picked it up in West Yellowstone on the way to Big Sky and dropped it off with Chris this morning on the way to Hebgen Lake. Browse through my IG Page and you’ll find more cool items I’ve drawn on recently.
Jim Hagar and I and a couple of his pals launched two boats on Hebgen Lake this morning hoping for some gulper action (a gulper is a cruising rising trout on a lake). We began with a light breeze but shortly after we shoved off the entire lake became dead calm. Such glassy conditions make the rainbow and brown trout exceptionally cautious so they’re hard to approach. Furthermore, they don’t gulp along the surface as good as if there was a tiny breeze for fear of getting waxed by an osprey or eagle. And we had very few bugs.
Overall, the fishing was tough. When we found our best group of gulpers a motor boat ran right through the middle of them despite Jim frantically waving his arms signaling to give us some room. Believe it or not this was a “fellow” fly fisher in a motor driven raft. Welcome to the crowds of amateur outdoors-folks in 2020.
We fished for about three hours and I managed to hook three nice fish and land one. This guy made numerous crazy jumps and nearly took me to my backing twice. Even when Hebgen is tough, one fish like this makes it all worth the trip.
I’m back home tonight but likely to sneak out with Granny in the boat somewhere tomorrow. I need some rest from my crazy schedule of late but Granny needs some time on the water before she returns to work on Thursday. Rest is overrated anyhow!
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