Montana, Brown Trout, and Fish Bums

It's taken many years to muster up the guts to visit Montana and now I know why its called Big Sky Country, the geography is so vast,  and wide open. Your eyes can see for hundreds of miles, where the sky meets the earth. I'm here for a TRCP work conference and decided to come out a few days early to meet up with  the Simms crew and fish the famous rivers I've heard so much about.   

Chelesa with a brown.

The rivers are a bit high due to gorgeous, hot, sunny days but that didn't stop a couple die hard fishermen and heck, I'm from Oregon, I'm use to high, off color rivers. Nick checks the water levels and  based on USGS water data, we decide to go for a drive. Nick English started fly fishing when he was 5 years old, thanks to his mom and dad. Needless to say he is one of the most enthusiastic anglers I've meet and  works at Simms. Chelesa, the other die hard fisherman is a bad ass in my book; come on, when you blow out your knee skiing and then go fishing two days later, you're hard core!

Needless to say we had a fantastic day on the water. I got drilled on my single hand casting skills and heckled for not setting the hook hard enough, (that's what steelhead fisherman are suppose to do, right!) I lost a few but it's great practice for Baja and future Brown Trout fishing trips!