Fish, Bugs and Babes

Its awesome to get some time on the water with a fisherman that just kicks ass! In this case its my good pal Caleb. I had the pleasure to spend a few days fishing with the dude before he flies out of Missoula to guide in Alaska for the summer. Needless to say we drank some beers, floated in pure shitty weather, and tightened up our lines!!!!!Memories is what makes fly fishing so special to me, as most of you read in an earlier post, and when you get to kick for a few days with a true bro and good fisherman shit ends up workin out in a good way. Not many people have a few dudes that fish just like them and don't take themselves to serious on the river and just love to be out there. I have been blessed with some good dues to tighten a line with and this jerk is one of them. So have fun in Alaska dude! You too Fuller, you don't think I would forget about your ass!

But on another note, WHAT A WEEK OF FISHING!!!!!! We managed to totally bum it the hell out, on some awesome rivers, the Missouri was fished twice and we fished another zone on a totally different river. That rivers name I will take to the grave with me!!! Sorry folks, but that is my new little playground, that not a single person outside of my circle of dudes that will know about, which makes it that much doper!

So here is some fish porn for you guys from the MO, and the nameless river!

Once again Caleb and Mark have a kickass time in Alaska!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers and Tight lines dudes!!!!!

Nick

So its runoff time, which sux, so the fishing is non existent. but i'll throw some fishporn on here anyway to just make me feel better!!!!!

cheers and tight lines dudes!

I just wanted to take a second to tell my beautiful mom, happy mothers day! I dont know what i would have done without her trying her damnedest to keep me out of trouble and always a great mom!

Love you and happy mothers day!

nick

Yesterday a few friends and myself did a float on the bighole. We weren't looking for any numbers by any means, we wanted that leviathan sitting at the bottom of the river eating 14 inch rainbows and killing anything else that dares swim in his zone. We didn't catch that guy...but had a productive day with our scary flies. It is hard to target a fish on a freestone that eats a 14 inch rainbow every few days, has ample places to kick it undetected and will more than likely kick your ass when you do hook that dude. Luckily there were a few aggressive browns and a few rainbows who didnt let anyone down yesterday by throwing down a munch on our big uglies.

On an even more awesome note, one of our buddies sheila, caught her first montana brown trout yesterday. She was pumped and it was awesome, but then I went to take a picture of her and the batteries died, it sucked. Some memories are just better off in your own mind I guess.

All in all though it was an awesome day, we had to battle weather all day, and a long drive. But when your rolling back home at 230 in the morning after fishing all day and actually ripped lip, its all good!

cheers and tight lines!

Yesterday I had a guide trip on the Mo, and the fishing was awesome, but as it turns out it was much better than the clients in the boat. Luckily they were cool as hell, which made the day fun for myself and them. They had some awesome eats, but just couldn't seal the deal. Both people in my boat would get the initial head shake of a big fish and one big run, but were definitely under qualified and out classed by the wiley fish of the Missouri. On that note we did boat fish and they were pumped to get some in the boat. The coolest fish boated was a tiny little rainbow that reached 10 inches max, but he didn't really care, once he brought the fish in and we took a picture of it he said "thank got a little fish finally ate my fly because that guy was all I am qualified to handle." That comment made me appreciate them even more because they found the beauty in the sport of fly fishing, and realized that just being there, and getting plenty of great opportunities at big fish, is what its all about.Now if there had been a pair of fisherman in the boat that were qualified to handle the MO, we would have boated quite a few more fish. But that's okay, they were excited none the less. Once they did catch fish they for the most part just wanted to float along and drink soda pop and enjoy the time they had left on the river.

It was good to have clients that knew they had plenty of opportunities and blew them all, and yet understood at the same time. One of the pics above is of one of my clients yesterday with that same 10 inch rainbow I mentioned earlier, and he is pumped regardless. That makes all the difference in the world when you get a chance to see a total beginner appreciate the beauties of fly fishing and treating a fish of that size the same as a 25 inch brown. The other picture is of a can of troutslayer ale chillin on the side of the river at the gallatin. Not that it has anything to do with the guide trip, but its a good beer at a good river and right where a troutslayer should be...on the water!

cheers and tightlines!

nick

Yesterday I was having a conversation with someone, and they told me how sad it was that all I ever want to do is be on the river. They brought up the fact that I just may be old and alone with no heirs or no one that really cares about me, besides my brother considering he is younger than me and will always be a kickass cat, and I thought about that for a second and politely disagreed. Why worry about that when there are lots of fish to be caught out there in the world! Well that seemed even more infuriating to this person. They proceeded to tell me that the most important thing in life is to give yourself to another person because it apparently is living for more than yourself, which is exactly what being on the river is, its a spiritual and satisfying feeling bigger than myself that is too much to put into words. We are put in a society where we can choose our own paths, so why is one better than another, why not fish and tie flies constantly if that is what makes a man like me happy.

And on another note, there are plenty of women out there, why concentrate on one of them when you can check out what a lot of them have to offer right? Its the same with fish, why just catch one of them when you can catch 50.. You tell me which is more satisfying? All that aside though, how is a person suppose to master an art, and yes it is an art, without dedicating their life to it and working to be the shit in it. I guess I could settle as a recreational fisherman, but that to me is no where near satisfying, just like everything else I want to be the best at it. There should be no compromising if it is something that you really love, and with fishing I don't have to compromise.

So on that note, thank you fly fishing. Your the only thing that can make sense in my life day in and day out, even if the fishing sucks. The two pics above may not be with fish, but a couple of memories that I am spoiled to have because of fly fishing.

cheers and tight lines doods!

nick

Yesterday I had plans to write about the day on the Gallatin River that I had. A buddy and myself fished the canyon toward Big Sky, and I had caught a lot of fish, the biggest one being about 11 inches. But something better presented itself and I feel needs to be shared because its badass.

This post is not about me, once I got home from fishing I had called my folks to see what was going on in their lives, and brag to my old man that I am still fishing in Montana, and he is not. Little did I know the old man and some of our good friends went out and did some fishing themselves. And it just so happened to be the 18th bday of one of them. So I tell him about my day and he is not as pumped as usual to hear about my fishing escapades, something had to be up, as it turns out the three of them went on into elevenmile canyon and just brutalized a shit ton of pike. When he was explaining the day to me I had yet to see the pictures and was a little jealous already, since I am a pike junkie. Not only did they catch pike, but they caught some big old dudes. I got pics of the old man, ants and markie. I dont have a clue how they walked up on the day they did but like good fisherman they took advantage of it. Just remember one thing, after a day like this the fish gods are bound to be pissed because they just had way too much fun. Enjoy the pics everyone and sorry this post isn't a Montana post, but this was just way too cool to not share with everyone.

Cheers and Tight Lines!!