Montana Fly Fishing: Back In Action...

I haven't posted for awhile for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being a really long run (for an old man) on the sticks. Also I have been wanting to change the content from less a personal rant to a more one information driven. Assuming any of you once faithful followers are still out there, I hope you like the change.

For starters the fishing has been very good overall with a few exceptions, mostly due to changing conditions. For example a few days ago Ralph enjoyed a fantastic day pitching dries (X-caddis and Bighorn Sally were the hot ticket items) between Maiden Rock and Browne's Bridge (Big Hole). Except for one short period when the sun burst through the heavy cloud cover the action was pretty much non-stop end to end. Contrast that to the absolutely awful day before yesterday Burke and Chad experienced and, well it makes one wonder if perhaps there had been a fish kill; despite both staying totally focused we managed just a handful of trout, all but one on the small side, and even the whitefish (except for the 6-10 inchers) seemed to have vanished. If I were to guess what would have to blame the high, cloud free sky, bright sun and especially in the afternoon the river (Big Hole) seemed a little warm. Of course it could have been just me...feel free guys I got big shoulders and a tough skin to boot. Besides yesterday Terry reported nearly non-stop dry action in the same stretch of river and you guessed it cloud city once again saved the day. By the way they got the Big Hole Slam--brown, brook, grayling, cutthroat (cuttbow), rainbow and whitefish...an added attraction to be sure.

Not much to say about the Beaverhead other than if you ain't been you really should...great nymphing anytime and should the clouds roll in the dry fly fishing is really picking up.

Little creeks and Clark Canyon Reservoir are as they say on fire. Check the Anderson and Platt fly shop to see what's hot.

Montana Fly Fishing: Wild country, wild water, wild trout, wild flowers...

As they a picture really is worth a thousand words...in this case about says it all, don't you agree.

Update on Call to Boycott Orvis, Scientific Anglers, Ross Reels....

I just received this letter from Bill Eyre, Orvis...apparently I wrongly accused the current CEO Leigh, "Perk" Perkins of being involved in the recent attack on Montana's Stream Access  Law...If so, I humbly apologize and retract my call to Boycott the above...I do however stand by everything said about James Cox Kennedy, United Property Owners of Montana and PERC, including "Leigh Perkins Sr.", the now retired head of Orvis...Here is the letter Eyre sent me judge accordingly...


Dear Mr. Robbins,

You’ve caught our attention with your blog post on Tuesday encouraging your readers to boycott Orvis. With all due respect, please allow me to set the record straight with a few facts:
Leigh H. Perkins (Sr.) is on the board of PERC. However, he retired as CEO of The Orvis Company in 1992. You have mistaken him for  Leigh H. “Perk” Perkins Jr., who has been Orvis CEO since 1992. We can understand the confusion since they share the same name, but thought you should know the difference.
Leigh Sr.’s role as a board member of PERC is personal, and does not represent the position of The Orvis Company.
In fact, The Orvis Company doesn’t and has never supported PERC, and certainly does not support its position on the issue of public access nor its role in the Montana Supreme Court case to which your blog refers.
Further, Orvis CEO “Perk” Perkins (Leigh Jr.) is on the Advisory Board of Trout Unlimited, widely regarded as one of the more outspoken proponents of public access. Both Perk and Orvis have a long-standing track record of supporting responsible access for the public. Make no mistake, Orvis has long been and will continue to be “pro” public access. A fine example of this is our 2002 customer matching grant campaign in which we partnered with TU and NFWF, raising more than $150,000 to preserve public access at the Three Dollar Bridge on the Madison.
We would kindly request that you retract your call to boycott Orvis based on these facts, and we would appreciate if you would set the record straight with your readers by affirming Orvis’ long standing record of support for responsible public access.
I would be pleased to discuss this with you further, if you wish.

Respectfully,
Bill Eyre
Director of Branding & Corporate Marketing
The Orvis Company, Inc.