As anglers, many of us have moments that define us — be it a first fish on a fly rod, bringing a steelhead, permit, or tigerfish to hand, or playing a part in your child’s first caught fish. I’ve been blessed with several of these...
What do you pack for a day of fly fishing? Aside from the essentials, there are the elements to deal with: You’ll need layers to protect yourself from the blasting summer sun or the biting late-fall winds. And don’t forget the camera, or to stock...
As the executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited, David Brooks spends his days learning the ins and outs of legislation and issues as they pertain to fisheries. Dedicated to conserving, protecting, and restoring Montana’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds, he’s the guy we approached to...
Auction for the Arts The Arts Council of Big Sky hosts its sixth annual fundraising art auction Thursday, March 22 at Moonlight Lodge. The evening begins at 6 p.m. with a quick-finish session with well-known artists including Kevin Red Star, Carol Hagan, Gary Lynn Roberts, John...
Yellowstone National Park is a destination for many anglers, but when you’re coming into the park from Montana, Wyoming, or Idaho, the federally-designated fishing regulations can take you by surprise. Here’s a bare-essentials start at what you need to know: When to fish: Fishing in the...
IN LIVINGSTON, MONTANA, barely a stone’s throw from the Yellowstone River, a handful of fly-fishing craftspeople are at the forefront of a burgeoning movement, creating handmade, utilitarian works of art. Boats. Rods. Flies. Not unlike the pioneering farmers of the farm-to-table movement, these men and...
THE BIG HOLE RIVER has its start east of the Continental Divide in the Beaverheads, bubbling up from a complex of high-altitude rivulets and runs, snowmelt ponds and puddles, before flowing 150-some miles toward its confluence with the Jefferson River. Along the way, the Big...
[caption id="attachment_11328" align="alignright" width="210"] brown drake, Silver Creek, Idaho[/caption] SO HERE'S A THOUGHT: If you’ve taken up fly fishing, the trajectory of your progress — the map of your success — runs large to small. You start out on the riverbank, checking in sort of nonspecifically...
SOUTH OF THREE FORKS where the graveled Madison Road winds past cattle ranches, horse farms, and residences, there’s a unique, unmarked fishery at the Cobblestone Fishing Access site. Commonly known as Darlington Spring Creek Ditch (its original name was Darlinton, after the family that once owned the...
WHEN MY WIFE AND I CRESTED THE FINAL mound of trail approaching Gneiss Lake in Montana’s Tobacco Root Mountains, the beauty of the jagged granite walls briefly halted us. Below, concentric circles of slow-rising cutthroat trout pocked Gneiss’ surface, and the click-clack of bounding mountain...