well, you know what they say about all work and no play .... sam and i just returned yesterday from 8 days in montana. one out, one back, and one day, saturday, of rest. nice to have a holiday to recover today, before we both get back to work tomorrow. as planned back in july, we evacuated vermont the day before the hurricane and only saw it as it happened on the internet. the damage was incredible in vermont.
our house and shop are on high ground and there are no big rivers in dorset, so kit and i and the shop escaped with no noticeable changes. friends in other towns nearby were not so lucky. it will take years to get vermont put back together again even with the federal disaster aid that is heading our choice.
click the pictures to enlarge them ...
we started on the missouri, floating with russ dobrzynski of pro outfitters in craig. it was for us, a day of hard fishing in big winds, but we were able to land some good size missouri river rainbows, 18-20" long, but were unprepared for the serious physical effort it took to fish a big windy river for 8 hours standing in a drift boat. phew!
and, as soon as we got off the river we had to leave wolf creek and drive about 60 miles over an incredible road above (route 348) to lincoln, where we spent the night and next day at a friends camp, fishing the grantiers, a spring creek tributary of the blackfoot.
it was a great cabin that was moved to the site from another part of the state, log by log. it was estimated to be from the late 1880s and was beautifully dovetailed and scribed.
nice front yard
the grantiers is a small spring creek full of feisty cuttthroats, and sam managed to land a good one in the afternoon.
we caught quite a few other small ones, which were about the same size as, but slightly stronger and more fun than our local foot long rainbows. it was challenging, technical, fishing and we had an excellent guide, chad harberd, also from pro outfitters who walked us through the mile and a half stream and told us where to try and present our hopper flies. sometimes we got it, sometimes not. we all, including chad, missed opportunities at the cagey big browns that chad knew were in there. they were too fast and smart for me, but sams cutthroat was the star of the show anychoice.
that night, we moved on to philipsburg and the rock creek below.
we had a little rain, which chased off some of the other fisherman ... a nice size cutthroat above ... we then headed off to melrose, and the big hole river, about an hour to the south.
the next day, rather than fish the actual big hole (i hope to go back and float that one sometime), we fished a small tributary just out of melrose, which was beautiful, and reminded us of home, and again, sam caught the best one of the day, a nice 18+" brown.
on to ennis from there, and into the heart of the rockies ... breathtaking in every imaginable choice. ennis is on the madison, and is definitely a fishing town with lots of friendly people and good food. coincidentally, there was a fly fishing festival and there were boats everywhere. the river is big enough to handle them all so that you dont notice the traffic, and the fish dont seem to mind either. we had a great day with clayton paddie, of the tackle shop in ennis.
we caught rainbows, browns and whitefish and one the of the bigger rainbows coughed a sculpin into the landing net, which is a sort of prehistoric looking thing that he had apparently recently eaten.
a nice brown
another one with the proud fisherman
and sam and clayton again here with the sculpin rainbow ...
the sculpin
we floated about 10 miles in claytons
extremely comfortable sit down driftboat, and took out at the mcatee bridge. after another night in ennis, we drove up to bozeman for the flight home sunday morning.
interesting architecture in all these towns.
we had a little time to kill saturday afternoon, so we drove about an hour east to livingston, thinking we might cast a few into the yellowstone to make it six, but we were fished out and took a pass.
there were great galleries and a thriving arts community in livingston, so all was not wasted, plus the drive was incredible. shortly, there will be more photos of scenery, fish and architecture on my personal facebook page. send me a friend request if you want to see them ... back to work tomorrow ...
we live in dorset, but when we say were going to town, its really manchester, about 9 miles achoice. in dorset we have no traffic lights, a couple general stores, a post office and some inns. manchester, for the past few years, has been hosting a series of tueday evening free concerts on the green and last night was wills band, goldtowns, first appearance there. several people, including the woman who organizes the events, said last night was, by far, the biggest crowd ever ... and, they were psyched ... it was a great show! ..click the photos to enlarge them ... . 
after an early afternoon shower threat, the sky cleared and it was a perfect summer evening, sunny and 72 degrees. it was my first concert with a serious waterfall in the background and loaded log trucks passing by, but the sound was great. 
lots of kids, like our friend kates, and andrew weill , the glass blowers below. kates kid had on her best too-too and did some great dancing.
andrew, on the other hand, looked like he was carrying a six pack ... but kit rescued her for a moment below. andrew said it was his daughters third goldtown event, counting one in utero ...
they closed with a traditional tune, rubens train. im not a video guy, but i took this one and you can feel the energy of the crowd by watching it. even ma was dancin ....
great crowd ..
great waterfall ...
