Last Day in Montana

For our last day in Montana we fished the channels again. We just liked it so much and there was still a lot to explore. Today was the first day without full sun. The clouds spit on us a little bit here and there and it was down right windy. We didn't have much luck with the fish today but it was fun nonetheless. Just something about being in the river.
We left the river a little earlier than usual today so we could spend some time with the locals. Our first stop was the Dairy Queen. This guy, Moses, might have been the slowest Dairy Queen employee on earth, but boy did he take pride in his work. His goal was to fill our Blizzards as high above the rim of the cup as he could before it fell over. And that he did. Genesis ch. 3, v. 25 - "And then Moses raised his cup and said before all who had an ear to hear, 'I will make this Blizzard 8 inches tall. And it might fall over, but it'll be sweet.'"
After Dairy Queen we headed back to the cabin to clean up and go ahead and pack our bags. We had an early morning coming and wanted to enjoy the last night in town without worries.
Once we got back to town we hit up the Silver Dollar Saloon and the Longbranch Saloon. A little video poker and some pool and we were ready for dinner. We hit up Sportsman's Lodge and all got steaks. Luke flirted with our 14 year old waitress, Jessica. Nah, just kidding. She was at least 17. And then back to town for a little while to top off the night with some drinks.
Ennis is a good town. I'm going to miss that place.

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Fish Fry

Today we fished The Channels of the Madison down near Ennis. The Channels is a section of the river where it splits multiple times into many various sized channels. The channels are separated by grassy and rocky islands (with some trees). David saw a deer and Luke saw grizzly tracks. We enjoyed this section of the river much more than others, as evidenced by our staying there for several hours. I had a pretty big brown trout on as soon as I got in the river, but he got off when TR attempted to grab him (my error, not his). Other than that one, I didn't get much more than a few canardlies. As for the other fellas, they caught a mixed bag of biggies and smallies. The good news is that we went home with three decent sized brown trout perfect for eating.
We weren't sure those 3 would be enough for dinner so we stopped by the local butcher shop and picked up a salmon fillet on the way home. It wasn't quite dinner time yet, though, so we headed back to the mountain lakes for a little while. TR and I started at the upper lake to catch some more Grayling, which we did. We caught about 11 or 12 in thirty minutes. David and Luke were clear across the lower lake by the time we got back down there. On our way to meet them, TR and I fished where we could. It was quite windy so it wasn't easy. But that's when it happened. That's when TR hooked one of those monsters that he saw the day before. I believe this was the biggest fish of the week and certainly the biggest rainbow. And he was some nice eating too.
And just when we thought we'd had enough fun, Luke and David found a rope swing. Only the Yoders can go all the way to Montana and find a rope swing. It was a nice, high swing and would have been perfect for gainers if it was a little warmer.
We trekked our way all the way around the lake and back to the car - hungry and ready to eat our catch. We all felt like we could live off the land if we had to. Just give us a car, some nice carbonite fishing rods and fancy reels, all the sweet gear we love, and you could call us true grizzly men.
Once we got home we immediately started cooking up the fish. TR and Luke concentrated on grilling the brown sugar salmon while David and I worked on the trout. David filet TRs big rainbow and we prepared the brown with skin on. We covered all four in seasoned bread crumbs with salt, pepper and other goodies, then fried them in an iron skillet with garlic olive oil. With sides of rice and beans, it was awesome. And I'll tell you what. Give us a propane grill, a stove top, some nice pans, and lots of spices, and we are true mountain men.

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Canardly

kuh-nard-lee - noun 1. Any type of fish that, when raised out of the water, the nearest redneck hollars "whoo doggie, I can-hardly see it!"

After breakfast we headed up the Madison just above Lyons Bridge. This was pretty hard fishing. It was windy and the current was fast. We didn't stay long and headed over to the West Fork. The West Fork is a smaller stream more like what we're used to in North Carolina. We didn't have much luck here either. Just a couple canardlies.
We headed back to the cabin for a simple turkey sandwich dinner before heading up to the mountain lakes that David and TR discovered. There were two lakes: the lower lake and the upper lake. The lower lake was larger than the upper lake and had some pretty dense evergreen growth on one side. We fished the lower lake for a while with no luck, although David and TR both said they saw some monster rainbows in there. We headed up to the upper lake and soon discovered it was loaded with Arctic Grayling. The Grayling is a unique cousin of the trout with a sail-like, colorful dorsal fin. These are a prized catch. After catching about 20 of these (and releasing them, of course) we headed back to the cabin. By now it was getting dark and the guys were itching to win their money back from me at the poker table.

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Look out Buzzy, here comes Chef Luke

Today we got to sleep in and relax without being rushed out the door. Of course, I was up at 7:30. It was like Christmas. TR and I took off up the hillside behind our cabin to check out the views; David was not far behind. I stayed on the hill to take a few pictures while TR and David took off in the Commander to find the hidden mountain lakes. Not only did they find the lakes, but they also stumbled upon a bull moose. By the time we all got back to the cabin, Luke had already started cooking up a big, cowboy breakfast. Scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, pancakes, some fruit, milk, and OJ. That was awesome. And to top it all off, the temp was in the upper 60s and sunshine everywhere so we had breakfast on the porch.

Click here for pictures in and around the cabin.
Click here for pictures of the surrounding territory.

Trout Stalkers

We woke up this morning with antelope grazing in our back yard. And in our front yard was a spectacular view of mountains and the valley.
After a quick breakfast we headed into town to meet up with our guides from Montana Trout Stalkers, Joe and Charlie. TR and I were in a boat with Joe while David and Luke were in a boat with Charlie. Charlie gave Luke a quick lesson in fly fishing and then we were off. We floated about 12 or 13 miles down the Madison. The views were amazing. One section of cliffs, called the Palisades, is where native Americans herded buffalo off the cliff. We fished nymphs and streamers, typically trailed by a small bug such as a lady bug or Copper John. The weather was ideal - 70s and 80s and sunshine all the way. Not bad for October in Montana! We ended up catching 11 trout per boat (David: 4; Luke: 7; TR: 5; Chris: 6), plus a handful of Mountain Whitefish. David had the big fish of the day at about 18 inches.

After a long day of fishing (around 8 or 9 hours) we headed into town to check out the dinner spots. We settled on the Roadmaster Grill at the Claim Jumper Saloon. We saw some of the local cowboys and chowed down on some good eatin'. Once we got back to the cabin we turned on the baseball playoffs and started playing poker. I must say I was pretty dang good (or I could be bluffing).

Click here for Trout Stalkers pictures.