I’ve been back in Montana for a week, and am slowly settling into life along the Missouri River. I’m living in Cascade and working 20 miles upriver at Headhunters Fly Shop in Craig.
So far, the consensus is this: the job is awesome, the place I’m living – not so much.
The first week at the shop has been stellar. It’s been running shuttles, learning the Headhunters systems for shop, lodging and guides, brushing up on knots and product.
I learn by doing, and the best way to learn the river has been to drive shuttles about, and I’m learning fly bins by putting shipments away. Sara’s been patient enough to help me brush up on my knots, and I’ve mastered the Bimini twist.
Busy, busy, busy, but the gang has been awesome and I’m looking forward to the season.
Back at the apartment, it’s been a week of leaking gas pipes, vermiculite insulation, crazy neighbors and steady cleaning. I’ve moved around a fair bit and I can safely say I’ve never had to scrub a place like I have this one.
But it’s coming along. The computers work and I can get a reasonable night’s rest on the cot, so that helps.
I am, however, getting a safety deposit box at the little local bank in town to store hard drive backups in, as I’m not entirely sure I won’t pull up one day and see the place has burned to the ground.
I’m dying to get out on the water (made it out one evening last week) with both the rod and the camera. Right now things are mostly brown, grey and windy (it’s called spring in Montana) but we’re starting to see ground hogs popping about and that barest first hint of green on the hillsides.
From a fishing perspective, the Missouri is unlike anything I’ve fished before. I’m more used to the comparatively small waters of the Gallatin and the Madison, and this is an entirely new world.
No doubt it’ll be a season of learning, but that’s what I came here for.
