When our family first moved to Bozeman, it seemed like Mark and I spent more time on the Gallatin than any other river. Many good afternoons and evenings were spent exploring the canyon, slipping on mossy rocks and casting flies to small, rising fish. But as the family all went their separate ways my days on the Gallatin grew fewer and fewer. Hell, before I moved to Washington last fall I think I had only fished it two or three times in the entire previous year.
Since my return, friend and co worker Steve and I had made one short afternoon trip into the lower canyon, and I had spent a couple hours alone on the river. So I jumped at the chance to spend the entire day in the canyon with old friend Tre. Tre and I haven’t fished together in years, so this trip would be a nice reunion of sorts.
We decided to start as high on the river as we could go without a Yellowstone Park license and fish our way downstream. There is a lot of good looking water on the Gallatin and it can sometimes be hard to drive by water you know to be good on the way to other sections. But on the drive we fell right back into our old routine of joking, laughing and generally having a great time.
Wet wading in August is by far and away the best way to fish. The hot summer days make wearing waders, even the lightest weight most breathable models available, absolutely miserable. But when you first step into the upper reaches of a mountain river in the early morning, you really wish you had brought some. That water is damn cold. Cold enough to make your legs go completely numb after about five minutes. Once you’re numb, you’re fine.
Fishing was slow to start, despite the clouds of bugs we saw on the water. We meandered along the river, weaving through patches of willows you could perfectly picture a bull moose or a large grizzly bear stepping out of. Of all the days to leave the bear spray at home…
As the day progressed we moved down the canyon, fishing water neither one of us had even fished before. It’s exciting to fish new water on a familiar river. It’s like learning something you never knew about your best friend. It took a while to figure out what they were eating, but we were able to connect with decent numbers of fish. On days like this though, we would have had a great time even if we didn’t catch anything.
I had to be back in Bozeman to meet someone for drinks at 6 and had to cut our day a bit short. But we’ll be back.
