Opening weekend has passed here in Montana. All the small streams are open, as well as the few places that do close for a few months. Such as the stretch on the Upper Madison from Quake to McAtee, one of my all times favorites. I wasn’t able to get out on Opening Day but given my extreme dislike of fishing with crowds I don’t really see that as a major loss. Now, Opening Week is here.
The first couple of weeks after everything opens up are always pretty damn good. The fish still haven’t seen a lot of pressure and are relatively dumb. Much more dumb than after having a drift boat with clients from Texas float by every five minutes for two months like in the summer. The bulk of the summer crowds aren’t here yet so after the crush of Opening Day you can still find some peace and quiet. Also, by about now everything is so green and beautiful in Montana. Who wouldn’t want to be out on the river?
Another nice thing about Opening Week is everyone wants to go fish the waters that have been closed. Which means that the places that have been open are suddenly much less crowded. Ahhhh…
In the shop we’ve had a lot of people talking up hitting the Madison this week, but hardly anyone has mentioned the small water around town that is now open. The occasional bro is interested in Hyalite Creek, but a lot of them had no clue it was even closed. The lack of interest in the small stuff always makes me smile a little bit inside. I mean, what? There’s no fish in the small water in Montana. They’re all only in the big, famous rivers that all the magazines write about….
In a place already loaded with opportunity, there’s now even more. Cheers to that.
