You can always tell a good friend when you haven’t seen them in a long time and you can just pick up right where you left off. Fishing buddy BTP recently made a sojourn back to the mountains from the warmth of the saltwater and I was fortunate enough to spend some time fishing, drinking and just hanging out with him.
Sadly we weren’t able to make it onto the Missouri this trip, and it would have been really great to recreate some of the good times we had on that river last year. There is always next time. Between plans with his daughter and my work schedule the only fishing we got in together was a short few hours on the lower Gallatin, in a spot neither one of us had ever fished before.
Damn near running over a bobcat just before the access was a good start to the day. That was the first one I have ever seen in the wild. It was bright and sunny and we didn’t have great hopes for the fishing. But that really wasn’t the only goal.
If you are so busy fishing all the time you are out fishing, you can miss a lot. Take some time to relax, sit on the bank, enjoy some conversation and a beer and the scenery. The fish will still be there. Unless it’s a really great dry fly bite, then don’t stop. Ever. But if it’s a hot, bright day take your sweet time.
Eventually we found some fish and BTP caught a couple nice ones on a streamer of all things. I only wish I had video of him trying to wrangle the first one in without a net… Talking to his girlfriend on the phone on the drive back he summed it up perfectly, “The fishing was a whole lot better than it should have been.”
How many days can you say that?
