Dispatches from Craig

Nothing too exciting to report this week. The spring is continuing in full swing; slowly more and more tourists are arriving on the Missouri, and mornings at the shop are busy. After a rainy, cool early week, the weather seems to have finally decided we are due for some sunshine and warm temperatures. The past […]

It’s been a busy week. One of those where I’m absurdly grateful for every second of sleep I can get, and have been fueled repeatedly by exceedingly strong cups of dark Irish tea. That said, it has also been an exceptionally productive week. I’ve been able to wrap the majority of my grant applications, and […]

Swing the Fly Editor Zack Williams put Kelly on a nice Missouri River rainbow yesterday. More pics from a day on the river to come.

I was able to break away from Craig and the ‘Mo for a few days of family time in Bozeman. It was amazing. There were real stores, and restaurants, and… everything! At any rate, it was a good break to do some “real world” thinking and knock out a few projects that had been lingering […]

It’s Saturday night, and I am sitting in front of my iMac, realizing I’m due back in the shop in less than nine hours. I just got in about thirty minutes ago. The days, they fly by. Today was one of Craig’s biggest days of the year, the annual Craig Caddis Fest, a fundraiser for […]

Mid afternoon yesterday, I would have sworn summer had come. Temperatures on the Missouri tipped into the mid eighties, and with the Big Sky sun beating down at dust blowing in the wind, I looked out of the shop window and thought it could be July. Waders have been exchanged for sandals and billowy, quick-dry […]

After a day of running errands in town and catching up (or rather, attempting to…) on office work, I needed to get outside in the sun.  We’re having a week of temperatures in the 70s, and despite a damnably stubborn cold that won’t go away, I decided it was just too nice not to be […]

I’m living in a place where traffic is defined by four or more boats on the same bend; girls’ nights out involve casting rods at the Craig Casting Club here at Headhunter and dodging hordes of guides at Joe’s Bar. Flip flops and wading boots are de rigueur, and currently four bottles of hard liquor […]

Another busy week has flown by in Craig. The week started in true Montana spring fashion, with a snowstorm over the weekend. Sunday’s planned Orvis Rendezvous was hosted in sub-freezing temperatures and heavy snow. Many of the out-of-staters who traveled in for the festivities came in from guided trips slightly early, looking red-faced and rather […]

It’s been an odd week on the home front, and while things are progressing per normal at the shop, I’ve found myself needing a bit of solo planning time. Too many projects in the works and not enough time. (As I write this, I’m sipping a protein drink dinner letting new nail polish dry. As […]

We are battening down the hatches once more for typical “spring in Montana” weather. Temperatures for the coming two days are slated to hover right around freezing, with respective eighty and sixty percent chances of snow for Sunday and Monday. Mercifully, the National Weather Service is calling for only an inch or two accumulation. It’s […]

Another week has flown by here on the Missouri. Despite a snowy early week ahead, spring fever has officially hit, it seems, and the shop is just getting busier and busier. I was able to take my first Missouri float on Thursday with shop manager Sara and her guide boyfriend Kurt. It was a glorious […]

(Late Friday PM, Craig, Montana.) We’re starting up a busy weekend here at the shop. Shuttle runs totaled seventeen for today, and we’re anticipating a busy holiday weekend. It doesn’t hurt that the fishing has been stellar. Nymphing, as the boys put it, is “as good as it gets.” The weather has been ideal – […]

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 […]