Thursday, July 10, 2014

Montana, day 5. Sweetgrass and the Lower Ruby

Another day, up at 5AM. After a quick trip to the local gas station for a huge cup of coffee, a video chat with my wife and kids, I started preparing breakfast over my camp stove. The Beaverhead runs right by my campsite, and I watched a few trout rise while eating my bacon and slightly burnt egg sandwich. I cleaned up, grabbed the bamboo rod, and caught two browns on a beadhead pheasant tail under a wulff. I headed back over to Twin Bridges, and spent the day milling strips and sanding blanks.

In the evening, I made plans with one of the Sweetgrass guys to fish the Beaverhead. The river was disappointingly low, and the river warm enough to ensure that the cold beer we put in the river was warmer than when we put in. We changed plans, and headed to the Lower Ruby instead. We moved very quickly among the clouds of PMDs, casting to rising fish once or twice and moving on, because he wanted to show me the whole section so I could go myself the next day. We ended up with just one whitefish, and made our way back to the car in the dark, being careful not to bump into any of the moose that use this area to bed down in. The Ruby is gorgeous, but humbling!



I spent the night on the floor at the cabin of the Sweetgrass builder after a hearty dinner of elk burgers and beans. Tomorrow I'll check out of the KOA and move over here until Saturday, it saves me a hundred and twenty bucks and I'll get a little respite from the mosquitoes.


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