Montana Flyfishing & The Big Hole River

I first visited "Big Sky Country" in the mid 50's camping with my parents. We visited Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. I was particularly enthralled by Yellowstone’s thermal activities and wild creatures. Later my wife and I revisited these places on camping trips into the Rockies. We often returned there with our young sons.
Living as we did in a small town in Minnesota without any fishing lakes, I took up the art of Fly-fishing in our many limestone spring creeks. This new hobby was to cause a big turn in my perception of Montana. It became not just a camping tourist venue but the "Mecca" of my trout fishing dreams.
It all began with an invitation from one of my brothers to join him on a mid-summer scouting expedition for fall elk hunting with his bow. Being occupied with teaching during the fall, I had no interest in that particular sport. I did realize, however, that this would be a golden opportunity to check out Montana’s fabled "blue ribbon" trout streams. What a two week adventure we had! I was hooked every bit as much as the trout we caught and the back country we visited.
As my sons grew into manhood, we began to make regular summer fishing trips to southwester Montana as well a canoe trips into Minnesota’s Boundary Water Wilderness.
Some of our favorite Montana places were The Boulder River south of Big Timber, Hyalite Creek, the Gallatin River and Swan Creek all south of Bozeman, the West Fork of the Madison River, Sam Billings campground on Boulder Creek a small tributary of the Bitterroot River, and the Missouri River below Holter Dam.

There was one river we always returned to fish no matter our time schedule. It was the Big Hole.
College professor, environmental activist, author and blogger Pat Munday writes about the Big Hole in his book Montana’s Last Best River: The Big Hole and its People. Here he tells the story of a beautiful valley and stream through the eyes and experiences of the people who lived there. Among others were the Indians, miners, homesteaders and ranchers. The breathtaking beauty of the place is superbly illustrated with a series of great photographs. The book is much more than a pretty "coffee table" book of pretty pictures. The conflicts of culture change and land usage are not glossed over from past to present. The author emphasizes an emerging consensus towards cooperation that would reflect Aldo Leopolds vision of a land ethic. If that proves to be true there is hope indeed that this treasure of a river will survive to enchant future fathers, sons and daughters with a love of the great outdoors.
I can still see my eldest son Ted leaning forward midstream in the Big Hole, casting with a beautiful rhythmic motion to trout rising to the fly. Memories like that were brought to mind when author/blogger Pat Munday gifted me with his book about The Big Hole. Ted is in a better place now but I’m sure he is still smiling as he catches those big ones.
I met Pat through his blog Ecorover. There you can see southwestern Montana in all its splendor. Here is the link: - check it out and say hello..... http://ecorover.blogspot.com/