Tried the Lower Ruby this morning.....a way shorter drive from town. The only species of trout that I hadn’t caught on the trip so far that I should have was a brown. I’d heard that that’s all there were in the lower Ruby. For three hours of fishing I managed one measly brown. Drove into town and took a nap with the genny, tv and ac on. I returned to the Lower Ruby again at dusk.......and caught no fish at all.....couldn’t believe that there were no fish rising to the billions of bugs flying around.
On my way back to Yellowstone I stopped in a town called Ennis where the scene at the two local bars was raging. Ennis is sort of a gateway town to fishing the over popular Madison River and it definitely has a “wild west” flair to it. There was a band playing that seemed to specialize in 80’s music which was cool......the guitar guy loved Van Halen and they played at least 4 VH songs including Panama and Eruption......you can imagine. By the time I left the place it was 3am, I’d drank about ten Pepsi’s, none of which I paid for, and had conversation with nearly everyone in the place. Highlights included four guys from the city of Butte who were away from their wives etc for a guys weekend. This one kid named Mono (short for Monahan) was the life of the party. He kept calling me UMass (probably stemming from the fact that his only encounter with Massachusetts was the 1AA playoff confrontations between the Montana Grizz and UMass football during the last few years)....he loved my accent and told me I reminded him of Matt Damon and all the recent films that took place in Boston. He and his buddies were going to a ten hour float and fish down the Madison in a raft tomorrow and begged me to come along. I told them I had to keep moving and declined their offer.......again and again for the next 3 hours. They were all a blast.....I learned a lot including the fact that these dudes were going to use lures to fish and not flies. I found this amazing. Here we are at the Mecca of fly fishing and these heathens were going to fish it with lures. I loved that......they were from Montana and I guess the natives have a little different outlook on fishing than the snobby tourists who were willing to shell out $500 for the exquisite privilege of fly fishing one of the great rivers of the west.
Other notables included
-a guy and his wife who were planning to go to the annual Virginia City Ball, a total gala where everyone dresses up in period costumes and dances the night away
-a guy in a cowboy had that claimed he was a senator who all he really wanted to do was pick fights with everyone
-a 21 year old girl who was trying college for the “last time”, she’d done a stint in rehab and seemed to be getting it together
-and the singer of the band, this rail thin guy who sang a few songs using his wireless mike from the middle of the street outside the place.
Everyone (except the “senator”) was really fun to talk to....I learned a lot about what it meant to them to be from Montana. I fell asleep in the camper across the street to the thumping sounds of the bands equipment being loaded into the trailer.
On my way back to Yellowstone I stopped in a town called Ennis where the scene at the two local bars was raging. Ennis is sort of a gateway town to fishing the over popular Madison River and it definitely has a “wild west” flair to it. There was a band playing that seemed to specialize in 80’s music which was cool......the guitar guy loved Van Halen and they played at least 4 VH songs including Panama and Eruption......you can imagine. By the time I left the place it was 3am, I’d drank about ten Pepsi’s, none of which I paid for, and had conversation with nearly everyone in the place. Highlights included four guys from the city of Butte who were away from their wives etc for a guys weekend. This one kid named Mono (short for Monahan) was the life of the party. He kept calling me UMass (probably stemming from the fact that his only encounter with Massachusetts was the 1AA playoff confrontations between the Montana Grizz and UMass football during the last few years)....he loved my accent and told me I reminded him of Matt Damon and all the recent films that took place in Boston. He and his buddies were going to a ten hour float and fish down the Madison in a raft tomorrow and begged me to come along. I told them I had to keep moving and declined their offer.......again and again for the next 3 hours. They were all a blast.....I learned a lot including the fact that these dudes were going to use lures to fish and not flies. I found this amazing. Here we are at the Mecca of fly fishing and these heathens were going to fish it with lures. I loved that......they were from Montana and I guess the natives have a little different outlook on fishing than the snobby tourists who were willing to shell out $500 for the exquisite privilege of fly fishing one of the great rivers of the west.
Other notables included
-a guy and his wife who were planning to go to the annual Virginia City Ball, a total gala where everyone dresses up in period costumes and dances the night away
-a guy in a cowboy had that claimed he was a senator who all he really wanted to do was pick fights with everyone
-a 21 year old girl who was trying college for the “last time”, she’d done a stint in rehab and seemed to be getting it together
-and the singer of the band, this rail thin guy who sang a few songs using his wireless mike from the middle of the street outside the place.
Everyone (except the “senator”) was really fun to talk to....I learned a lot about what it meant to them to be from Montana. I fell asleep in the camper across the street to the thumping sounds of the bands equipment being loaded into the trailer.
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