Greetings from the Montana Road trip!
It is sad to think that our trip is all but over. Today was spent floating the Yellowstone River with guides from Montana Troutfitters. We are spending our final night at the Bozeman hot springs. After cleaning our vans and organizing our gear, we had a barbecue dinner for our banquet meal and we are relaxing in the hot springs to soak after an eventful few days.
Our final day camped on the upper Madison was spent fishing a smaller stream near camp; half of the group went upstream in search of big fish, the other half went downstream looking for many fish. Both groups were successful in their quests; browns to over 20” were caught and over 150 fish were landed as a group.
The next day we left Ruby Creek campground and drove a few hours to Livingston. After an intense match of ultimate frisbee and some burgers and milkshakes at Mark’s In-N-Out, we settled into our new home at Carbella on the banks of the Yellowstone.
For the next two days, each group went into the park to fish new and different waters. Ethan and Oliver took their kids searching for huge cutthroat trout in the Lamar valley on Soda butte creek and then for a late afternoon swim in a picturesque stretch of the Lamar river. Many cutthroat were landed, innumerable bison were encountered, and great times were had. Pat and Will Y took their group to Pat’s favorite stretch of the gardner, where they all proceeded to land big brown trout. The next day the two groups switched.
As always, we spent our last full day fishing from a drift boat with local guides. We got up early this morning to meet our guides. From there we all split up to fish different sections of the Yellowstone. It was a great way to end an already amazing trip. Every boat caught plenty of fish, including some big fish that feel even bigger in the heavy water of the mighty Yellowstone.
This has been one of our favorite and fishiest groups this summer and we hope they have a great and safe time as they head back to school. They were an awesome way to cap off our summer here at LFFE.
For the final time,
Pat, Oliver, Ethan, Will Y, and the crew.
