The other night my brother in law Scott asked if I missed Montana and up until last week I would have said "not as much as you think". I'll always miss Montana as it was my home for well over a decade. I then talked to my good friend Sean. He was about to embark on Spring off season road trip #2. He was then returning to Montana for a Summer of guide work. He was looking at the next five months where he would be "bailing hay when the sun shines" as we use to call it. It's a lucrative gig but taxing both mentally and physically.
I don't necessarily miss the guide work as much as I miss being "in the know". After fourteen years I finally had it down or so I like to think. I kept track of snowpack levels which really affected the amount of water we were dealing with for the season. I studied the weather religiously especially the wind. The W is your nemesis and should be avoided at all cost. I learned that the Tobacco root mountains soaked up the W - hence the reason I spent so much time on the Jefferson. I found the fishing to be pretty damn good too. I'll call it a happy accident. I also learned of a notch in the Absaroka Mountains in Paradise Valley that would buffer the stiff winds of Paradise Valley on the Yellowstone. If I noticed numerous boats heading East, I would head West. If I got to the put in and the lot was full of trailers, I would opt for a different river beat. If the boat in front of me was pounding river left, I would hammer river right. More on the molt next post...
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