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Humility is overrated. I understand a few life lessons now and then are (allegedly) good for the soul, but no more than, say, once a month, not several in one day. The insistent, piercing alarm on my phone, simultaneous with the braying of my pager, indicated a medical response was required from our Condon QRU (Quick Response Unit). A woman had slipped on the rocks at Holland Lake Falls and had likely fractured her ankle, more specifically the distal tibia, perhaps fibula, for those of you...
Our western Montana communities are keenly aware of the increasing need to manage our forests to reduce wildfire risk to our forests, wildlife, human lives, and built infrastructure. This awareness is starting to be acknowledged in Executive Orders and new Forest Service strategies that prioritize managing our forests to reduce wildfire risk. These actions have the opportunity to make a difference for the future of our Montana communities and our forests. It's also an important moment to...
There's not a whole lot I'd rather have been doing. The weather was perfect, with just a slight breeze and enough cloud cover to break up the mid-afternoon glare. The four of us could have stayed in the coffee shop where we met and continued telling stories, but the day was too nice for that. Besides, they had come on an errand. One of my friends had never cast my new fly rod, a CF Burkheimer eight-foot, nine-inch five weight. We met, in part, so I could show him the new Burkie. The notion of...
Tests, much like a chronic skin condition, have been a part of my life since early childhood. I was a very tightly wrapped kid, born not two drinks behind the rest of the world but closer to the better part of a fifth. I still remember the ugly red slash on my very first spelling test when I spelled “girl” as “gril.” When getting ready to take a college entrance exam, it was announced that the highest performers would be granted a fee waiver for four years at Montana State in Bozeman. No pressure there. Countless college exams, each fraught...
Justin was five years old when he caught his first trout on a fly. He wanted to kill it and eat it. When I told him we had to put it back in the water, he shrieked, "Why? Are they yucky or something?" He was more confused when I started laughing. "No," I explained, "If we killed some, and everybody else killed some, then there wouldn't be any fish left for boys like you to catch." We were in a campground on the Bitterroot's West Fork during the peak summer season. Justin saw the other people...
When Dan Shepherd owned the Grizzly Hackle Fly Shop in Missoula we had a good working relationship. It was so good that we eventually became friends. Neither of us still own a fly shop but the friendship has endured. These days Dan stays busy with something he loves - traveling and hosting trips to exotic destinations for fishing travel company Wild on the Fly. My time is spent a little closer to home with things I love - stalking wild trout with bamboo rods on smaller-sized rivers and creeks...
The Seattle Boats Afloat Show in late April is presented by a group of northwest yacht brokers for the purpose of showing a number of larger boats to a hopefully large number of people to get the boats sold. The number of people attending this year's show was not large, and few boats were sold. I attended the show because the broker representing my boat, after its epic move from Maryland, had a family emergency. Thus, I was transformed into a boat salesman for the three-day show. I consider myse...
A few days ago I saw some moth-like little bugs flitting around beside the river. "Won't be long." I thought. All caddisfly hatches start like that. First you see a few, and then a few more, and after a week or 10 days, maybe two weeks later, you'll see lots of them. When they're on, you'll see them for a long time. The females return to the water several times over the course of a few days to lay their eggs. This hatching and egg-laying activity may go on for several weeks. It's not a one-time...
I got this in the email a couple days ago: "Be sure to tell all the readers, big browns only eat BIG flies. Yup, caught this one on a size one olive Chernobyl with extra Krystal Flash and as much poly wing material as one could tie on the foam. Impossible to overdress that fly. Just heap on as much material as possible." Then he went on to suggest a couple of other possibilities. The fish he photographed in his Measure Net showed a snout just short of the 10-inch mark, and his tail flopped past...
I drive a 32-year-old Dodge Dakota pickup with a rumpled fender and cracked windshield. It gets me around and I'm used to it; you might say I like it. It's comfy enough and I keep it in sound mechanical shape. If it picks up a dent or a scratch I'm over it almost before it happens. I'm not financially well off, but I live well, and those are two different things. I stay within my means. So far so good. Other men's hobbies have been my life's work, and that's where it begins to look a little...
Some of the best advice I ever heard about safe wading is, "Be chicken. Chickens don't drown." The guy who issued it was deadly serious. Never mind his slightly twisted sense of humor. If you have to boil everything you need to know about safe wading into one aphorism, he nailed it. Be chicken. I once watched a mother bantam hen try to keep a batch of baby ducklings whose eggs she sat out the water (it's a long story involving a deceased mother duck and a subsequently deceased coyote.) She squaw...
Warning: This essay was generated using AI - Average Intelligence. Many of you followed our adventures on Treasure State, a 43-foot boat that we used to travel the US East Coast, Great Lakes and the Canadian waterways. It was a great trip, and the boat performed well. It is not a Montana boat, however, so I returned the vessel to Maryland to sell. Which it has not. While Treasure State was an ideal boat for our trip, it is not ideal for resale. It is an unfamiliar Swedish brand, likely a bit...
Can a handshake predict your lifespan? Grip strength — the force you can muster when squeezing something with your hand — has emerged as a simple yet powerful clue to overall health and longevity. Research shows it’s not just about muscles; it’s a window into how well your body is aging. Studies have found that people with stronger grips tend to live longer and healthier lives. A 2018 study from the UK Biobank, which tracked over 500,000 adults aged 40-69, showed that weaker grip strength (below 26 kilograms for men and 16 kilograms for wom...
"Hoo boy - I hope I don't mess this up. Here goes..." I had just sat down behind my fly tying vise for the first time in - way too long. There had been long layoffs before, that part was no big deal. I usually start by putting a good-sized hook in the vise, not huge, but an easy to manage #10 or so, and proceed with a simple two-step or three-step fly. Then I tie several more just like it. After the fingers and mind are in synch the rest goes easy. This time was different. There was no practice...
I was standing behind the counter of a fly shop I had recently purchased and being accosted by a local guide and outfitter. "It's kinda like our local secret and we wanna keep it to ourselves," he went on, and then his tone got a little menacing as he lowered his voice, "And we don't want nobody, like your out-of-state friends - them Californians - comin' up here and messin' it up for us!" I was duly impressed, let's say. Maybe I wasn't as intimidated as he hoped I'd be, but I did want to fit...
No matter what our age, there is an element of high school that we can't get out of our system. I was a cross country/track athlete as well as a mainstay on the speech team. I peaked at 130 pounds, had distressingly problematic skin and would have been quickly killed had I the temerity to try out for football. Nerd would have been a generous description. Friend zone all the way. I went on to a decent career, respectable by most metrics, and acquired a smoking hot wife. I think she was between gl...
When I had my fly shop I saw a lot of fly patterns come and go. I remember the day one of my ambitious young guides, Justin Baker, walked in with a new skwala pattern. He held it out to me. “Show this to Hill,” Justin said, barely concealing the beginning of an impish grin. I saw what he meant. The fly was pregnant with wraps here and strands there of every hot new material on the day’s market, some of them now forgotten. Then, the fly looked like a concoction of every conceivable fad in the flyfishing world — the color scheme somehow resembl...
For years they’d show up one night a week at a local brewery for fly tying night. Maybe they still do — I’ve lost track. The first couple of diehards would show up after elk season, their numbers would ramp up around Valentine’s Day, and they’d shut down until the next year once fishing started in earnest. There’d be the good camaraderie and the exchanges that usually occur when fly tyers get together — which particular hair or feather (or flashy new synthetic material) works best for this-or-that fly, what’s the best technique for doing such-...
A few days ago Jan took the dog for a romp along the river. I didn’t go. My tackle is in no shape to mount even a short expedition, and I was pushing against other deadlines. When they returned I asked, “How did the river look?” “Full, cold, clear, lots of boats, no bugs — none that I saw, anyway.” she reported. I didn’t ask if she’d seen any capnea. You have to look to see them. These little stoneflies are the first to appear when rivers warm just a wee bit and snow is still on the ground. They’re called snow flies in other places but are ca...
Have you ever walked into a forest, taken a deep breath, and savored the crisp, piney, resinous scent filling the air? If so, you might not be so different from a bark beetle. Although bark beetles may not necessarily experience pleasure the same way humans do, the scent of alpha-pinene is one you're likely familiar with if you've spent any time in the woods. It's a scent that the Douglas-fir beetle (Dendroctonus pseudotsugae) is familiar with too. Alpha-pinene is a type of chemical compound...
I find plowing snow to be deeply satisfying. After four decades of wearing scrubs and gowns in the operating room, scrubbing my hands 50 times a day, wearing masks — all of which to me seemed faintly sissified — plowing snow seems aggressive and manly. My plowing looks like a third grader’s crayon artwork —jagged and abrupt — compared to the pros, which is smooth and elegant, but you can get your car down the driveway. By the end of February, the continuous piling up of snow becomes somewhat less charming, not to mention the piling on of boo...
Fifteen years ago, Congress declared February as Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. According to the Office of Public Instruction’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey data from 2021, more than one in 20 Missoula County high students who are dating have been physically harmed by a dating partner. Moreover, one in 10 high school students in our community have been raped. Parents have an important role to play in helping their kids develop healthy relationships. While you might get an eye roll, research shows that teens do care what their parents t...
I have a good friend who fishes whenever he can get out. I used to be the same way, but have come to be a bit more prudent in recent years. He caught a 20-inch rainbow just a few days ago. He sent photos of that fish and some bugs that he saw that day when the snow was still deep on the ground. He saw midges, small stoneflies and a skwala nymph, getting ready to hatch. Literally overnight, the snow has all but disappeared. With the 50-degree days we've seen since, any of the bugs he saw could be hatching at any time. The skwala hatch gets the...
It was a fairly routine week in Helena. The House Committees are churning out a steady stream of bills for debate on the House Floor, with between 10 and 15 bills discussed each day. The six budget committees are wrapping up their reviews of the proposed agency budgets and their recommendations for funding will be forwarded to the full House Appropriation Committee in the next ten days. I chair Subcommittee F which hears the Capital funding bills as well as appropriation measures containing several grant and loan programs for local...
The Montana Senate has been hard at work passing numerous pieces of legislation ahead of our March 7 deadline to transmit general bills to our House colleagues. Senate Republicans remain focused on delivering tax relief, promoting educational excellence, protecting private property rights, reforming our courts and protecting vulnerable Montanans. As the legislative session continues, we will make further headway on critical issues. A couple bills that I sponsored this session have already been transmitted to the House for further...
