Before 9am - Fishing Before Work
I finish up my work for the day, pack up my backpack, and head to a small creek just outside of town. With the size of Bozeman it is pretty incredible that wild trout live just a couple of minutes away.
With lots of fly fishing enthusiasts in Bozeman, I find that it gets pressured quite a bit, so I do my best to spread my attention to other local water during the week. This small creek runs all the way through town, so you can fish it at many different points.
It turns in to be an exceptional night on the river. Fish are rising to small caddis flies, with some being larger than others. The mosquitos stay away and the air is cool without much moisture. It was so nice, that I got up the next morning before work to go fish.
Knowing that I fished a piece of water that is more difficult to get to the night before, I took to walking a bit further back upstream to find fish. I plan to fish for only an hour or so, but I still put on my waders so that I can go straight to work after fishing.
My fiberglass 3 weight rod, a small box of flies, a spool of tippet, and my nippers are the items that fill my pockets. I plan on fishing a dry/dropper setup, for that is what I find has been the most effective on this small water.
I tie on a small Chubby Chernobyl and a small Lightning Bug as a dropper fly. I don’t fish this small nymph because I tie it often, I fish it because it catches fish. For this water, along with the Upper Gallatin further up the road and some other small water, it has been my go-to fly for this summer.
I move through the first couple of runs and catch a couple on the nymph. None of the fish are large, but I find that every fish I catch here is immaculate. The mandible is intact, the wild attributes, and their colorful bodies are special. Maybe it is the close proximity to town, or the small water that reminds me of the Driftless, but whatever it is these fish are memorable catches.
I get one fish to eat the dry fly in a small run, and on that note head back to the car. Putting my waders back in the car, slinging the rod in the rod vault, and packing the other pieces away, I head to work.
As I drive the short couple of minutes to the office, I think about how much you can do every morning when you get up early. Something that has been instilled in me since my early years attending swim practice as 5:00am, getting up early has become a natural thing. Now it just becomes a game of what I can do before 9:00am.