By MATT DEVLIN
A Key West Sunrise.
I’m back. It feels good to be in this place. I was chasing the technicolored unicorn down in Key West, America (barely) for the last six months. That is not some obscure reference to heroin or something, but a suggestion that the life worth living has been in front of me the whole time.
And it is once again. The pull of river currents born in the hills, of drifts undisturbed except by eager fish, and high-fives with people I’ve been through things with, brought me out of my sub-tropical homesick blues, and 4,000 odd miles back to a dusty stop in the town I call home–a town that has my back–Missoula.
The salt is still in me. I learned a heck of a lot, and visits are in the future, but a duality of citizenship is not. By some twist of luck or fate–Bryce, by way of Seattle, and Me, by way of Florida– crossed Missoula city limits a week ago about an hour apart. You can’t write that stuff, it’s just how she goes. We had to work for the trout on that first day out, but we know we did better than we should have. We expected it but didn’t demand it of the river.
God Bless Montana!
The highlight was on a non-descript bank where we witnessed skwalla stone flies greedily emerging and staggering along the bank, punch-drunk, only to end up little meals. Bryce had the hot rod and went two for five on trout in less than ideal conditions on six casts while fishing dry flies. It was perfect.
Yea the water blew out about eleven minutes after we discovered that bank, but it didn’t matter. And the rivers are just starting to fish again, the stoneflies are here, and I’ve been steady at the vise. An epic tale of success and triumph replete with shameless fish porn to come in a week’s time or so. Stay Tuned!
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Read more about Fishing the Bitteroot River, the Clark Fork River, Rock Creek, and western Montana Lakes.
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Matt Devlin is a fishing guide in Missoula MT. He enjoys dry flies, “floating with the bros”, attempting to get his labradoodle to chase tennis balls, and writing.