Michael’s Birthday in Montana…

September 1, 2024 marked Michael’s 40th. Birthday. This trip to Montana, with the family ( minus Nadia and Miles ) was a celebration of the event. Those guys made a morning trip over to Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park, while I worked on the evening’s meal for the group…

Looking towards Ennis from the Madison Angler’s House at 7 AM…

Cairo at the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River…

Michael and Cairo catching raindrops at the Falls…

Steamy pool at Biscuit Basin…

Posing by the sulphur stink…

Outflow from one of the pools in Biscuit Basin…

Location and map of Biscuit Basin in YNP…

Sapphire Pool…

More pools in Biscuit Basin… stay on the boardwalk !!!

Elevated view of Biscuit Basin…

Firehole River at Biscuit Basin…Fly Fished here since 1977…

Cairo’s favorite creatures in Yellowstone National Park…

The marinade for the steaks…heavy on the garlic…

The usual stand-by for munching while preparing food and cooking…

Steaks in the marinade…

It was really storming at the house while the food prep was in progress…

another view…

Michael and the crew came back from the Park and headed down to $3.00 Bridge for a Birthday Trout…

Rainbow Trout to net…

Michael with his Trout…released for another day…

Last shot of $3.00 Bridge at sunset…

Montana brewed booze for this who imbibe…

Cairo’s back to run the show while Nick scratches his head…

…looking West at sunset…storm has cleared…

…just after sunset…

Dragon salad and veggies…

French Fries of course…

Steaks BBQ’d by Nick…

Dinner at almost 9PM…

 

 

Next: Traveling back to LA…

 

 

PT/TB

 

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Last Days in Montana…Back to Bridgeport…

All good things gotta’ come to an end. Ten days of great times and unexpected weather…Saved the best for last…

Entering the parking lot at $3.00 Bridge with a hint of sun for the day…

First ones to arrive !!!

This rough water is loaded with nice Trout…

So are these areas around boulder…

A Rainbow first…

Michael found some small (#22) Baetis is the drift…

…while working this spot…

But it was this Blue Wisp Midge pattern that got him into fish…again…

A Brown for Michael…

Then it was the “old guy’s ” turn…

The “SHOP VAC ” version on the left, in size #20…worked it’s magic…

Michael holds the Brown for a close up…

It started to cloud up, get windy and a lot colder so I left Michael to wander around and take some parting shots…

A view down river with the foliage starting to change…

A wide picture of the Madison below Michael…

One last photo of $3.00 Bridge until the next time…

After breaking down our rods, we decided to take a ride up the road to visit Blue Ribbon Flies one last time…this is Hegben Lake on the way there…

This is now the only place…

…that I can find these Sports Tools Nippers. They are my favorite for hook eye cleaning and wind knots…I picked up several because it is the only place that has them in stock – anywhere…

Then we headed back to West Fork Cabins where Michael…

…whipped up a delicious steak dinner and packed up his gear to fly out of Bozeman the next morning…

Monday morning, September 25, we stopped in at the Ennis Pharmacy for a final breakfast…

…and the visited the Tackle Shop one last time…I first came to this shop in 1975 when it was the only fly shop in Ennis and the fly on top of the store was 10X larger…

Like this…

So we stopped at a couple of places in Bozeman before Michael boarded his flight to go back to NYC. I didn’t document that because I get really sad after spending a week or so with my kids and then they have to leave. I did take this picture of coming down the hill into Ennis on the way back from the airport…

Last Virgin Bloody Mary in Montana at the Driftwaters Resort just up the road from where we stayed…

I got up at 3:00 AM on Tuesday September 26 and headed back to Bridgeport, CA in the Eastern Sierras to spend a couple of days fishing in warmer weather and sunshine…

It took a bit longer than the time on the above map because of road repairs and flagmen in Nevada…I saw a lot of this…

Further along, but still in Nevada…

On the other side of this grade is the East Walker River and the cut off road to Rosaschi Ranch…

Finally. at about 5;30 PM this came into view…Bridgeport Reservoir…

 

Next: A few days on the East Walker River…

 

 

PT/TB

 

 

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