Fishin in Montana

 We have been out of internet range for the last week so this has lots of pictures and stories to tell.
We fished for three days in Twin Bridges with Matt and enjoyed the hospitality of Don and Marsha.  Great meals and great conversations.
The weather was beautiful even though we had a rain storm each afternoon while fishing.  The fish did not seem to notice and cooperated by taking our caddis or the famous tar baby fly.  Lots of fun and laughs!!

 Kathy caught this big boy on the first day...20 inches as is the one above that Mike caught.  Beautiful brown trouts that gave us a fight and lots of smiles

 Matt, holding the trout plate, Don, Marsha, Mike and Kathy...Great people...like family!

 After much discussion with Matt and Don we settled on fishing at Rock Creek near Missoula.  It is a beautiful river with one terrible very  narrow road that runs up to Phillipsburg.  Mike and the boys fished here about 17 years ago and camped up at to top end.  We could not drive the RV past the 23 mile mark and so stayed there two nights with no electricity...quiet and beautiful.  Mike caught two big fish and I caught lots and lots of little ones. But who is comparing inches. Lots of fun and laughs.

 Rock Creek from the bridge above.  There was a fire near us but on the other side of the river which is all the smoke you see in the picture above.  The fire fighters were just watching it but it  made everything very smoky.

 We next traveled to the Madison River and stayed at the Campfire Lodge, where we have stayed before, and is a funky place from the 30's era.  They have campsites right on the river as it rages by.  We saw two osprey nests and I got a good shot of one standing guard on the nest below.  Beautiful birds.  Fun to watch them fish in the river.

 We next traveled thru Yellowstone National Park to camp at Fishing Bridge.  It is the only campground in the park that has electricity and was very nice.  The picture above is Mike on the bridge that is over the Yellowstone River where it comes out of Yellowstone Lake and heads to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  We saw wildlife...Bison, deer, and mountain goats.  This guy held up traffic for quite awhile with his females and their babies.

 Our favorite spot is Yellowstone is the Lamar Valley, the picture below where the Lamar River, the Soda Butte River and Slough creek make for wonderful fishing.  We were very sad to  find them muddy from rain and we were not able to fish them.  So we headed up the Yellowstone River/Paradise Valley to Livingston.  Mike has gone fishing today with a guide and I have relaxed with Riggs and done some sewing.  We head to Big Sky tomorrow to meet the Nolan family and spend a week with them before heading home.
Kathy and Michael