Why we guide – June 29, 2010

Why we guide

*One of (if not the most) rewarding experiences of my guiding career.

This past week I had the pleasure of taking Montana’s oldest registered fisherman, 94 year old T. Brown, down the Big Hole and Beaverhead Rivers.  Mr. Brown has been coming out to Montana for over 50 years with his family in search of wild trout and magnificent scenery.  He was unable to come last year as a new hip was being inserted in to his remarkably young 94 year old body, and he wasn’t about to miss two years in a row.

I had heard from many of the guides who had taken him before that Mr. Brown was one of those men who you meet in life and immediately respect.  Upon our greeting I found this to be true and was looking forward to the rest of the week fishing with a man who has lived through the stories we read about in our history books.

Mr Brown could still fish at his age, and I was surprised to see how accurate and attentive he was with his casting and his ability to read the water.  I guess after that many years on the water it doesn’t matter how old you are…if a guy is fishy at 34 he’ll be fishy at 94.  The fish he hooked were all beautiful in his eyes.  Whether it was a Trout, Grayling, or a Whitefish, he appreciated each one of them as we all did when we were kids.  At times we’d pull over to re-tie and he’d stay, “Just look at these beautiful clouds.  Montana has the most amazing clouds!”  Moments like this make a guy, who was born and raised in this state, take a step and be truly thankful that I get to live in such a wonderful place.

The last day of his trip saw the two of us in the rig together for a float on the Upper Big Hole River.  As we were driving to the river he leaned over and said: “Justin, you and I are the only ones that know this, but this will be my last trip down the river.”  He went on to say that he’d become to dependant on help, and that when that time had come he knew that he needed to be done doing such a heavy activity.  About the only thing I could come up with to say was: “Well let’s end in with a bang.”  So off to the river we went.

The morning saw us hook into a few fish, but we couldn’t seem to get one into the net.  We pulled over for lunch after numerous fly changes and varied techniques for getting trout to look at the big Salmonfly pattern we were throwing.  Unphased by the slow morning, Mr Brown just looked around and made comments on the clouds, wildflowers, birds, and gave a cheerful greeting to each boat that passed us on their way down river.  It amazed me how upbeat he was after such a slow morning…on his last day.  More determined than ever, we shoved off shore and began fishing.

A few yards down after lunch we had our first real eat of the day.  A 19″ brown came to the top of the water and slammed his Salmonfly.  Just like he’d done thousands of times before, Mr Brown set the hook and the battled commenced.  The fish ripped down stream and we began chasing it with the boat.  After a few more feet the line went limp and our hearts sank.  What had gone wrong?  Both he and I had though that he’d hooked it well and couldn’t figure out what the trout had gotten off.  Discouraged he reeled his line up and when he got all the slack out we found that the fish was still on the line!  He had made a direct B-Line to us after that long run downstream, and that’s when the line went slack.  After a few minutes of playing the fish, Mr Brown had this beautiful trout in the net.  After removing the hook and releasing the fish, he looked at me and said: “You’ve just made my day.”  My heart warmed at his words, and wanted to get him into another even more than before.

We fished hard for the next three hours managing a few small fish and had a few other takes.  Not what we had expected after the big one right after lunch, and to make matters worse it began to rain.  The rain kept coming and he didn’t want to nymph, and we were about ready to row in when I asked him if he’d ever fish with streamers before.  Surly I thought that he must have after all theses years, but he looked at me and said he’d never tried them before.  So we pulled over, put our rain jackets on, and shoved off with a JJ Special and an Olive and Black Wolly Bugger tied on the end of his rod for the very first time.

After a few banks were a little teaching was required, Mr Brown had the technique down and I was hoping like heck that he’d get a fish to chase his fur.  A little while later this line went tight and Mr Brown landed his first fish on a streamer in 94 years!  What a feeling, to teach a 94 year old fisherman something he’s never done before, watch him pick it up with ease, and proceed not only to catch that fish, but many more the rest of that day.  It was a neat scene watching him sit in the front of the boat, in the pouring rain, with a smile from ear to ear just like a kid on his first fishing trip.

As we fished the streamer and I told him were to put it, he said that all these years of fishing he’d never caught a fish under a tree.  Everyone he’d ever fished with had told him to throw his dry fly under the tree limbs, but he could never get a fish to look at it.  About 50 yards above our takeout was a long willow lined bank that looked perfect for his streamers.  I told him that we were going to throw that rig under the first willow and let that thing float all the way down along the bank and try and get him that elusive tree fish.  Mr Brown saw the pocket and slung the streamers in there perfectly.  About 2/3 of the way down the bank his line went tight.  I immediately thought that he was hung on a branch as his bugs were deep under the willows.  As we kept floating by the line kept coming with us, and lo and behold on the end of his line was a 16″ rainbow trout that we landed just feet from the takeout. On his last cast of his last trip, he finally got that talked about and often fished for trout under the trees.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have a more rewarding experience than those last few hours on the Big Hole with Mr Brown.  It seemed as though every cast he made was perfect, the fish responded, and I got to witness the joy that fishing brings to people of all ages.  We as guides are able to experience a lot of different things while guiding clients down the rivers here in Montana and all over the world.  And on this day, I can truly say that days like this are the reason why we guide.

Thanks T.C

Justin

Tagged as: Fishing Stories