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You Know You are in Livingston, Montana When…

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Here are just a few of our favorites…

  • You hear people say ‘crick’ instead of ‘creek’

  • You’re not surprised to wake up to several inches of snow in ANY month of the year
  • You leave your truck and house unlocked on a regular basis
  • You can’t find a parking spot near the bar because of all the trucks with drift boats behind them
  • No one is weirded out by firearms in a vehicle.  Furthermore, the only comments you hear are, “how do you like that scope?”
  • None of the locals are surprised to hear that another semi-truck blew over from the wind on the interstate
  • The entire town shuts down for the July 4th parade
  • You use your truck heater in the morning and air conditioner in the afternoon
  • People you don’t know pass you on the street and say, “hello”
  • In three weeks of straight fishing you’ve never fished the same piece of water twice

How do you know you’re in Livingston, Montana?

So this Banker meets a fisherman

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You may have heard the following story, but I thought I’d post it for those of you who haven’t read it yet.  Sure it’s an obvious comment on the capitalistic society model, but we like it because it fits our midset.

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The fisherman replied, only a little while.

The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life.”

The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then?”

The American laughed and said that’s the best part. “When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions.. Then what?”

The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.

Who are you, the Banker or the Fisherman?

Earth Day 2010

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Happy Earth Day!

Today, April 22, 2010, is the fortieth anniversary of Earth Day.  Before 1970 factories could release black clouds of toxins into the air or dump toxic waste into rivers and streams, and it was perfectly legal.  In 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day as a way to “force this issue onto the national agenda.”  President Nixon and Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency in response to increasing public demand for cleaner water, air, and land; this agency would be known to tackle environmental issues facing the United States and the world today.

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day?  Walking to work, taking public transportation, planting a garden?  Comment on your ideas…

The Philosophy of Spring Fishing

The Philosophy of Spring Fishing

Many of our loyal Montana Fish Bum Blog followers have asked why the fishing reports are always so varied this time of year.  The short answer: it’s spring fishing.  We have to go back away for the longer, geekier answer.  All the way back to ancient China and the philosophy of Yin/Yang.  The Chinese philosophy of Yin/Yang espouses how seemingly contrary forces are interconnected in the natural world and how these forces give rise to one another.  For example, light leads up to periods or darkness, which in turn yields back to light.  I lost some of you so here’s the short version = opposite yet related.  Most Montana anglers would loosely agree with this line of thinking, especially when it comes to spring fishing.  Of course, you still don’t see many Yin/Yang bumper stickers pasted to the back of mud covered trucks driven by guys with cowboy hats.

Spring is the time when most anglers are getting excited for the first warm days of spring and the hopes that eager trout will feed with abandon.  However, for as many days as this holds true the opposite occurs.  Our warm days and nights in Montana raise the water temperature to excite the baetis, caddis and March Browns, but it also starts melting snow in the mountains.  The melted snow raises the river flows, colors up the water and in most cases cool the water temperature down delaying the hatch or putting the trout off the feed.

This situation holds particularly true during late April and early May here on the Yellowstone River when the Mother’s Day Caddis hatch occurs.  Caddis fishing in here in the spring can be a real start and stop adventure.  One day the caddis will pour off the river then a couple of days of warmth with blow the river out.  The caddis hatch will slow down and when the river gets warmer they’ll start going again.  This could scenario could last several days, even weeks.  Damn the Yin Yang!

So as anglers are anticipating the greatest of all spring hatches here in Montana we would suggest taking up the philosophy of “The Dude”*, which would be “forget about it and just go fishing man” (PG version).  It’s not possible to plan for good fishing, you have to put in your time.  When you fish enough you’ll realize that all fishing days are great, the catching just balances itself out over the years.  In the battle of holding to the best philosophy of spring fishing in Montana, we hold true to the Dude.

* If you don’t know who the Dude is we suggest watching the Big Lebowski next time the river blows out.