Weather across the Rockies has been so bizarre this fall. We’ve gone from famine to feast insofar as rain is concerned. My home state of Colorado has suffered greatly from this phenomenon, but other states in the Rockies are seeing the rain as a welcome relief.
When I scheduled myself to fly-fish in Montana during the month of September I envisioned cool nights and warm days with abundant sunshine. Instead, fall has hit here with a vengeance. There have been a few sunny days interspersed with the the rain and cold, but the emphasis is on cold, rainy and in the high mountains, snow already.
Yesterday morning found us on the Jefferson River, west of Bozeman. This river is one of the three that come together to form the Missouri in Three Rivers, MT. The Jefferson can be a tough river to fish and this year, in particular, because of the drought, you could not float it in August because it was too shallow. September has been another story as the ranchers no longer need to take advantage of their water rights and rain has been plentiful.
As we started our day on the river yesterday, it was too warm to wear a fleece. The photo here shows what happened as the day proceeded. In between we had a great fishing day. More about that in the next post.
