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Craig makes hay while the fish fly
CRAIG, Mont. (AP) The midafternoon heat is intense in this little town and the fishing is a little slow, but Mike Bushly is still upbeat.There's air conditioning inside The Trout Shop, an emporium loaded with cool fishing stuff fly rods, vests, waders, flies, ventilated clothing and a well-stocked deli offering drinks, sandwiches and chilled salads. Even the thick fleece-lined jackets have a perverse retail appeal.And Bushly has plenty more reasons not to sweat. The shop and the small community that surrounds it are awash in anglers ready to spend cold cash chasing big trout.This is our Christmas right now,'' Bushly said.While the stretch of the Missouri River between Holter Dam and Cascade lures plenty of Montanans through the year, the summer months bring anglers from all over the United States and around the world to the broad, cool river.A group of anglers from France just wrapped up seven days of fishing on the Missouri.
Hopper time
I put on my waders, my felt-soled boots and a fleece vest because it felt a little bit cool when I got to the Oldman River. The sky was cloudy, threatening rain. A chilly breeze was sweeping down the valley from the west. But within 20 minutes I was sweating like I was in the tropics, the breeze had stopped and the sun had popped out from behind the clouds. I should have known. Summer might be winding down, but it ain't done yet. I'd come down to the Oldman River below the Three Rivers Dam to try a bit of late-afternoon grasshopper fishing. No, not fishing for grasshoppers. I mean using big flies imitating grasshoppers to fool some trout into playing with me for a bit. It's the time of year for grasshoppers along the river banks to start leaping and flying around looking for mates.
Londoner submits to public fish-slapping
Inspired by a Monty Python sketch, a charity fund-raiser in London with an odd-ball sense of humour submitted himself on Saturday to being slapped in the face with a couple of wet fish.Ben Fillmore (24) turned up at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park in central London as promised at high noon to be publicly humiliated with two fresh Scottish rainbow trout at the hands of student Lucy Berry (23).She had paid £210 on internet auction site eBay to be part of Fillmore's quest to raise a total of £10 000 for the Stroke Association."It felt OK," Fillmore confided to reporters afterwards. "My face feels a bit taut and the fish really stinks. It felt very slimy -- but it was definitely worth it."The stunt was an homage to "the fish-slapping dance" in which John Cleese and Michael Palin, both in safari outfits, take turns whacking each other with fish in a classic episode from television's Monty Python's Flying Circus.Berry has so far raised £2 000 pounds for the charity, which helped his mother survive a stroke six years ago.He said he has more stunts in the pipeline -- as well as a project to scale Mount Everest.
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