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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.
GIANT SEQUOIAS, NO CROWDS
The groves of massive giant sequoias and nearby array of towering granite pinnacles make Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park one of the world's greatest showpieces. Yet, because of the long, circuitous route to get there for almost everybody, it gets a fraction of the visitors who go to Yosemite. Once school starts, and in turn, the fall season in September and October, the numbers drop yet further. I've seen fall mornings there where I even had the Grant Grove all to myself for the half-mile loop walk, and later, the Kings River was like my personal fly-fishing stream. Here are the best of lodging, camping, driving tours, easy hikes, cave tours and fly fishing: Grant Grove: Of the several groves of giant sequoias, the Grant Grove may be the most sensational and easy to reach, with an easy half-mile loop hiking trail that meanders amid the giants.
Chubs making a comeback at Strawberry
During the C.A.S.T. (Catch a Special Thrill) event held on Strawberry this past Saturday, I had the opportunity to take a look at the chub population in the Soldier Creek portion -- and the picture wasn't a pretty one. "We've been catching fish right and left," said George Sommer, current president of the TBF Bass Federation, "but all we've caught are adult chubs." It was a fact that the area Sommer and his C.A.S.T. participants were fishing showed a water column littered with adult chubs, that swarmed each bait as it fell towards the bottom. "We thought the cuts (cutthroats) would be biting," continued Sommer, "but we can't seem to get through all the chubs." The same story was repeated several times Saturday. Each time I approached a boat, my fish finder came alive with schools of chubs, which were confirmed as I moved slowly through the shallows so that the chubs became visible to the naked eye.
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