Drift Boat First Timer

My family was never the extreme fishing family or hunting family that you would assume from just knowing me. Ever since third grade, I wanted to be a marine biologist when I grow up and my passion all started with my love for Dolphins. A little weird because I grow up in a small town called Red Lodge, MT living on ranch that was founded in 1887. When my sister and I were younger, we were the sixth generation before my great grandmother passed away. I have been told from my grandparents that only one person in the family ever took the time to go fly fishing between chores. And as for the hunting part, there was never really a need because of the livestock that we raised. 

During my junior year in college at the University of Montana, I won a 4 weight fly rod at the Westslope Trout Unlimited Banquet that I was volunteering for. I took it outside to practice casting once in a while through the rest of my schooling and only once to the river to have no success. I would say thats pretty embarrassing since I majored in fish science, Ecology and Organismal Biology. 

It all changed when I was about to move to Oklahoma from Wyoming to live with my sister. I meet my boyfriend who is an avid fly fisherman and has taught me everything I know. This all leads up to a Sunday just recently when his friend came up to fish with us and brought his drift boat. I have been wanting to go on one for so long because when we go wade fishing, I always end up hooking a sage brush behind me when I am about to do my final cast or the water is moving too fast for me to cross. 

It was a beautifully sunny day but also windy making the experience a little uncomfortable because I was cold the entire time. I was placed at the front of the boat while my boyfriend was at the back and his friend rowed. Casting became so much easier on the drift boat because I could pretty much cast wherever the hell I wanted to. If my line ended up behind me on one side of the boat, I would just turn around and fish from there. The beginning of our day was better then the afternoon fishing wise since that was the only time we all were catching fish. I was able to land a Rainbow Trout and a Whitefish while my boyfriend hooked into some Rainbow Trout and a Brown Trout. That made his day because they put up a good fight causing you to think harder on which way they are going to run. 

In the afternoon, I was given the opportunity to row the boat! I was really happy about this because I know it was going to warm me up and I wanted to see if I could actually do it. I was able to maneuver around boulders and move from one side of the river to the other for the guys to hopefully find a good hole to fish. I was pretty lucky this time since the river level is fuller from the massive amounts of snow melting that we received during the winter. Now that I know I can row, I am just waiting to see if my boyfriend is finally going to get a drift boat of his own so we can go out and switch back and forth while we drift down the Green River reaching areas that we could not in just our waders.