A day with George Anderson on the Armstrong Spring Creek (MT)

I met George during my first trip to Montana in 1992. In fact it was the first fly shop I entered (at 6:30 AM!) during that trip. My friend Don and I were on our way to Yellowstone National Park. I needed a pair of wading shoes to go along with my Red Ball waders (remember those?...). The shop was the only building in the area. But boy does it look different now 26 years later.

We kept in touch during these years. Our contact intensified when Yellowstone Angler started their rod shoot outs. We exchanged quite a few emails about rods and actions over the years

When I told George I was coming to Montana after almost 15 years he agreed to join me on a days fishing. I wanted to try one of the many spring creeks in Paradise Valley. He suggested we fish the Armstrong Spring Creek.







George on his way to the 'office' to check me in

Well seeing George after more than 25 years again sure is nice. Our friendship has certainly been a long distance friendship. Fishing together felt very comfortable. We both geared up at the shed next to the parking place. I fished my Livingston Western Glass 8.6ft #3. What a great (spring creek) rod this is. Until the heat I caught half a dozen fish including a nice 18 inch rainbow. George tried my rod and he was quite impressed. 

After lunch George was a bit tired. Time doesn’t do any favors to any of us. He had some problems with one of his ankle which obviously bothered him after a few hours. During the whole day George basically guided me. I’m not used to be guided and being guided by a legend felt a bit awkward to me sometimes. But It's an honour to have such a knowledgeable fisherman next to you.

We didn’t see much of a hatch during the morning (just a few PMDs and some midges). After lunch the heat made sure all insects were hanging around the local refrigerator. Fishing slowed down considerably. But the company and the view was amazing. 

Just before George left, we saw a pod of fish cruising a slow part of the stream. They were probably used to fishermen trying to fool them as they were not really interested in the offerings. After George left (George needed to go back to the shop and get some rest) I fished the upper part of the stream. I missed a very nice fish because I was more into admiring the scenery than watching the drift of my hopper. 

Thanks George for a great day!

Before packing up I launched my drone for a view from above. Quite a spectacular area!


After fishing, on my way to Bozeman I stopped at Sweetwater Fly shop to get some cleats under my new rubbers soled wading boots as I was slipping on the algae covered rocks. Nice guys but they need some classes on fitting cleats. Fishing next day with my friend Mark, I thought I would get a firmer grip on the slippery rocks but it was hardly the case. It turned out that the cleats were loose(!) and way too few cleats under each boot as the guys at Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone showed me.

Next: backcountry fishing in Montana!

My 2018 USA trip:

1) Upper stretch of the Elk river (BC)

2) Visit to RL Winston rod factory

3) A day with George Anderson on the Armstrong Spring Creek (MT)

4) Backcountry fishing in Montana

5) West Yellowstone

6) Henry's Fork - part 1

7) Henry's Fork - part 2

8) Henry's Fork - part 3

9) Cutthroat fishing with Dusty & Colt

10) Fiberglass Clave 2018

11) Last day of the trip - Soda Butte & Lamar (YNP)

12) Drone video of my BC / Montana / Idaho trip

An article in Fly Fisherman magazine, March 1971 about the Armstrong spring creek. Times when fishing the Armstrong was accessible for free(!) for a period.

Update Nov 22, 2024

Here is a nice podcast with George and his son Jamie.

They talk about the younger years of George, how the shop was started and their passion for fly fishing.

Visit to RL Winston rod factory

During one of my trips to Montana in the mid 1990's I planned to visit the RL Winston rod factory in Twin Bridges on our way to Yellowstone National Park. But unfortunately the building was closed because the company was attending a big fly fishing show elsewhere in the country. It's now almost 20 years later and due to a slight change of travel plans during this trip, I had a few hours to spare to drive to Twin Bridges on my way to Bozeman.

I remember having a map on my lap while driving during my last trip in 2005. Nowadays we have this amazing technology called the iPhone, a map app and an unlimited ultra fast LTE temporary data plan for just $60!


The scenery of the trip from Helena to Twin Bridges was amazing.


The last part of the trip to Twin Bridges slowed down a bit due to road construction on highway 55. Both directions had to take turns to drive on the same lane that was available.




Finally Twin Bridges


The familiar view on the Twin Bridges water tower with the Beaverhead river


After a short drive outside the town, the RL Winston rod factory looked just as I remember from many pictures. As famous as this factory is to fly fishermen, it also looked like every other warehouse I've seen along the roads. I parked my red rental car and walked around the front yard. There was this neat little lawn with a sign.






While entering the building I expected the general manager of the plant welcoming vistors with coffee and cup cakes. Too bad I was too late for the daily factory tour at 11 AM. A small front office and a door next to it with the sign 'Winston museum' was all there is.




A room of about 6 x 6 meters (around 20 x 20 ft) with some memorabilia of the history of Winston was displayed. The most eye catching item being a frame with a dozen or so rods from the past, only bamboo and fiber glass rods. There I recognised the Leetle Feller (misspelled as 'Light feller') and the Stalker (misspelled as 'Stalber') glass rod. I wonder how they could make these mistakes on their heritage?...








Besides rods, there were many pictures om the wall. Many of them I remember seeing them in the old Winston catalogs I got at home.






Many tools of era gone by


Gary Howells, one of the best bamboo rod makers ever




A view of the workshop



Did you know that the Sage head rod designer Jerry Siem started at Winston?


It's nice to know the guestbooks of vistors are kept.




Next stop: A day with George Anderson on the Armstrong spring creek!

My 2018 USA trip:

1) Upper stretch of the Elk river (BC)

2) Visit to RL Winston rod factory

3) A day with George Anderson on the Armstrong Spring Creek (MT)

4) Backcountry fishing in Montana

5) West Yellowstone

6) Henry's Fork - part 1

7) Henry's Fork - part 2

8) Henry's Fork - part 3

9) Cutthroat fishing with Dusty & Colt

10) Fiberglass Clave 2018

11) Last day of the trip - Soda Butte & Lamar (YNP)

12) Drone video of my BC / Montana / Idaho trip

Start of USA/Canada trip Aug 2018 - Upper stretch of the Elk river (BC)

This blog started in 2005 as a means to keep my friends in Montana and Idaho informed about my fly fishing whereabouts. Almost 15 years later I'm back in the Rockies, the blog has come full circle.

My two week trip early August 2018 started with a short trip to British Columbia with my friend David, the owner of the Fish Tales fly shop in Calgary. I've known David since the early days of the internet in the mid 1990's. We participated on an internet fly swap and stayed friends ever since.

The idea I had was to fish Michel creek near the town of Sparwood, BC. Michel creek is well known as a very nice westslope cutthroat stream. Unfortunately this stream is recently listed on the restricted waters by the province of BC. This generally means these waters have limited tickets available for fishermen outside of BC and was sold out for the summer. Good thing BC Fishery is changing the reservation system because now these restricted waters are fully booked right away from the start of the year. The idea is to sell tickets in stages during the year. With change of plans the next morning we headed for the upper stretches of the Elk river above Elkford to look for westslope cutthroats.

When I arrived in Calgary the heat was on for several weeks. Due to the heat the whole western coastal area from California to BC there has been numerous forest fires. Daytime temps went as high as 37C / high 90's F! The typical amazing vista of the rocky mountains during the drive to BC was severely hazed by the smoke.



Frank Slide and the smokey sky


After checking in at our motel in Sparwood, we headed for the upper parts of the Elk river above Elkford. The second part of an almost two hour drive to the the upper Elk was a long drive on a dirt road up the mountains.





I'm not sure what caused it but the fishing was very mediocre during the two days in BC. The upper Elk river looked very fishy but the fish we caught were very limited in size and numbers. The extreme heat during this week was probably part of the reason the fishing was so slow.





The next day we decided to try a tributary of the Elk river. The sky opened up a bit after the thunderstorm of the evening before. This stream looked like cutthroat heaven with nice runs and pools, but the results were disappointing too. Fish size were around 8-10 inches.

Due to new restrictions on felt soles in parts of Montana, I bought a new pair of Patagonia Ultralight rubber soled wading boots at David's store. Boy do they feel different than the felt soles I'm used to. In spite of more than 10 years availability of wading boots with rubber soles, the manufacturers still haven't come up with a rubber sole that has the traction that comes even close to felt soles. Without cleats, it's it's like skating on ice on the slippery rocks!









I wanted to get to cross the Montana border before 6 PM, so we decided to call it a quits around 4 PM. David drove back to Calgary and I headed south on highway 3 and 93 to Montana. The idea was to drive as far south until around 9 PM, check in at a motel and drive to Helena to see my dear friend Don and his wife Rosi in the morning.

I arrived in Missoula around 9 PM and saw that all hotels/motels were fully booked. After a phone call to Don, I drove another two hours to Helena to spend the night at Don's place. This slight change of plans meant the next day I had about 3-4 hours to spare on my way to Bozeman.

I decided to drive to Twin Bridges to (finally) visit the Winston rod company.

My 2018 USA trip:

1) Upper stretch of the Elk river (BC)

2) Visit to RL Winston rod factory

3) A day with George Anderson on the Armstrong Spring Creek (MT)

4) Backcountry fishing in Montana

5) West Yellowstone

6) Henry's Fork - part 1

7) Henry's Fork - part 2

8) Henry's Fork - part 3

9) Cutthroat fishing with Dusty & Colt

10) Fiberglass Clave 2018

11) Last day of the trip - Soda Butte & Lamar (YNP)

12) Drone video of my BC / Montana / Idaho trip