Every August or September for about the last 6 years, I and three other friends have gone to Sheridan, Mt. for a week of flyfishing. That trip, for me, is like Christmas when I was a kid. It comes so slowly and it passes so quickly.

We were extremely lucky in coordinating our stay with an outfit that had an unbelievable cross-use agreement with many of the large ranches in the surrounding area on the Ruby and the Big Hole. I have never seen the like for brown and rainbow fishing. I think if I could have bottled up those experiences and stashed up a case or two I could take a sip every now and then and stay young forever.

God made grasshoppers so people like me don't have to be skilled flyfishers. He made the parachute adams so people like me can pretend we really are flyfishers.

Unfortunately, the times being what they are, many of the ranchers, when the time comes to sell their ranches, are getting unbelieveable offers from millionares who just want a big, private, Montana playground. They don't want to work a ranch and they have been offering more money than anyone would offer for a working ranch, but they won't pay so long as the cross-use covenant encumbers the land. So, the ranchers have pulled out, one by one, as the offers to purchase for the big bucks come their way. These purchasers are all, so far as these properties are concerned, the Ted Turner types. They have so far denied all access to these properties. This last summer, there were only two or three ranches on the Ruby still in the cross-use and only one or two on the Big Hole.

Before this year, we could fish different beats every day for a week and not have to go over the same water twice. No more. Oh well, we always thought this was too good a deal to be true and now it isn't . I feel like an old fart talking about how good the fishing used to be.