Giving a Hoot

Angler and guide self-restrictions and FWP “hoot owl” closures provide stressed trout a break during Montana’s increasingly hot summers. 

^{By E. Donnall Thomas, Jr.}

One day last August, my wife Lori and I decided to drive south from our Lewistown home to visit friends in Paradise Valley. Crossing the bridge over the Yellowstone River in Big Timber always serves as my demarcation between eastern and western Montana. As we briefly watched the low, clear current pass beneath us, we left the world of walleyes and catfish and entered the land of trout. 

With the weather balmy and clear, fly anglers were out in force enjoying the day. As we drove west on the interstate parallel to the river, every glimpse of the water revealed drift boats and rafts following the current as fly lines shot back and forth. The Yellowstone is big enough so that it seldom looks crowded, but the water did seem busy in a pleasant way. 

We stopped for gas in Livingston before turning south toward Yellowstone National Park. When we next made visual contact with the river, my impression registered something oddly amiss. Then I realized that all the drift boats and anglers had vanished, leaving the scene eerily depopulated, like a post-apocalyptic landscape in a disaster movie. When Lori made the same observation and asked me where all the boats had gone, I experienced a sudden insight and glanced at my watch. “It’s after two. Hoot owl rules are now in place.” On this stretch of river, no fishing would be allowed again until midnight. 

Read Giving a Hoot

Montana Outdoors magazine