Montana
The western Montana hot stove fly tying league
The meetings are probably coming to order – in some sort or another, all over western Montana.
For about 16 years on Tuesday afternoons we held a meeting that would qualify for the hot stove fly tying league in my shop. A typical session might go like this:
The guys would start rolling in about two in the afternoon and we’d exchanged greetings. They’d get settled into their customary places around the fly tying table, plug in their lamps, set up their vises and fuss with their other tools.
“What are we tying today, Chuck?” one of them would ask.
“Let’s tie some Caddis Variants,” I might say – or I’d name another pattern.
What we did weren’t really fly tying classes; they could be called seminars, maybe, or in another sense, club meetings. There was a sense of fraternity among us. They were there to learn and I was there to teach. Sometimes the teacher learned from the students.
We called our meeting sessions. Seminar sounded too formal, meeting sounded too formal, and class sounded too bookish, too lifeless.
Sometimes when I visit friends during the winter I bring some fly tying tools and materials. Sitting and tying flies, sharing secrets, fly recipes, materials and stories in just about any warm setting on a cold winter afternoon would qualify as a hot stove fly tying league meeting.
This league, insofar as it exists at all, is loose and far-flung. When a couple of buddies get together to tie flies at one of their houses, though, we know we’re connected to something bigger.
It’s not ethereal or transcendent; it’s more like simply knowing you’re not the only ones.
A fly tying hot stove league meeting can be those couple of guys getting together once, or it can be a tradition that’s older than the one held forth at my shop until it closed.
One of the oldest is the Fly Tying Roundtable that the late Doug Persico and his wife Carolyn started at the Rock Creek Fishermen’s Merc in Clinton. I was surprised and pleased to learn that Doug and Carolyn’s grandson John is keeping up the tradition when I read the following announcement:
It’s that time of year again to fire up the fly tying vises and create some new buggy goodness! The first Fly Tyer’s Roundtable of the season begins this Saturday (1/6/24) starting at 11AM here at the Mercantile!
We will be hosting Roundtables every Saturday through the winter. For more information, please contact us or check out our webpage in the link below. Happy New Year and happy tying, anglers! https://rcmerc.com/fly-tyers-roundtable/
The Roundtables at the Merc weren’t classes per se and probably still aren’t. Basically you’d come, set up, and watch somebody tie and learn from them.
If Carolyn and John don’t mind, when the roads clear a bit I might devote a Saturday to joining them.
Until then I’ll fuss here at home, and maybe have some friends over to tie. Eventually I’d like to re-start the sessions I held at my shop on Tuesday afternoons. There are logistics to deal with but I’m working on it.
There’s a certain pull, an attraction to the notion of spending cold winter afternoons where it’s warm, hopefully where it’s heated with wood, to tie flies. We inevitably tell stories. We show each other the new materials we’ve discovered and maybe share them.
There are so many new materials on today’s market that keeping up with all of them, even if you own a fly shop, seems nonsensical. You can’t do it. But hearing from your buddies what works and what doesn’t is a short-cut to knowledge that could drive you insane if you tried to discover it all by yourself.
Back to that Caddis Variant we were going to tie at a Tuesday afternoon session. We’d devote several sessions every year to that fly. Why? It’s deceptively simple – and easy to get wrong. When I announce that it’s Caddis Variants again, I might hear:
“Caddis Variants again, Chuck? Will you show us how to flare the wing this time?”
“He showed you how last time,” somebody answers. “You just weren’t paying attention.”
“Yes I was – I just got stuck on getting the dubbing right.”
We all laugh and eventually we practice flaring the wings. It takes time and practice to learn – and the camaraderie is a catalyst to the learning and the reason why we’re there.
French Montana, Rick Ross & Max B Turn the BET Awards Into “
06/28/2026
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GREAT FALLS — For Staff Sgt. Brianna St. Lawrence-Brody, service does not only happen in uniform.
Outside the gates of the base, she works at Benefis as a nurse, Great Falls Public Schools as a school nurse, and comes home as a wife and mom of four. For the Montana Air National Guard, she serves as a command post controller with the 120th Airlift Wing in Great Falls.
(WATCH: Montana nurse and Guard member earns national Air Force recognition)
Montana nurse and Guard member earns national Air Force recognition
This year, St. Lawrence-Brody was named the U.S. Air National Guard’s Outstanding Airman of the Year in the Non-Commissioned Officer category.
She said the recognition came as a surprise, especially because her path into the Guard started later than others.
“I joined very late in life,” St. Lawrence-Brody said. “I joined the Guard right before I turned 40. So for me, every opportunity that’s presented, I want to take the bull by the horns and just run with it and do the best of my ability.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she joined the Guard after finishing nursing school. She said she went straight from nursing school into helping open a COVID unit, while also working at Benefis.
She said that experience was the start of one journey, but not the whole of what she wanted to accomplish.
St. Lawrence-Brody joined the Guard for the opportunities, the challenge and to help build a future for her four children.
“It’s a little bit of a competition for myself,” she said. “Like, if I can do it, why not try my best to achieve it?”
120th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
As a command post controller, she assists in helping move information during emergencies and major events.
“Outside, obviously, I’m a nurse. Inside the Guard, I have nothing to do with the medical field, which is kind of amazing,” St. Lawrence-Brody said. “It keeps me on my toes.”
She explained balancing the Guard, two civilian jobs and four children takes support from her family, her employers and her unit. She said Benefis and GFPS have been supportive of her military service.
Her nomination included her deployment experience, training work overseas and involvement across the wing. St. Lawrence-Brody said she deployed to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where she worked with an operations center supporting entities connected to Africa.
But, she says this recognition is not the finish line.
“This award, it’s not necessarily a landing pad for me,” St. Lawrence-Brody said. “I want to use it as a springboard.”
120th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
St. Lawrence-Brody hopes her story encourages others to keep taking on new opportunities, even when they feel uncertain.
“Get comfortable with being uncomfortable and be okay with doing things afraid,” she said. “I think when you get to be okay with doing things afraid, that’s where you’re going to find the growth.”
She has already won at the Air National Guard level, but she recently traveled to Washington, D.C., as part of the broader Air Force Outstanding Airman of the Year process, which includes nominees from the Guard, Reserve and major commands across the Air Force.
The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at June 27, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from June 27 drawing
03-16-28-30-59, Powerball: 11, Power Play: 2
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto America numbers from June 27 drawing
03-08-18-22-39, Star Ball: 06, ASB: 02
Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from June 27 drawing
05-16-19-27, Bonus: 08
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Powerball Double Play numbers from June 27 drawing
02-26-34-43-45, Powerball: 15
Check Powerball Double Play payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Montana Cash numbers from June 27 drawing
05-09-10-15-35
Check Montana Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from June 27 drawing
26-32-38-51-52, Bonus: 05
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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