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The western Montana hot stove fly tying league

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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.

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“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.

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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/

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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.

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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.

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Montana

Christi Jacobsen enters race for Western House seat

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Christi Jacobsen enters race for Western House seat


Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen is running for Montana’s Western Congressional District seat, entering the race a day after U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke announced he would not seek reelection.

Jacobsen’s announcement sets up a new contest for the open seat after Zinke, a Republican, said he would seek reelection.

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“As your Secretary of State, I’ve stood up to Washington overreach, defended election integrity, and delivered real results for Montanans. In 2020, voters gave me a mandate to clean up our elections, grow Montana business, and push back against radical liberal special interests. I delivered. Now it’s time to take that same results-driven, America First leadership to Congress.”



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Montana Lottery Powerball, Lotto America results for March 2, 2026

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The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at March 2, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Powerball numbers from March 2 drawing

02-17-18-38-62, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 2

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

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Winning Lotto America numbers from March 2 drawing

03-08-17-24-34, Star Ball: 06, ASB: 02

Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from March 2 drawing

06-12-19-29, Bonus: 11

Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Powerball Double Play numbers from March 2 drawing

21-28-58-65-67, Powerball: 25

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Check Powerball Double Play payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from March 2 drawing

28-41-42-50-55, Bonus: 02

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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Apparent AI Glitch in Filing by Montana Public Defender, Recent Congressional Candidate

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Apparent AI Glitch in Filing by Montana Public Defender, Recent Congressional Candidate


Everyone makes mistakes, even experienced professionals; a good reminder for the rest of us to learn from those mistakes. The motion in State v. Stroup starts off well in its initial pages (no case law hallucinations), but is then followed by several pages of two other motions, which I don’t think the lawyer was planning to file, and which appear to have been AI-generated: It begins with the “Below is concise motion language you can drop into …” language quoted above.

Griffen Smith (Missoulian) reported on the story, and included the prosecutor’s motion to strike that filing, on the grounds that it violates a local rule (3(G)) requiring disclosure of the use of generative AI:

The document does not include a generative artificial intelligence disclosure as required. However, page 7 begins as follows: “Below is concise motion language you can drop into a ‘Motion to Admit Mental-Disease Evidence and for Related Instructions’ keyed to 45-6-204, 45-6-201, and 4614-102. Adjust headings/captions to your local practice.” Page 10 states “Below is a full motion you can paste into your pleading, then adjust names, dates, and styles to fit local practice.” These pages also include several apparent hyperlinks to “ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws,” “ppl-ai-fileupload.s3.amazonaws+1,” and others. The document includes what appears to be an attempt at a second case caption on page 12. It is not plausible on its face that any source other than generative AI would have created such language for a filed version of a brief….

There’s more in that filing, but here’s one passage:

While generative AI can be a useful tool for some purposes and may have greater application in the future, when used improperly, and without meaningful review, it can ultimately damage both the perception and the reality of the profession. One assumes that Mr. Stroup has had, or will at some point have, an opportunity to review the filing made on his behalf. What impression could a review of pgs. 12-19 leave upon a defendant who struggles with paranoia and delusional thinking? While AI could theoretically one day become a replacement for portions of staff of experienced attorneys, it is readily apparent that this day has not yet arrived.

The Missoulan article includes this response:

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In a Wednesday interview, Office of Public Defender Division Administrator Brian Smith told the Missoulian the AI-generated language was inadvertently included in an unrelated filing. And he criticized the county attorney’s office for filing a “four-page diatribe about the dangers of AI” instead of working with the defense to correct her mistake.

“That’s not helping the client or the case,” Smith said, “and all you are doing is trying to throw a professional colleague under the bus.”

As I mentioned, the lawyer involved seems quite experienced, and ran for the Montana Public Service Commission in 2020 (getting nearly 48% of the vote) and for the House of Representatives in Montana’s first district in 2022 (getting over 46% of the vote) and in 2024 (getting over 44%). “Его пример другим наука,” Pushkin wrote in Eugene Onegin—”May his example profit others,” in the Falen translation.

Thanks to Matthew Monforton for the pointer.



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