Montana
The West’s Best Fly Fishing Isn’t in Montana Anymore
Colorado holds a special place in my heart – it’s where I learned to fly fish and really caught the bug, so I try to get back whenever I can.
Recently, the opportunity came up to spend a few days exploring trout water in a part of the state that was new to me, and I jumped.
The Gunnison Valley, tucked between the San Juan and West Elk Mountains on Colorado’s Western Slope, is best known for two destination mountain towns – Gunnison and Crested Butte.
Both towns are great in their own right, but there’s a whole lot more to the valley worth experiencing.
My home base was Almont, a small town located between Gunnison and Crested Butte, where the East and Taylor Rivers meet to form the Gunnison. I stayed in a cabin on the banks of the Taylor, and it was the ideal jumping-off point to explore the whole valley.
The best known trout fishery in the Gunnison Valley is – you guessed it – the Gunnison River. It can be thought of in two main stretches: the upper river, winding through ranchland from Almont to Blue Mesa Reservoir, and the lower river below the dam, cutting through the rugged Gunnison Gorge and Black Canyon.
I spent a day fishing each, and the two stretches couldn’t look more different. On the Upper Gunnison, I fished long, slow-moving runs in wide open meadows filled with gold-leafed aspen trees. In the Black Canyon, the walls close in, the flows pick up, and everything feels much smaller. Two very different environments – both with excellent trout fishing.
I split another day between the Taylor River and one of its tributaries. Fed by releases from Taylor Park Dam, the Taylor runs cold and clear year-round – making it a great option for winter fishing.
That said, it’s technical fishing – and after a morning of dredging small nymphs, I decided to go up higher to find less sophisticated fish.
That afternoon, I was fishing a single dry fly on Spring Creek above Almont. The fish weren’t big – but after a few hours of constantly switching flies, depth, and weight, a handful of six- inch trout willing to come up and crush a hopper was a welcome change.
The Gunnison Valley is full of open space and public water, but it’s got a lively cultural side too. On my last day – after a few post-fishing beers at the Eldo – I caught a movie premiere at the Center for the Arts in Crested Butte.
It was the world premiere of Matchstick Productions’ new ski film. My mental shift from fishing to ski season usually starts in November, but this definitely jump-started it.
I was relieved to see that I wasn’t the only viewer who clearly had just come off the water. As you might expect, there’s a good deal of overlap between skiers and fly anglers in Crested Butte, and in the Gunnison Valley as a whole.
It’s a special community fueled by a passion for the outdoors, and I’ve a;ready started planning a return trip.
HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.
“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.
It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.
(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)
Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026
“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”
But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.
“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.
Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.
“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.
The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.
The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.
“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.
While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.
Montana
Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round
BUTTE — MSU-Northern and Montana Western pulled a pair of upsets Saturday at the Butte Civic Center to wrap up the quarterfinal round of the Frontier Conference women’s basketball postseason tournament.
The fifth-seeded Skylights started the day with a red-hot shooting performance to down No. 4 Rocky Mountain College 82-74. Western, the sixth seed, used a third-quarter surge to defeat No. 3 Carroll College 65-56.
MSU-Northern (17-11) and Western (14-13) now advance to Sunday’s semifinal round, where the Skylights will play No. 1 seed Dakota State at noon and the Bulldogs will face No. 2 Montana Tech at 2:30 p.m.
MSU-Northern 82, Rocky Mountain College 74
MSU-Northern sizzled in the first quarter, making seven 3-pointers to take a double-digit lead, and put together a crucial third-quarter run to get past Rocky and advance to the semifinal round.
Becky Melcher splashed four 3s in the first 10 minutes, and Taya Trottier, Canzas HisBadHorse and Shania Moananu added one apiece as the Skylights built a 29-13 lead. Melcher scored 14 first-quarter points and finished with a game-high 30 on 10-of-19 shooting (7 of 15 from 3-point range). She added 11 rebounds, a blocked shot and three steals to her stat line.
Rocky battled back to tie the game at 36-36 in the second quarter on a Brenna Linse basket, but MSUN responded with consecutive triples from Trottier and Melcher and took a 44-38 lead into halftime. The Bears eventually stole the lead back in the third quarter following a 9-0 run capped be an Isabelle Heggem bucket.
But the Skylights again answered — this time with a 13-2 run to take a 60-51 lead. MSUN led 66-59 going to the fourth and wouldn’t trail the rest of the way. The Skylights trailed for less than two total minutes of the game.
As a team, MSUN made 14 of 26 3s in the game. Ciera Agasiva was 3 for 3 from behind the arc, and Trottier was 2 for 3. Trottier had 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Agasiva had 13 points.
Paige Wasson led Rocky (20-9) with 29 points but was 0 for 10 on 3-point attempts. Heggem had a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds.
Montana Western 65, Carroll 56
After neither team led by more than five points in the first half, Western broke open a 25-25 tie game by outscoring Carroll 20-9 in the third quarter.
Bailee Sayler scored 10 points in the quarter, including making two 3-pointers, to help the Bulldogs take control. They led 45-34 going to the fourth, and Carroll wouldn’t get closer than six points the rest of the way.
The Fighting Saints were just 18-of-65 shooting (27.7%) for the game.
Sayler scored an efficient 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting. She was 2 for 3 from 3-point range and 6 for 7 at the free throw line. The Missoula native also had nine rebounds.
Isabella Lund added 16 points for the Bulldogs, and Keke Davis had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Carroll (19-10) was led by Kenzie Allen with 12 points. Willa Albrecht and Meagan Karstetter scored 11 points apiece for the Saints.
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