Guest Post: Simon Perkins
This is the first in a new series of Guest Posts where we will feature writings of some of the YETI Pros and Guides. Our first guest writer is Simon Perkins, professional fly fishing and bird hunting guide with PRO Outfitters of Helena, Montana. Simon is also an accomplished writer, photographer and videographer, having authored articles published in Big Sky Journal, Orvis News and more.
I don’t work a 9-to-5. I work a 6-to-10. There is something extremely gratifying about having your workday dictated by the natural sunlight. Although if you are talking about Montana in the summer, that means a long day at the office. But in most cases, particularly mine, it also suggests that your office is located smack-dab in the middle of paradise.
I work as a fly-fishing guide for PRO Outfitters. For the first half of the summer, when water levels tend to be most cooperative, we run 5-day expeditions down the Smith River in central Montana. If you haven’t floated the Smith, put it on your list immediately. The river has one public put-in, one public take-out, and sixty miles of breathe-taking canyon in between. I’m talking limestone cliffs rising a thousand feet straight up out of the water, looking down on a pristine freestone river full of healthy and heavy Browns and Rainbows. The hatches, specifically Golden Stones, can be epic, resulting in some of the best dry fly fishing you can find. Picture floating downstream, casting toward a canyon wall and landing your dry fly 3-inches off the rock. But it isn’t close enough. You recast, this time within an inch of the wall. You mend, get a decent drift, and then the explosion. You struggle to keep the fish on while your guide works the boat into slower water, where you eventually hold up a 20+ inch brown trout with golden sides, dark black spots, and an emerald green back.
Yeah, my office is pretty damn sweet.
With fishing trips, there are certain things you can’t control. No matter how impressively I try to sing to the heavens at night, I have no say over the weather, the water conditions, or the mood of the trout. But at PRO, we try to impress with all that we can control. Intangibly speaking, this means knowledge, work ethic, instruction, and good humor. Tangibly, I’m mainly referring to food and accommodations, neither of which can be undervalued. And we need to pack everything necessary for the full 5-day trip.
In addition to the four guides, our crew consists of two gear-boaters and a chef, arguably the MVP’s of our expedition. When the fishing boats come into camp at the end of the day, everything is set up (including a kitchen fly, a wall-tent dining area, and a large 8-man tent for each pair of guests) and appetizers and cocktails are on the table. The food is awesome, and it gets better with each day of the trip, ending with crab cakes and a New York strip on the last evening. Obviously, in order to offer meals like this, we have to be able to keep stuff cold for a long time. And Montana summers can get hot. YETIs are a must and an essential part the first-class dining experience. We travel with a 155 Qt in each gear boat and 65 Qts in each guide boat (on day 5, you don’t want to be handing a client a lukewarm beer!). Before we had YETIs, we were constantly worrying about how to keep stuff cold throughout the trip. Not anymore. Plus, we now view the Smith River’s black bear population purely as a remarkable feature of the fauna landscape, and not a pest that will raid and destroy our coolers.
Sixteen hours can seem like a long workday, but it isn’t when that day begins and ends with the sound of a river running beneath towering canyon walls that reach up toward Montana’s big sky. I’ve heard people complain about tedious schedules that occasionally force them to sleep in their office. Well, that’s what I’m stuck with and I couldn’t feel luckier.
To learn more about the amazing trips that PRO Outfitters offers, visit their website www.prooutfitters.com or call 800-858-3497.
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