PPS Destinations Report 

McCollum's Dental Seminar, Dillon Montana

Date:        September 9/10, 2004

 Reported by Ernst 'Ernie' Schmidt

With Montana having the reputation of being the 'Mecca' of American trout fly fishing, I was fortunate enough to attend (as presenter) this excellent venue and enjoy the good company of our hosts as well as my fellow fly fishing dentists.

What I enjoy most about Montana are its wide open spaces - hence, the moniker, Big Sky Country - surrounded by its gorgeous mountains.  Of course, big mountains mean snow, snow means rivers and rivers mean fishing.  Western Montana is blessed with a plethora of some of North America's best fly fishing rivers.  Names like the Madison, Big Hole, Beaverhead, Yellowstone, etc,  are nothing less than household names in the minds of all fly fishermen.

Upon my arrival in Dillon, I quickly met up with my host, Dr. John McCollum who graciously took me out to a local private brookie pond that was first stocked sometimes in the late 1800s.  With only about an hour of daylight left, I quickly began my trip catching and releasing about 8 or so feisty brookies in the 1 to 2 pound range.  On the Thursday and Friday mornings, we met bright and early for the dental seminar which lasted sometime till late morning.  On my first day, Dave Jones (Kansas, USA) and I headed out and spent the day fishing the famous Madison River somewhere near Ennis.  With our amiable guide, Leon, we drifted the river for about 6 hours, fishing along the way.  I managed to catch a whitefish, several small rainbows and 4 respectable browns while enjoying the amazing scenery.  I was always impressed with the abundance of deer and antelope, even during the mid-day.  The Madison was a real challenge as the river was deceivingly fast and required an inordinate amount of lead and weighted flies in order to get the flies down to fishable depth during the very quick and short drift.  Next morning, after the seminar, Dave and I again hooked up with Leon, this time fishing McCoy Spring Creek, which is a private pay-fishery.  Now, this is more my style.  Fishing a four-weight outfit, I enjoyed making delicate casts to the fussy fish as they selectively sipped on the micro hatches.  We had an 'average' day and I was delighted to have caught and landed six nice rainbows in the 2 to 3 pound range.  Dave had as good a time and also managed to land a very handsome brown trout.

Since the area has suffered six years of drought, rivers like the Big Hole and the Beaverhead were very low and not fishing as well as they did earlier in the season.  Just the same, there seemed to be a large selection of waters that were still fishing well.  For the visiting angler, I would suggest that they spend at least one day on the 'classic' spring creeks such as McCoy's or Pointdexter Slough.  With limited rod-days, you will need to book ahead at least six months in advance as these waters are carefully managed to provide a quality experience, hence, they are very popular.

The town of Dillon is easily accessed by car from Butte, which is serviced by daily flights from other hubs.  For fishing information, capable guiding, quality gear and booking of some of the private waters, call Tim Tollett and his staff at Frontier Anglers  at 1-800-228-5263.  I heard from several of the members that they were always impressed at how helpful the staff were in providing accurate and useful local information.  They must be considered an indispensable resource for the traveling fly angler.

If you wish to visit this amazing area and combine it with useful dental CE, your contact would be Dillon's super host, Dr. John McCollum, who founded McCollum's Dental Seminars.  John and his right-hand assistant Kristy, (actually, I think its really the other way around) can be reached at 406-683-5125 or jbmccollum@7pks.com .  These seminars are very popular and held bi-annually every June and September.